New Iowa Poll Puts Edwards in the Lead
by Jonathan Singer, Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 03:00:09 PM EDT
I haven't been able to find the numbers posted online yet, but I'm hearing that KCCI released its latest round of polling on the Iowa Democratic caucuses (which it teases here) during its 5:00 PM nightly news program (an hour ago), and the topline numbers look like this (along with the Pollster.com average from the state):
| Candidate | KCCI Poll (May) | Pollster Average |
| Edwards | 27 (26) | 27.8 |
| Clinton | 22 (28) | 23.8 |
| Obama | 16 (22) | 17.1 |
| Richardson | 11 (7) | 12.5 |
| Biden | 3 (2) | N/A |
| Dodd | 2 (2) | N/A |
| Kucinich | 2 (2) | N/A |
| Gravel | 1 (1) | N/A |
| Undecided | 16 (10) | N/A |
Presumably, this poll was conducted by Research 2000, which conducted KCCI's last poll back in May and has done other prior polls for the television station as well. Also, other candidates were presumably included in this poll whose numbers I have not yet been able to see.
Anyway, I'll post the rest of the numbers, as well as some analysis, when the fuller results are put online. But for now, what do you think?
Update (Chris Bowers): Hey everyone! Wassup!? I thought I'd stop by to offer some analysis on this poll, especially since Jonathan was clever enough to acquire the results before pretty much anyone else. First, I think poll is really interesting because it shows that Edwards has anything but collapsed in Iowa, ala his recent struggles in New Hampshire. Very good news for his campaign. Second, the poll also seems to confirm a possible trend where, despite the overwhelming attention paid to them nationally, Clinton and Obama are, at best, stagnant in Iowa. Obama in particular seems to be trending down in the state. Ah, those fiesty Iowans, not taking their cues from the rest of the nation. I'm sure the Obama campaign has Iowa numbers too--I wonder if a slight dip in Iowa is behind the "escalated" attacks on Clinton? Third, this makes the five-poll moving average in Iowa (simpler than the Pollster.com method, and excluding the Richardson internal poll) Edwards 26.8%, Clinton 22.6%, Obama 17.0%, and Richardson 8.6%. Obama is closer to Richardson than he is to Edwards in the state. That actually isn't good news for Edwards either, since he might very well not only need to win Iowa, but need someone else to knock off Clinton for second place. With bad news for Obama actually being bad news for Edwards, we thus come full circle, making this poll not actually great news for anyone. Even Richardson isn't gaining that fast. At this rate, he will take the lead by 2015.
Update 2 (Jonathan):CNN now has some more data from the poll, from which I have updated the chart above. Still nothing on the KCCI website, as best I can tell, but I will pass along the official poll release as soon as it comes out.
Update 3 (Jonathan): Lots and lots more data from KCRG's website. In short, the margin of error for this poll, like the MoE for other polling in Iowa by Research 2000 is really high. I don't know why they are so loath to invest the money in interviewing a couple hundred more likely caucus goers to get more precise numbers, but that's just me. (Sample sizes of 195 Democrats, 179 Republicans 179, and 226 Independents and other lead to very high margins of error for the caucus polling, though slightly less so for the broader samples.)
Feel free to look through yourself, but a few things stuck out to me. Democrats lead every single head-to-head permutation including Clinton, Edwards, and Obama and Giuliani, McCain, Romney and Thompson by 4 points at a minimum. George W. Bush's approval rating in the state is just 27 percent (including just 55 percent of Republicans), and Iowans trust Congressional Democrats over the President on Iraq by a 22-point margin (43 percent to 21 percent). A sizable proportion of Iowans (45 percent, including 49 percent of Independents) support Congress opening impeachment proceedings against President Bush, and an even larger proportion (54 percent, including 63 percent of Independents) support opening up impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney.
Final Update (Jonathan): Should have added this before. The poll was in the field July 23-25 and was of "likely voters", though the LV screen has not been posted, nor has the MoE for the subgroups of Democratic and Republican caucus goers.
Tags: 2008, Democratic primaries, Democrats, Iowa, Iowa Caucuses (all tags)











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