What were the issues, again?

Posted at 9:49 AM on November 2, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

When you take MPR's Select A Candidate survey, we log the cumulative data you supply. The most interesting aspect is usually the issues people say are or aren't important to them.

It's surprising that same-sex marriage emerged as the #1 issue when it had almost no role in the campaign, other than attempts by third parties to introduce it. The number 1 issue of the campaign -- the state budget and the economy -- was ranked #4 by the survey takers.

But some things can always be counted on. Since we started Select A Candidate almost 10 years ago, "agriculture" has always finished dead last in important issues.

There's no science applied to this, since it's a self-selected survey. More than 37,000 people too the Select A Candidate gubernatorial survey this year.

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Comments (2)

Has anyone made a graph of which issues people chose the third option for most often? (I forget if it was "Don't Care", "Doesn't Matter", or something else..)

Posted by Mike Hicks | November 2, 2010 12:37 PM

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Allow me to pick a nit or two with the analysis of what is most important. Based on the data you provide, and looking only at the top 4, I would rank them this way:

1. Health Care (37,086)
2. State Budget (37,037)
3. K-12 Reform (36,583)
4. Same-sex marriage (34,258)

Based on the statement: "More than 37,000 people too the Select A Candidate gubernatorial survey this year."

Assuming that "more than 37,000" also equates to less than 38,000 then you get the following percentages using 38,000 as your denominator.

1. Health Care - 97.6%
2. State Budget - 97.5%
3. K-12 Reform - 96.3%
4. Same-sex marriage - 90.2%

In fact one could make the argument using this type of analysis that any of the next 4 issues is more important than Same-sex marriage.

What your results show is that for those respondents that label Same-sex marriage "important", they have much stronger feelings about its importance. Probably reflecting both sides of the debate.

Posted by JackU | November 2, 2010 1:10 PM

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