Survey: Best Choice for Arizona Congressional District 8 (CD8)

The special election campaigns for CD8 are in full swing! I like data. I need data. I was sitting here wondering… *hmmmm… I wonder if the Republican voters of CD8 will choose a candidate that Independent and Democrat voters might also vote for?* Then I thought – Just ask the voters! Thank you, voters.

(Survey Closed) This survey was created by a relentlessly curious private citizen blogger, and is in no way reflective of the views of the Tucson Tea Party, its membership, or any candidate or campaign.

UPDATE 4/1/12 – The Results:

• The participants of the survey were 89% Republican; Independents made up 9%.

• Given a list of the four Republican candidates running in the Primary, 67% of Independent voters surveyed said they would consider voting for Martha McSally. The other 33% surveyed would consider voting for Frank Antenori. None of the surveyed registered Independents indicated they were considering voting for Jesse Kelly or Dave Sitton.

• Question #4 asked registered Republicans taking the survey if they plan to vote in the Primary on April 17, 2012, and 99% of them said Yes. The majority of those participating Republicans voting in the Primary have already made up their mind about which candidate they will vote for:  46% of Republican Primary voters surveyed are voting for Frank Antenori; 23% of Republican Primary voters surveyed are voting for Martha McSally; 13% of Republican Primary voters surveyed are voting for Dave Sitton; 8% of Republican Primary voters surveyed are voting for Jesse Kelly. Only 8% have not yet decided on a candidate. Question #10 reflected similar outcomes.

• 83% of surveyed Republicans will vote for the Nominee in the special General Election on June 12, 2012, whether or not that candidate was their Primary pick. Another 16% said “maybe” when asked if they would vote for the Nominee.

Finally, participants had the option of leaving comments. Here are a few of those responses:

• It is a shame there is very little news on the Internet about this race. Most everything is about the 2010 CD 8 race. 
• Frank Antenori convinced the Arizona Senate—which is Maricopa-County-centric—to make him the majority whip, the #2 post in the Senate. That’s proof that Frank has leverage with the state legislature—leverage he can use in Washington. 
• The Tea Party message should be the economy and economic freedom. To the extent that a candidate panders to the religious/social right, they will lose votes among everybody else. 
• If just one candidate (regardless of party) would support our Constitution unconditionally, the choice would be real easy. With the current candidates it will be a choice of lesser evil but still a vote for evil. Not very motivating. Unfortunately there’s no Libertarian candidate in the race.

Notes: This unscientific survey was intended to engage the citizenry and pose questions that might spark interest in the special CD8 election. The survey opened on 3/22/12 and closed on 3/31/12. Only participants registered to vote in Arizona’s CD8 were included in the sample. Duplicate votes from the same IP address were discarded. Some participants identified their party registration and erroneously voted on questions designed for other party affiliations, so their duplicate votes were discarded. 100 unique responses were collected and analyzed. The survey was open to the general public and should not be considered a sampling of tea party members, nor is it an endorsement of any candidate.