POLL RELEASES
October 24, 2000
Would Active Clinton Involvement Have an Impact on Gore's Campaign?
Seventeen percent of likely voters say Clinton's involvement would make them more likely to vote for Gore, while four out of ten likely voters - mostly Republicans and Independents - say it would have a negative impact
by Frank Newport
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- What would be the impact on Al Gore’s candidacy of more active support and campaigning by President Bill Clinton? CNN/USA Today/Gallup polling conducted over the weekend indicates that likely voters say that such involvement on the part of the president would have a more negative than positive consequence. Here are the results:
Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for Al Gore for president if President Clinton were to actively support him and campaign for him?
Republicans
2% More likely to vote for Al Gore
69 Less likely to vote for Al Gore
28 Would make no difference
Independents
10%
45
37
Democrats
35%
12
52
It is not surprising that a significant majority of Republicans say that such Clinton involvement would make them less likely to vote for Gore -- given that most Republicans are highly unlikely to be voting for Gore in the first place. The impact on independents is perhaps more important --this group contains voters who are less fixed in their vote and therefore more likely to be influenced by campaign activities. Among this group, as can be seen, the impact is still negative. And, although most Democrats are going to vote for Gore, the impact of Clinton campaigning would appear to be relatively muted, as a majority of Democratic likely voters say it would make no difference in terms of whether or not they would vote for Gore. Thirty-five percent of Democrats say it would make them more likely to vote for the vice president, while 12% say it would make them less likely to support him. These data suggest that a Clinton campaign effort on Gore’s behalf might not have the energizing effect on Democrats that some might have anticipated.
It should be pointed out that self-reports of the impact of such a hypothetical scenario as this are not necessarily predictive of the actual impact should such a situation occur. Perhaps most importantly, the exact way that Clinton involvement would play out is unknown, as is the way it would be handled by the press. Still, the data show that voters’ initial reactions to the idea are more negative than positive.
A second question included in the weekend polling suggests that the existing ties between Gore and Clinton are not strongly harmful to the Democratic candidate. Sixty-four percent of all likely voters say that the ties that Gore has to Clinton have no effect on their opinion of Gore, 9% say the situation makes them more favorably predisposed to Gore, and 26% say that the Clinton ties make them less favorably predisposed. These numbers are very similar to the responses obtained when the same question was asked in January of this year.
gallup.com |
