Further, after two weeks of national convention outreach, both parties have seen decreases in their favorability ratings. In week 1 of our tracking poll congressional Democrats registered 64% favorability and in week 3 they stand at 53% (however, Obama continues to perform better than congressional Democrats with 72% favorability). Likewise, when asked about how good or bad a job they were doing at outreach to Hispanics the Democrats fell from 59% approval in week 1 to 49% approval in week 3 following the DNC. The news for Republicans is far worse. GOP favorability among Latinos was 32% before either convention and is now just 26% (and Romney tracks quite similarly with 27% favorability). The percent rating Republicans positive on outreach actually increased, but from an anemic 14% to only 19% today who say Republicans are doing a good job reaching out to Hispanics.
While the conventions gave both parties a chance to shine, it also opened up an opportunity to unleash attacks against one another on a national stage. According to the impreMedia/Latino Decisions week 3 tracking poll, Latino voters identify too much fighting and negative politics as a major problem. A clear majority of Latinos say fighting by both parties in Congress is the real reason the economy is not recovering faster.
At their convention two weeks ago, the Republican Party attempted to push a message of economy, economy, economy as their leading mantra in winning Latino voters, but the polling data does not support them on this. Overwhelmingly, Latino voters reject the idea that the slow recovery is Obama’s fault. Two weeks ago our tracking poll found, a large majority of Latino voters (68%) blamed the policies of the Bush administration for creating the economic conditions we face today and few blamed Obama policies (14%). Last week, Latinos said they trust Obama and the Democrats to fix the economy by a 2-to-1 margin over Romney and Republicans (59% to 30%). And now this week, a majority of Latinos blame partisan fighting in Congress, not the President, for the recovery being so slow.
Full results comparing waves 1 – 3 posted here
View graphs and charts below:
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