Posted on Monday, December 08 2003 - 08:12 AM - Students

Over three nights, 24 Dartmouth College students made over 1000 calls to the people of New Hampshire in an attempt to better understand the context of the presidential race in the state. 398 registered voters responded to their queries, offering insights on the Democratic primary race, the reelection chances of the President, and the major challenges and issues facing the state.

The results of the poll corraborated recent reports that former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has taken a commanding lead in the granite state with support from around a third of likely voters, 33%. Senator John Kerry takes second in the state with 12% support, while General Wesley Clark enjoys the support of a bit over 9% of the electorate. 29% of New Hampshire voters remain undecided.

President Bush’s reelection support in the state appears to have been battered by months of negative Democratic campaigning. Only 33% of New Hampshire voters supported definitely reelecting the President, while 44% definitely believed a new person should take office. 13% believed the President probably should be reelected, while 10% probably believed a new person deserved that chance, meaning 46% lean towards reelection while 54% lean against. Those numbers fall lower than a national poll undertaken by the Associated Press from Dec 1-3 wherein 41% of respondents stated they would “definitely vote to reelect George W. Bush” to 20% who would “consider voting for someone else” and another 36% who would “definitely vote for someone else as president.”

Four of the 10 candidates for President, including President Bush, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Senator John Kerry and Senator Joseph Lieberman, attended Ivy League colleges. When asked whether respondents believed this was good for the country or bad for the country, 72% indicated it did not matter. Another 21% saw this as good for the country, while 7% believed it boded ill for the nation.

Respondents were also asked to put their finger on the most pressing challenge facing the state of New Hampshire today. 28% of respondents believed economic issues posed the greatest challenge to the state, while 26% noted that education in the state, particularly centering around school funding, proved the most confounding. 16% saw health care concerns as most pressing, while another 13% saw taxes in the state as being of greatest concern, especially the property tax issue. 4% saw international issues, including war and foreign policy, as the greatest difficulties facing the state, while another 3% placed environmental issues front and center.

This brief poll paved the way for a larger poll to be conducted at Dartmouth in early January that will attempt to further clarify the situation in New Hampshire as the critical January presidential primary approaches.

Poll research assistants included: Matthew Alexander, Arielle Ring, Daniela Osorio, Miriam Glaser, Elisabeth Smith, Laura Pearlstein, Michael Ellis, Noah Riner, James Throckmorton, Russel D’Souza, Adam Shpeen, Michael Herman, Ben Phillips, Stella Lee, Sean McMannis, Kerry Snow, Jesse Roisin, Fan Zhong, Jessica Chen, Jacques Hebert.