CNN: Virginia exit polls show support for Obama ran wide
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Illinois Sen. Barack Obama pulled support from virtually all sectors of the voting public Tuesday on his way to defeating rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Virginia Democratic primary, according to CNN exit polling.
Obama was expected to poll well among young voters, independents and African-Americans and he did -- taking 60 to 70 percent of the votes in the first two groups and a nearly 9-1 edge among black voters, the polls suggest. But he also was edging out Clinton among voters 65 and older, blue-collar workers and women, all groups that Clinton was counting on as the core of her support. Early exit polling by CNN was done with a sample of 864 Democratic voters in Virginia. Among those polled, Obama was winning with 61 percent of the vote to Clinton's 38 percent.
Voters who described themselves as independents made up 21 percent of those who cast a ballot in Virginia's Democratic primary, according to the polling, and those voters favored Obama by a margin of 66 percent to 33 percent. Virginia has an open primary system that allows voters to choose a primary without declaring themselves a member of either party. "Obama is drawing a lot of independents -- that is a legitimate claim," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. "But to suggest that an enormous number of Republicans are changing party registrations and coming to his banner just isn't true."...But there was a slight uptick in what the Illinois senator has dubbed "Obamacans" on Tuesday. Eight percent of voters in the Democratic primary described themselves as Republicans -- and 70 percent of those polled voted for Obama....
Ninety percent of the black voters polled said they voted for Obama, a native of Hawaii whose father is Kenyan and mother is from Kansas. African-Americans made up 29 percent of voters in the Democratic primary, according to the early polling. And young voters flocked to the Obama campaign, the polls suggest. Eighty percent of poll respondents under 30 and 67 percent of those under 45 voted for him. However, Obama also edged Clinton -- 52-47 -- among voters over 60. And 49 percent of those who voted for Obama were white, a big change from previous contests in which Clinton held a big lead over Obama among white Democrats. "We haven't seen that happen this strikingly before, and this in a Southern state," said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider.
Older voters, women, Hispanics and working-class voters are the core the Clinton campaign has said are backing her in the Democratic primaries -- along with those who feel her experience makes her the best suited to handle international affairs....While national polls suggest Clinton remains strong on those fronts, Virginia's polling results didn't bear that out. Obama led Clinton 58-42 percent among the women who were polled, took 59 percent of the votes of respondents who said they earn less than $50,000 a year and 62 percent of those who said someone in their household is a member of a union. He was the winner among respondents who said the economy, the Iraq war or health care -- a trademark issue for Clinton -- was the most important issue to them. Clinton did take an overwhelming 96 percent of the support from voters who said experience was the most important quality a candidate should have....
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/12/dem.polls/index.html
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