Though still far from taking the lead from the front-runners, presidential candidates among third parties vying for the White House — or at least some attention — are battling it out among the swing-vote electorate, according to the most recent polling data by
Portrait of America.
In POA’s latest three-day running presidential survey, Republican nominee George W. Bush is maintaining a slim lead over Democratic challenger Al Gore. Figures on Thursday show Bush leading Gore 43.3 percent to 41.2 percent, a statistical tie.
In third party candidacies, the Green Party’s Ralph Nader continues to lead the pack with 2.5 percent of the popular vote, though his numbers have declined steadily over the past week.
In a surprising development, Libertarian Party nominee Harry Browne has surged to 1.1 percent, surpassing Reform’s Patrick J. Buchanan with 0.9 percent. Reform’s other candidate, John Hagelin, has increased his numbers and on Thursday was reportedly tied with the Constitution Party’s Howard Phillips, each with 0.2 percent.
Rasmussen Research conducted the telephone surveys of 2,250 likely voters Sept. 4, 5 and 6. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points, with a 95 percent level of confidence.
A new
Reuters/Zogby poll has Gore ahead of Bush by six points, crediting Gore’s new numbers with renewed support from women. The Reuters/Zogby poll had Gore up by three points — a statistical tie — when it last polled likely voters Aug. 17.
“The main feature of the poll was a massive gender gap, with women supporting Gore by 21 percentage points while men were backing Bush by 11 points. That added up to an unprecedented 32-point differential,” Reuters said.
Voters responding to the poll ranked education and Social Security at the top of their agenda, followed by universal heath care for children, military preparedness and providing prescription drugs for seniors. Cutting taxes and campaign-finance reform lagged well behind, Reuters said.
The Reuters/Zogby poll of most important issues showed some similarities
to a comparable POA poll taken Sept. 6. In the POA analysis, concern over the economy ranked number one with health care third and campaign-finance reform near the bottom.
However, likely voters polled by POA ranked government waste near the top of issues that concerned them. Waste fell in behind education at number two out of 20 issues asked about, with pop culture, affirmative action and anti-trust coming it at the very bottom.
The POA analysis also ranked military readiness and national defense ninth.
In other differences, POA’s likely voters ranked education fourth, followed by crime, government ethics, taxes and Social Security.
