S.C. seniors engaged in campaigns, withholding judgment
S.C. seniors are paying attention to the candidates in the 2008 presidential race, a new survey shows, but most remain uncertain about for whom they will vote.
An issues oriented survey conducted between July 24 and August 15 contacted 500 Democratic and 500 Republican members of the American Association of Retired Persons who say they may vote in their respective party primaries next year.
Five months before ballots are cast in both presidential primaries in January 2008, nearly 80 percent of AARP members surveyed said they are paying at least somewhat close attention to candidate coverage in the races.
Thirty-five percent of Democrats said they are paying very close attention to coverage.
But more than 40 percent of the Democrats and Republicans sampled in the 1,000-person survey said they are somewhat likely to change their minds about who they will vote for between now and the election.
Uncertainty was greatest among Republicans, where 39 percent said they are very likely to change their preferences before the Jan. 19 Republican primary.
Twenty-nine percent of Democrats said they were likely to switch candidates before their primary election, Jan. 29, as they learn more about the candidates positions on issues.
In the survey, which has a 4.4 percent margin of error, AARP members of both parties listed Iraq as the No. 1 issue facing the
country.
However, the parties differed widely on the question of whether the country is headed in the right direction. Democrats said the country is on the wrong track to a tune of about 83 percent.
Republicans were more confused. Forty-six percent of them said the country is heading in the right direction, while 38 percent said it is not.
Among Democrats, health care was the second most important issue cited, while, among Republicans, health care, immigration, and terrorism all rated second as the most important problem the country faces.
AARP membership includes people 50 years and older.
Roughly 22 percent of the survey’s respondents were younger than 60, while 57 percent said they were between 65 and 75 years old.
Health care and financial security loomed large as important voting issues to AARP members in both political parties in the survey. Democrats said by 83 percent health care is very important in the 2008 election, while 53 percent of Republicans said health care will be very important when they go to the polls.
Nine in 10 of those surveyed from both parties listed financial security as an important issue in the ’08 presidential race. Only a quarter of respondents listed matters such as Social Security, pension protection, and incentives to save and invest as somewhat important in the survey, while nearly three quarters of people in each party listed those issues as very important.
Respondents were unable to strongly identify a candidate in either party who they felt could best address their concerns about either health care or financial security.
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