-Michigan voters have moved significantly on the issue of gay marriage since PPP polled on it last summer. They still think it should be illegal by a 4 point margin, 45/41, but that's a 16 point shift from last July when they thought it should be outlawed by a 53/33 spread.
The big shift has come among Democrats, perhaps in response to President Obama's recent announcement. They now support it 63/21, up from only 48/36 favor for it a year ago. Independents are now almost evenly divided it on, 44/43, after previously opposing it 50/36.
When you expand the discussion to civil unions 70% of voters support some form of legal recognition for gay couples to only 27% completely opposed to any. Even 51% of Republicans at least support civil unions.
-Democrats in Michigan have a very good chance at reclaiming control of the state House this fall. They have a 50-35 lead on the generic legislative ballot. That includes a 10 point advantage with independents, and the party is also extremely unified with 92% of Democrats committed to supporting their party's candidates this fall. This round of GOP control may prove to be short lived.
-PPP took a look at how Michigan voters feel about four of the state's cultural icons: Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Eminem, and Michael Moore.
The other three all have negative favorability scores. Nugent comes in at -6 with 32% of voters seeing him positively and 38% unfavorably. Republicans (55/15) and Democrats (15/50) are nearly polar opposites in their opinions of him.
Eminem comes in at 26/34. Democrats (33/25) have a narrowly favorable opinion of him, while Republicans (15/48) are more unified in their negativity toward him.
Moore is the most unpopular of the group with just 30% of voters rating him positively and 46% negatively. He's almost universally reviled by Republicans (8/81) while Democrats like him but at a much more modest level (51/21).
-Two final notes: Michigan fans outnumber Michigan State ones by a 41-31 margin in the state. There's a huge partisan gap on the issue with Democrats going for the Wolverines 54-25 but Republicans cheering for the Spartans 44-29. And finally Carl Levin's approval rating comes in at 46/38 this month.
Full results here
There is a new poll from EPIC, a well respected Michigan polling firm, that has Romney now slightly ahead of Obama. Not only no Obama blowout, but, at best, a dogfight.
Would really appreciate PPP comments and analysis of polls with substantially divergent findings, and have been disapponted in PPP for not doing so.
Posted by: Craig Berrington | June 09, 2012 at 08:27 PM