Ohioans Paying Attention to Presidential Candidates

Thursday, May 17, 2007 Download  RSS  Short URL  Share

A new public opinion poll finds that most Ohioans are paying at least some attention to the various presidential candidates lining up next year's primary. The University of Cincinnati released its finding this morning. ideastream's Mark Urycki reports.

The Ohio Poll asked registered Ohio Democrats and Republicans about five candidates from their respective parties. The Democratic voters were very familiar with the names John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Gore, and Dennis Kucinich. On the Republican side, party members also expressed fairly strong name recognition of Newt Gingrich, Fred Thompson, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Favorability was another issue. 30 to 40% of respondents said they did not know their candidates well enough to give an opinion. Only Clinton, Gore, McCain and Giuliani were well known.

By subtracting unfavorable feelings from favorable the poll came up with a net favorability rating. Among the Democrats, four of the five candidates had net favorability ratings in the upper 30’s to low 40’s. Only native son candidate Dennis Kucinich showed a small net rating of just 5%. For Republicans, McCain and Giuliani scored in the upper 30’s or low 40’s. Thompson’s net favorability rating was 20% while Gingrich and Romney both had ratings of just 11%.