Poll of Western voters finds mixed signals
An independent poll of voters in six Western states including New Mexico paints a complex picture of the region’s mindset as the two major political parties prepare to battle for their votes in November. While many support green-leaning measures such as water conservation and renewable energy, they also want more oil and gas drilling on public lands and uranium mining to support nuclear power.
But the No. 1 issue for many voters is immigration, according to the poll conducted on behalf of three major Western newspapers earlier this month. Mason-Dixon Polling and Research found immigration to be the single-most important issue to voters in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. It was of less importance in Utah and Wyoming, but in all six states more than 60 percent of voters said they support efforts to stop illegal immigration by completing a border fence and penalizing employers who hire undocumented workers.
The Salt Lake Tribune published a roundup of poll results Monday, saying it had commissioned the poll of 2,400 voters with The Denver Post and The Las Vegas Review-Journal. Other news outlets have been parsing the numbers all week, including The New Mexico Independent, which noted that Republican Sen. John McCain had pulled ahead of his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, in New Mexico.
In the six-state region, the poll found McCain leading everywhere but in Colorado, and there Obama had a lead that fell within the five-point margin of error.
While The Salt Lake Tribune focused its story on the presidential race, The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday reported mainly on social issues facing Western voters, and those results were all over the map.
Nearly 65 percent of respondents said they would willingly pay higher prices for energy from clean or renewable sources, but only 49 percent said they believe climate change is scientifically proven. Fifty-two percent said taking action on climate change would be worth the economic cost, and 54 percent said addressing climate change will create jobs rather than destroy them, but even greater majorities support additional drilling for gas and oil on public lands (69 percent) and lifting the moratorium on oil-shale mining (58 percent.)
As with other polls that have found similar results in recent months, “It’s about becoming energy independent,” Brad Coker, managing partner of the polling firm, told the Review-Journal. “Most people understand that we don’t have enough oil to be independent so we need other sources to help,” he said. “People just want more energy that is domestically produced.”
Pollsters also found 58 percent of respondents favor additional uranium mining to support the expansion of nuclear power, and 46 percent in support of opening the Yucca Mountain Project for storing nuclear waste — well above the 32 percent that flatly oppose the storage project.
On the other hand, 48 percent said they would support measures to limit individual water use, while about 32 percent said they oppose the idea.
How the presidential and congressional candidates pick their way through the sometimes-conflicting results in coming months will be interesting to watch, but the poll shows the West is still up for grabs.
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