Poll: Nevada voters blame GOP for bailouts

By Ralph Z. Hallow (Contact) | Monday, September 22, 2008

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A large plurality of likely voters in Nevada blame Republicans for the government having to spend $700 billion or more in taxpayer money to bail out the U.S. financial system, a new poll conducted by Suffolk University shows.

But neither party seems to have benefited from that assignment of blame from likely voters in the state. The poll shows that the toss-up state of Nevada remains just that, with Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama statistically tied at 46 percent and 45 percent, respectively.

When likely voters were asked who they figure is responsible for the current financial state on Wall Street, 41 percent blamed the Republicans, 16 percent tagged the Democrats, 27 percent said neither, and 16 percent couldn't decide who to blame.

Nevada may be small when it comes to electoral college votes (it has 5 electoral votes), Ohio has 20 and Texas 34 while California rules with 55. But, Nevada voted Republican in the past three presidential elections and George W. Bush could not have won the election and his re-election without Nevada.

Among Democrats in the poll of 600 likely voters who were surveyed Wednesday through Sunday night, 66 percent blamed Republicans, 2 percent fingered Democrats and 15 percent said neither.

Among Republicans, 31 percent put the onus on Democrats, who controlled Congress for the past two years, while 11 percent said Republicans and a large plurality of 43 percent said neither.

Among independents, 16 percent said it was the fault of Democrats', 43 percent said it was the fault of Republicans while 23 percent neither.

"From Democrats there was the expected polarized responses against Republicans but from Republicans there was a less partisan assignment of blame," Suffolk pollster David Paleologos told The Washington Times.

"The response from independents, however, is not the kind of numbers Republicans want to see because in the end, independents make the difference on Election Day," he said.

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