CNN/ORC IOWA polling. This poll consistently favors Trump by huge margins.
Posted on 01/23/2016 2:24:18 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
"When asked to compare the RFS and corn ethanol mandates to other issues they may be following, Iowans ranked the RFS dead last among a list of 10 issues we surveyed," the poll summary stated....
Ethanol might not be playing its conventional role as a major election issue for Hawkeye State voters, according to a new poll from Iowa.
A poll by FTI Consulting, commissioned by the American Council for Capital Formation, of 700 registered Iowa voters earlier this month showed 94 percent of those polls put the Renewable Fuel Standard outside their top three most important issues.
The American Council for Capital Formation is an anti-ethanol group that has run ads nationwide against increasing the Renewable Fuel Standard.
The Renewable Fuel Standard requires a certain amount of biofuel, the majority of it corn ethanol, to be in the nation's gasoline supply. It has long been considered the "third rail" of Iowa politics, but the polling suggests that may no longer be the case.
"When asked to compare the RFS and corn ethanol mandates to other issues they may be following, Iowans ranked the RFS dead last among a list of 10 issues we surveyed," the poll summary stated. "Some of the issues Iowans deemed to be more important than the RFS include: immigration, [the Islamic State], jobs, the national debt, welfare reform, Obamacare and gun rights."
Of those polled, 19 percent said the Renewable Fuel Standard is very important to them. Forty-five percent said ethanol was somewhat important to them and 35 percent considered it not important at all.
Half of the respondents said they don't care or don't care much about ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard. That feeling was shared across party lines: 46 percent of Republicans, 49 percent of independents and 52 percent of Democrats agreed with that sentiment.
This year's election has seen ethanol become less of a talking point in the home of the nation's first presidential contest on Feb. 1. Just one-third of those polled knew any of the major presidential candidates' position on the Renewable Fuel Standard.
David Banks, executive vice president of American Council for Capital Formation, said the upending of the conventional wisdom that ethanol is Iowa's most important issue won't be surprising to most Iowans.
"They forgot to ask actual Iowans what they thought about it," he said. "As this polling makes clear, not only aren't folks in the nation's largest corn-producing state paying particularly close attention to the back-and-forth over the RFS, they're definitely not using it as some sort of litmus test in determining who to vote for."
The poll was done between Jan. 11 and Jan. 17 and has a margin of error of 3.7 percent.
Pandering on ethanol is a fools errand.
The governor’s statement might carry some weight. In 9 days we will know.
Great, now the Cruz fans can quit whining.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has a 14-point edge over Sen. Ted Cruz, his nearest rival, according to a new national poll.
Trump garners 34 percent support in the Fox News poll released Friday, with Cruz at 20 percent.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ranks third with 11 percent, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 8 percent. Former Forida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich tie for fifth with 4 percent apiece.
The poll also found that Cruz and Trump are the most popular second choice for likely Republican primary voters. Cruz is the second choice for 22 percent, while Trump is for 13 percent.
The survey found that voters are unconcerned with questions about Cruz's eligibility for the presidency.
Only 10 percent say the fact that Cruz was born in Canada makes it less likely they'll vote for him, while 88 percent said it would not affect their choice.
And 61 percent say he is natural-born American, with 27 disagreeing.
Cruz and Trump are battling for a lead in the early-voting state of Iowa, just 10 days away from the caucuses.
While Trump has double-digit leads in most national polls, he is ahead of Cruz by just 2.6 percent in Iowa, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls.
CNN/ORC IOWA polling. This poll consistently favors Trump by huge margins.
Better be quick! I think there are still a couple threads you haven't posted that on yet! Better hurry!
This is just not that important an issue for me. If Trump uses it to win Iowa - then that’s great.
I am generally against all corporate welfare and mandates. Having said that, after decades of suckers on the government tit, we’ll need to gently wean them off.
It matters to Archer-Daniels-Midland, and the other big INDUSRIAL farm companies, it is their bread and butter.
Family farming is all but a thing of the past now. The “ethanol vote” doesn’t exist anymore, it’s just corporations trading donations to the establishment for corp welfare in return.
Btw I love how you talk about spammers while spamming. Better keep busy, people keep posting more threads. You gotta be quick if you are going to spam all of them.
It’s a way to pander to farmers by raising corn prices. As a farmer who some years grows corn, I say ethanol sucks. I do not put it in my vehicles.
This is not issue that will drive voters except those dependent on the agricultural industry, especially corn. In their case this is an important issue.
The ethanol lobby has more paid staffers on the ground in Iowa than any candidate has, and most of them are on Ted Cruz’ tail.
The poll can be interpreted differently: (1) 3 out of 4 Iowans who say they know who is calling for NOT INCREASING the ethanol mandate, correctly identify that candidate as Ted Cruz. This is bad for Ted.
(2) BUT FORTUNATELY for Ted, only 1 out of 4 Iowans even claims to know who is calling for NOT INCREASING the ethanol mandate.
(3) BUT, ON THE OTHER HAND, 80 percent of Iowans think the ethanol mandate is CRITICAL for the Iowa economy.
Is this why they bury Iowa farmers only 2 feet deep nowadays, so they can still get their hand out?
It’s a sad day in America when so many working people think they cannot get by without help from the government. Our country really is going down the tubes.
“We didn’t build that,” say 4 out of 5 Iowans.
Now I will ask a question: how many people in Iowa think their economy depends on our ability to sell agriculture in the global economy? The Smoot-Hawley Tariff turned much of America into a dustbowl, and Trump - were he to touch off a trade war - could repeat that.
It’s a big issue for a few scumbags with a financial interest in it, and their bought and paid for servants like Governor Terry Branstad.
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