Iowa, New Mexico, Virginia Question Suggestions

New Mexico and Virginia won our vote on where to poll this week.

We'll obviously look at the standard Presidential stuff and the Senate races in both states. In New Mexico we'll do Heinrich/Balderas v. Sanchez/Wilson and in Virginia we'll look at Kaine v. Allen/Radtke.

In Virginia we'll do the Governor's race: Cuccinelli/Bolling v. McAuliffe/Perriello? I'm open to other ideas too.

Other question suggestions for New Mexico and Virginia?

In Iowa we'll do the 2nd of our 5 weekly tracking polls leading up to the caucus...if you didn't see it here's our poll from this week. Any other questions you think we should be asking besides that stuff?

Thanks as always for the suggestions. Just a programming note: because of the potential for the Republican debate in Iowa to cause some change in the race, we're not going to go in the field until Sunday this weekend. The Iowa poll will come out on Tuesday night instead of the previously scheduled Monday.

Comments

[Marc]

for Iowa: Did you watch the debate on Saturday night (YES/NO)

[Concerned Citizen in NM]

You should do a poll on the public's disgust with New Mexico's Public Regulation Commission (PRC). One was recently kicked off (he agreed to resign as part of his plea deal) due to multiple felonies including misuse of campaign money, fraud (misuse of state gas card), etc (8 felony counts I think). Just last year another commissioner was removed for a felony assault conviction.

[Alex]

In New Mexico, you should see where Senator Pete Domenici's approval numbers stand, after all he was one of the state's most popular politicians and its longest serving US Senator

[Noah C.]

Ask about nuclear power in New Mexico, I'm interested to see if attitudes have changed since Yucca Mountain.

I'll be focused on the Senate race in VA and the Presidential general election.

[Jeff]

For Virginia adding Gerry Connolly to the mix would be good.

[VirginiaLiberal]

Today was the first debate between Tim Kaine and George Allen for an election that's just under a year away. The debate focused on the expected issues, like health care, Obama, the deficit, etc., but one question was about proposals to allow uranium mining in Virginia. Is this issue even on the radar screen for Virginia voters? How do they feel about it?

[Carlos from Pennsylvania]

IOWA/NEW MEXICO/VIRGINIA Do you support giving Children of Illegal Immigrant's who not fault of their own where brought to this country Illegal a path to Citizenship by going to College or Serving the Military? (NO Should be Deported/ YES They should be given a path to Citizenship)

[Patrick Stuart]

New Mexico: sports team favorites, broken down by area code or region.

New Mexico: religious following (Catholic, Protestant, none of the above), and if possible, number of times per month for attending church. Would be interesting to see how devotion corresponds to race (namely, Latino) and views on gay marriage.

Virginia: religious following (same as above, but including Judaism). Are Jews remaining faithful to Obama and Democrats?

Both states: gay marriage, broken down by race and religion.

[Kyle Cameron]

I don't suppose it's possible to ask a geographic question so that we can get crosstabs on support by region, congressional district, county, or something like that?

[Alex]

Should the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorse a Democrat in the primary, or let the voters of New Mexico decide the nominee?

[Rob Nikolewski]

I'd be curious to see in New Mexico how Bill Richardson's approval ratings are doing. His numbers were very low as he left office last year as governor and he's reportedly being investigated by a grand jury ... have those numbers gotten even lower? Also, are Gov. Susana Martinez's numbers still holding up?

[JohnFree]

In New Mexico focus on some immigrant issues: DREAM act, etc.

[Ben Neal]

For Iowa, I'd love to see some ethanol subsidies numbers and re: perry's ad, how GOP voters there feel about DADT repeal.

For VA, since Kaine was DNC chair and hence is being tied closer to Obama than most Dems, if they think he's too in agreement with Obama, not close enough, etc.

[Brendan]

How familiar do you consider yourself to be with New Gingrich's/Mitt Romney's past/past views/other proxy for changing views.

[CAPITAL LETTERS]

CAN YOU PLEASE ASK VOTERS IF THEY WANT NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE OR CONTINUE WITH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.

THX.

[Steve]

In Iowa ask about whether a candidate's opposition to ethanol would affect votes, both for caucus-goers and for general election voters.

[Jacob]

IN VA ask people if they think the Republican's should have sole control of the Senate or should split with the Dems.

Also you should put Ohio as an option for next week to see if you get the same results as Qunnipiac did today.

[Mark B.]

You could ask of likely Iowa caucus goers, "Do you believe Iowa is more worthy to go first than other states in the union?" This would be interesting because it may reveal whether even Iowans think their continual privilege is silly, or whether they have adopted an air of superiority on the other hand, which in turn would make them look silly.

[Todd Dugdale]

I would like to see figures on voter enthusiasm in both states. Your weekly (DKos) polling is showing low enthusiasm among seniors, moderates, and independents nationally. Since Gingrich relies heavily on the senior vote, this could impact his electability even more than the match-ups indicate.

Of course, it's still early. But other demographic groups are showing strong enthusiasm already.

[CG]

Do-overs on last year's House elections.

[Steve]

All states: congressional generic, gay marriage and maybe gay adoption as well (Virginia has had a recent debate about it with it staying largely illegal there to my understanding)

Iowa:

- In deeper reference to gay marriage, do they want to amend the constitution to overturn it?
- Do they support their independent redistricting commission?

New Mexico:

- A bit of a profile on Latinos in this state which is plurality Hispanic (the only in the nation at this stage) as to their political leanings and whether they are conservative/moderate/liberal. This is very interesting, especially considering that they just elected a Latina GOP governor.
- Redistricting reform - it's highly controversial here - just like everywhere else.

Virginia:

- Redistricting reform.
- Would McDonnell help the GOP ticket?

As always, thanks for the opportunity to contribute!

[Raymond]

I would like to see some poll numbers on how Gary Johnson would do if he switched to the senate race. Primary and General.

[pbrower2a]

Virginia -- approval rating for Eric Cantor.

New Mexico question -- would it like to have El Paso?

Both states -- Congressional general ballot.

[Robert_1987]

Ask about gay marriage in New Mexico and Virginia.

[jl54]

Virginia - Whether voters believe power should be split in the 20-20 Senate, or the Lieutenant Governor should be able to vote on rules, committee chairs, etc.

[David Nir]

Ooh, I like this one: "IN VA ask people if they think the Republicans should have sole control of the Senate or should split with the Dems."

Strongly seconded.

[Cederico]

Add a potential 2014 Senate race question about Mark Warner versus McDonnell or Cucinnelli.

[JS]

I look forward to seeing the NM data, but hope you will correct some rather egregious sampling errors from your post surveys.

Your DEM-GOP gap has been as high as 26 points, when the voter registration gap is only 17 points and actual turnout is even less -- just 12 points in 2008 and 10 points in 2010.

The actual turnout in the 2008 presidential when Obama ran away with state:

50.4% Democrat
37.5% Republican
12.1% Other