Immigration issue receding for voters?

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on January 27, 2009 - 4:08pm.
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Immigration has fallen off the radar for North Carolina voters as the economy has worsened, a pollster says.

Since October 2007, the percent of voters who list immigration as their top concern has dropped from 10 percent to 3 percent, according to Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm in Raleigh.

In the same time period, the economy has zoomed from 19 percent to 64 percent, Kristin Collins reports.

But spokesman Tom Jensen says the economy doesn't entirely explain immigration's fall. Family values, another typically conservative issue, is still the top concern of 10 percent of voters. In October 2007, it was 13 percent.

"I guess for some voters having immigration as your biggest issue is a luxury that can be afforded only when the economy is relatively strong," Jensen wrote on his blog today. "But for the roughly tenth of the population whose overwhelming concern is God, guns and gays, that passion is recession-proof."

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Re: Trolling the N & O blogs......

Submitted by j1c2kp on January 28, 2009 - 9:26am.

After reading Kristen's past columns on the woes of the illegals living here, I would be hesitant to contact her. What kind of slant will she put on the story?

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Trolling the N & O blogs......

Submitted by domewatcher on January 28, 2009 - 8:19am.

Well, GOSH......

"....has to troll on N&O blogs to try to find that fringe minority...."

I'm not worried that Kristen will ever upstage the rest of us trolls who live on some fringe or another. We're always dragging ballyhoo through here trying to get a strike.

Practice catch and release.

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Re: Who are they polling ??

Submitted by Gosh (not verified) on January 28, 2009 - 7:36am.

If you are in that position (laid off and unable to find even a lower-paying job in construction or another immigrant dominated trade) or know anyone who is, I would love to talk to you. I am working on a story on this issue now. Thanks, Kristin Collins (N&O reporter), 919-829-4881

I'd call that qualitative confirmation of the quantitative polling of lessened concern over illegal immigration. The reporter assigned to exploit the "increased concern" over illegal immigrants has to troll on N&O blogs to try to find that fringe minority that still watches Lou Dobbs (3 percent was it?).

Scientific polling works. Too bad there's no such thing as scientific reporting.

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Re: Immigration issue receding for voters?

Submitted by bnartist on January 28, 2009 - 12:06am.

Illegal immigration is a civil offense, not criminal.

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Re: Immigration issue receding for voters?

Submitted by FFC1304 on January 27, 2009 - 7:08pm.

criminal illegals should be a BIGGER priority in an economic downturn.

illegals take precious jobs for the legal citizens.

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Re: Who are they polling ??

Submitted by kcollins on January 27, 2009 - 5:18pm.

If you are in that position (laid off and unable to find even a lower-paying job in construction or another immigrant dominated trade) or know anyone who is, I would love to talk to you. I am working on a story on this issue now. Thanks, Kristin Collins (N&O reporter), 919-829-4881

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Re: Who are they polling ??

Submitted by Notsurewhere_NC on January 27, 2009 - 4:59pm.

All the daily bad news is a smoke screen. Illegal immigration is and continues to be a major underlying drag on the economy. When you loose your job, your focused on that, but when you discover you can't even get lesser paying work because an illegal is holding that position, it will go to the top of your this is BS list in rapid order.

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Re: Passionate, but already locked in the R column

Submitted by Gosh (not verified) on January 27, 2009 - 4:58pm.

There's nothing the D's can do to get them or the R's can do to lose them.

So true.

If you hate gays enough to think Larry Craig was framed and Mark Foley was an overly enthusiastic Boy Scout Master, then the Party of Pink Elephants on Parade is all you'll ever vote when you enter that voting closet.

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Passionate, but already locked in the R column

Submitted by cornbread on January 27, 2009 - 4:33pm.

Gods, guns, and gays may still hold sway with 10% in PPP's poll, but the important part is that this 10% is already solidly in the R column.

There's nothing the D's can do to get them or the R's can do to lose them.

They've succeeded only in marginalizing themselves, and in decreasing numbers (according to PPP's tracking).

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