RBI Colorado DLC Poll Profiled by the Daily-Reporter Herald

Poll says GOP more polarized than Dems

By John Fryar
The Daily Reporter-Herald

DENVER — Colorado Republicans were viewed as more politically polarized than the state’s Democrats in a recent survey of likely voters unveiled on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Legislature’s majority-party Democrats got slightly higher job-performance ratings than its Republican lawmakers did, when RBI Strategies and Research surveyed 650 likely Colorado voters earlier this month, according to RBI president Rick Ridder.

Ridder told politicians and political activists attending a breakfast meeting of the Colorado chapter of the Democratic Leadership Council that when pollsters for his consulting firm asked people to separately rate Colorado Democrats and Republicans on scales ranging from “very liberal” to “very conservative,” 40 percent of those surveyed said the state’s Republicans are “somewhat conservative” and another 38 percent labeled Colorado GOP members as being “very conservative.”

By comparison, only 16 percent of the likely voters people in the sample labeled Colorado Democrats as “very liberal” and another 38 percent said the state’s Democrats are “somewhat liberal,” Ridder reported.

“Voters clearly place Colorado Democrats closer to the ideological middle than Republicans,” said Democrat Ridder, whose Denver firm conducted the poll for the Colorado DLC.

Democrats in 2004 took control of both houses of the Legislature for the first time since 1962, and they’re trying to retain those state Senate and House majorities in this year’s elections.

When people were asked in the RBI survey to rate the collective performances of legislative Republicans and Democrats over the past year, Democrats fared somewhat better.

On the other hand, the survey raised some red flags for Democrats when dozens of “swing” or undecided voters offered comments about issues influencing those voters’ political choices.

Ridder said some samples of what undecided voters said about Democrats included: “spread too thin,” “too weak to lead well,” “not strong enough,” “spineless,” “lack of clear plan and direction” and “trying to be all things to all people.”

However, Ridder said, undecided voters complained about the GOP’s role in “the national deficit” as well as criticisms of being “unwilling to stand up to liberals,” “too tied to antiquated religious beliefs to be progressive,” and being “unyielding to possible alternative solutions.”

Critiques

Colorado voters in a recent survey listed a number things that most worry them when deciding whether to support either a Democratic or Republican politician.

Concerns most often cited about Democratic politicians included:

• “Too much spending and taxes,” 23 percent

• “Too ready to have government tell you what to do,” 15 percent

• “Too liberal on moral and family issues,” 15 percent

• “Too tied to big special interests,” 13 percent

• “Too weak on security and terrorism,” 10 percent

Concerns most often cited about Republican politicians included:

• “Too tied to big special interests,” 27 percent

• “Not tolerant enough on social issues,” 18 percent

• “Favors the rich over the poor,” 17 percent

• “Too willing to cut funding for programs,” 13 percent

• “Too ready to have government tell you what to do,” 12 percent

—RBI Strategies & Research