Poll: Negative race cost Sanchez
Posted on 11/27/2002 4:18:57 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Poll: Negative race cost Sanchez
Voters blame both men but find Perry more palatable
11/27/2002
LUBBOCK - About three-fourth of voters who thought the governor's race was negative blamed candidates Rick Perry and Tony Sanchez equally, but Mr. Sanchez apparently suffered more, a survey conducted by Texas Tech students showed.
"I think that's the big highlight of the whole survey," Cherie Maestas, an assistant professor of political science at Tech, said Tuesday. "People's opinion of Sanchez suffered more."
On a scale of one to five with five being the most favorable, Mr. Perry's average favorability rating among those blaming him for the negative campaign was 2.53, while Mr. Perry's rating among those blaming Mr. Sanchez was 4.25.
In contrast, the average rating of Mr. Sanchez among those who blamed him for the negative campaign was 1.54. Among those blaming the candidates equally, the average favorability rating for Mr. Sanchez was 2.65 while Mr. Perry's average rating was 2.94.
The post-election poll also showed that 55 percent of voters who saw many candidate ads thought the campaign was very negative while 28 percent of those who saw some, few or no ads thought the campaign was very negative.
"It appears that it was the candidates' ads that drove it rather than the media coverage," Ms. Maestas said.
The statewide telephone survey of 410 random households that included voters and nonregistered residents was conducted Nov. 6-20. The study was conducted by political science students at Tech and was funded by Tech and its Department of Political Science. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Mr. Perry beat Mr. Sanchez in the Nov. 5 election to win the governor's job that he had inherited when George W. Bush resigned to become president.
Acccording to the survey, 63 percent of the respondents deemed the campaign as negative while 18 percent of respondents viewed the campaign in a positive light.
Of those who saw the campaign ads as negative, 72 percent felt the candidates were responsible for the unfavorable themes presented in their campaign ads. The negative ads caused candidates' likability to decrease significantly for 73 percent of respondents.
About one-fourth - 24 percent - of respondents said neither candidate gave them a sense of what he would do in office.
When it came to the candidates' ability to meet Texans' needs, 42 percent of those surveyed felt that Mr. Perry could address those needs while 22 percent felt Mr. Sanchez had a better understanding of the concerns of Texas residents.
In determining which candidate was relevant to residents' interests, 50 percent felt that both candidates discussed issues that were important to them while 34 percent believed that neither candidate directly addressed their concerns.
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