Recent Poll: Democratic Presidential Candidates Edge Out Republicans for Being Preferred Neighbors

Democrat vs. Republican Mascots
Cartoon courtesy of Vocal Laboratories website

A new poll released today, as the 2008 Presidential primary season gets under way, reveals the candidates that U.S. adults view as the most desired neighbors. Democratic candidates are in a dead heat, whether it’s in the White House or the house next door, and are preferred neighbors over Republicans, according to a survey** of 2,228 U.S. adults conducted by Harris Interactive(R) on behalf of real estate Website Zillow.com.

Sen. Barack Obama barely edges out Sen. Hillary Clinton, among all adults, as the presidential candidate they would most like to be their neighbor in 2008. Sen Obama received 13 percent and Sen. Clinton received 12 percent of the votes. The rest of the top five are Republican candidates Fred Thompson (7 percent ), Rudy Giuliani (6 percent ) and Mike Huckabee (5 percent ).

Neighbor Fence Lines Drawn by Party Lines:

Among adults who consider themselves Democrats, Clinton and Obama remain neck-and-neck, with Clinton capturing a slight lead at 25 percent of Democratic votes, followed closely by Obama with 23 percent and Sen. John Edwards a distant third (8%).

Among adults who consider themselves Republicans, it is a three-man race with Thompson (14%), Huckabee (13%) and Giuliani (12%) all closely ranked as the most desired neighbors for 2008.

Obama is the favorite neighbor among Independents/Others (10%), followed by Thompson (8%) and Giuliani and Clinton (both 6%).

Most Desired Presidential Candidate Neighbors in 2008*
Independent/
Candidate Total Republicans Democrats Other
Barack Obama (D) 13% 4% 23% 10%
Hillary Clinton (D) 12% 4% 25% 6%
Fred Thompson (R) 7% 14% 2% 8%
Rudy Giuliani (R) 6% 12% 2% 6%
Mike Huckabee (R) 5% 13% 1% 4%
John Edwards (D) 4% 2% 8% 5%
John McCain (R) 4% 9% 1% 4%
Mitt Romney (R) 4% 9% 1% 4%
Dennis Kucinich (D) 2% – 3% 2%
Joe Biden (D) 2% 1% 3% 2%
Ron Paul (R) 2% 3% 1% 3%
None 16% 15% 13% 21%

* Results shown only for candidates earning at least 2% of all responses. “Other”, “Not sure”, and “Decline to answer” responses are not shown.

The Gender-Age Divide:

Among men, Obama (11%) and Thompson (10%) are the top choices for neighbors in 2008, followed by Clinton (9%), Sen. John McCain (7%) and Huckabee (6%).

For men aged 35-44, Clinton is the top choice (12%), followed closely by Giuliani (11%) and a tie between Thompson and Obama (9%).

Men 55 and older do not seem to be as open to having a female presidential candidate neighbor as the younger generation — while half as many (6%) would like to have Clinton as their neighbor, peer Fred Thompson is the front runner with 11 percent of the vote in this gender-age bracket, followed by McCain (9%) and Obama (8%).

In the female camp, Clinton is the favorite (15%), slightly ahead of Obama (14%) followed by Giuliani (7%).

Among 45-54 year-old women, twice as many would like to have Clinton (22%) as a neighbor than Obama (11%), followed by Giuliani (7%).

Most Desired Presidential Candidate Neighbors in 2008, by Age and Gender*

Total Fe- Fe- Fe- Fe-
Total Male Male Male Male Fe- male male male male
Candidate Male 18-34 35-44 45-54 55+ male 18-34 35-44 45-54 55+
Barack Obama (D) 11% 13% 9% 17% 8% 14% 20% 19% 11% 10%
Fred Thompson (R) 10% 7% 9% 15% 11% 4% * 5% 3% 6%
Hillary Clinton (D) 9% 10% 12% 9% 6% 15% 19% 16% 22% 8%
John McCain (R) 7% 5% 6% 4% 9% 2% 1% 2% 3% 3%
Mike Huckabee (R) 6% 9% 1% 5% 5% 4% 4% 3% 3% 6%
John Edwards (D) 5% 3% 7% 4% 4% 4% 2% 3% 5% 7%
Rudy Giuliani (R) 5% 4% 11% 2% 5% 7% 6% 11% 7% 7%
Mitt Romney (R) 5% 7% 4% 3% 6% 3% 1% 2% 2% 5%

* Results shown only for candidates earning at least 5% of total male responses. “Other”, “None”, “Not sure”, and “Decline to answer” responses are not shown.

Geographic Preferences:

Seems where you hang your hat affects who you want next door. Obama has a wider lead for chief neighbor in the Midwest (16%), while he and Clinton are tied (11%) in the West, followed by Republicans Mitt Romney and Thompson (6%). Clinton is the favorite neighbor among Southerners (13%), where Thompson and Obama are fighting for second (10%). In the Northeast, local residents Giuliani and Clinton are tied for second (11%), trailing Obama (15%).

Most Desired Presidential Candidate Neighbors in 2008, by Region*

Candidate Northeast Midwest South West

Barack Obama (D) 15% 16% 10% 11%
Rudy Giuliani (R) 11% 4% 6% 3%
Hillary Clinton (D) 11% 13% 13% 11%
Fred Thompson (R) 4% 7% 10% 6%
John McCain (R) 4% 5% 4% 5%
John Edwards (D) 4% 5% 4% 5%
Joe Biden (D) 4% 2% 1% *
Mike Huckabee (R) 3% 5% 7% 3%
Mitt Romney (R) 3% 4% 3% 6%

* Results shown only for candidates earning at least 3% of Northeast responses. “Other”, “None”, “Not sure”, and “Decline to answer” responses are not shown.

Unwelcome to the Neighborhood:

Many U.S. adults would rather not have a presidential candidate in their neighborhood, as 16 percent of all adults selected “none” when asked which candidate they would most like to have as neighbor in 2008. For Independents/Others, males aged 45-54 and women aged 35-44 feeling the strongest sentiment — all at about 20 percent.

About Zillow.com:

Zillow.com(R) is an online real estate community where homeowners, buyers, sellers, and real estate agents and professionals find and share vital information about homes, for free. Launched in early 2006 with ‘Zestimate’ values and demographic data on 72 million U.S. homes with details on more than 7,500 neighborhoods in 130 U.S. cities that includes the types of people who live there and information about the local area, Zillow has since opened the site to
community input, data and dialogue, including “Home Q&A.” Zillow’s goal is to help people become smarter about real estate — what homes are worth, what’s for sale, and what local experts have to say about real estate and individual homes. One of the most-visited real estate Websites, this firm was the only online company named by Advertising Age magazine to its 2006 “Marketing 50” list of the most powerful consumer brands. It is headquartered in Seattle and has raised $87 million in funding.

Zillow.com, Zillow, Zestimate and Zindex are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc.

** The Presidential Candidate Neighbors survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive within the United States between Dec. 13 and Dec.17, 2007, among 2,228 adults ages 18+, of whom, 660 consider themselves Republican, 718 consider themselves Democrat, and 619 consider themselves Independent or other. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical estimates of sampling error can be calculated.

Source for this post: Zillow.com

Website: http://www.zillow.com/

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top