Poll of Rural Voters' Views

Today National Public Radio reported on a bipartisan poll that shows rural voters are shifting to Democrats. Reversing the results in a similar poll last month, the survey detected an eight-point shift in party preference for Senate candidates. Rural voters in Pennsylvania, Montana, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota and Tennessee indicated they favored Democratic candidates 47 percent to 43 percent.

Conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the Center for Rural Strategies, the survey asked one question that related to immigration:

"Q.20 In deciding how to vote for Congress, which ONE of the following issues is MOST important to you? Is it....
The war in Iraq.....................38%
Medicare and Soc Sec................21%
Taxes and spending..................15%
Moral values........................16%
Health care.........................20%
Illegal immigration.................17%
Terrorism and national security.....21%
Jobs and economy....................25%
Energy and gas prices...............10%
(None of these)......................3%
(DK/Ref).............................6%"

8% of respondents said "illegal immigration" is their first concern and 9% said it was their second concern. Looking at the results above, immigration ranked sixth overall as the most important concern.

Does this mean that rural voters are not taking the bait of standing tough on immigration as a hot button issue? It's hard to say. But there are only 11 days left until the election...