Yesterday´s Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll generated widespread coverage, in part, because of its questions about the Clinton marriage (see here and here for the LAT’s wrap-ups and here for reaction).
The LAT’s own coverage overlooks the two immigration questions asked in the survey. The results are particularly relevant given the recent talk of immigration as a hot-button issue.
Question #13
When it comes to dealing with illegal immigration, do you favor an approach that focuses only on tougher enforcement of immigration laws, or an approach that includes both tougher enforcement of immigration laws and also creates a guest worker program that allows undocumented workers to work legally in the U.S. on temporary visas?
Some 45% of Republicans and Republican Primary/Caucus voters responded they favored only tougher enforcement of immigration laws. Fully half of voters classified by the pollsters as Christian Conservatives favored this approach. And men took a harder line than women. The two-pronged approach of immigration enforcement and a guest worker program was favored by 50%.
In response to a separate question, a candidate’s stance on immigration was important to a whopping 83% of Republicans and Republican Primary/Caucus voters. It is the single-most important issue, though, for only 13%. That number jumps up to 19% for men.
Not asked or perhaps simply not included in the press release were questions about Republican voter response to immigration reform that included a path to citizenship. Ditto with Democratic voter response to the same questions.
To me, though, the most curious bit of missing information is any read on Latino voter preferences. This is, after all, the newspaper of record in the largest Latino market in the country. What Latino voters and for that matter African American and Asian American voters think should presumably be of some interest to the Los Angeles Times. I realize this requires oversampling and thus greater cost.
Or is this information available and simply not mentioned in the release or highlighted in the LAT’s own coverage?
Either way, it looks like a significant omission.
pollsTags: Polls
