WASHINGTON (ABP) — A new survey of voters' attitudes toward presidential candidates shows that being perceived as highly religious may not help the 2008 hopefuls very much.
The study, released Sept. 6 by two bipartisan public-interest groups, also suggests that many issues most important to conservative religious voters aren't as important to the wider electorate.
“So far religion is not proving to be a clear-cut positive in the 2008 presidential campaign,” a report announcing the survey results said. The poll involved telephone interviews with 3,002 adults in early August and was sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
“The candidates viewed by voters as the least religious among the leading contenders are the current front-runners for the Democratic and Republican nominations — Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, respectively,” they wrote. “On the other hand, the candidate seen as far and away the most religious — Mitt Romney — is handicapped by this perception because of voter concerns about Mormonism.”
The survey found that only 16 percent of respondents viewed Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, as “very religious.” However, she outpaced Giuliani, the Republican ex-mayor of New York City, whom only 14 percent viewed as strongly religious.
Nonetheless, majorities viewed all major candidates of both parties as at least somewhat religious. And the two other main Democratic candidates — Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards — were viewed by more respondents as highly religious than were any of the Republican candidates other than Romney. Twenty-eight percent said they thought Edwards is very religious while 24 percent thought the same of Obama.
The next most religious major candidate was Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, at 19 percent. Sixteen percent thought former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, the latest GOP candidate to enter the race, was very religious.
Forty-six percent of respondents considered Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, the most religious major candidate. But while a large majority of respondents — including both self-identified Democrats and Republicans — considered it important for a president to have strong religious beliefs, a significant number said they were uncomfortable with Romney's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A full 25 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is a Mormon. Of those, only 54 percent had a favorable view of Romney, versus 82 percent of all Republican respondents.
The idea of a Mormon president was least popular among white evangelical Republicans who attend church weekly. Of that group, 41 percent said they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon.
The issues most important to voters remain foreign policy and economics rather than the divisive social controversies many conservative Christian leaders have emphasized, according to the report.
“Social issues are lagging in importance among members of both parties,” it said. “White evangelical Protestants are the only major political or religious group in which a majority (56 percent) says that social issues like abortion and gay marriage will be very important in their presidential voting decisions. Even among white evangelicals, however, social issues trail domestic matters and the war in Iraq: 72 percent of white evangelicals cite the economy and other domestic issues as very important, while 66 percent rate the war in Iraq as very important to their vote.”
Interestingly, though, even Republican voters who consider abortion rights and other social issues important did not hold significantly less favorable views of the only pro-choice GOP candidate. Of those who rated social issues as most important but were aware of Giuliani's support of abortion rights, 76 percent held a favorable view of him. Among social-issue Republicans who were unaware of Giuliani's abortion stance, 80 percent viewed him favorably.
But Giuliani's views on abortion remain largely unknown by most voters. Only 22 percent of all respondents and 31 percent of Republicans were aware of his support for abortion rights.
Voters still view the GOP as the more pro-religion choice of the two major parties, with 50 percent saying the Republicans are “friendly to religion.” That number was down slightly from a peak of 55 percent in a similar survey taken in 2005.
Only 30 percent of voters considered the Democratic Party to be religion-friendly, a slight increase over last year but down from a peak of 42 percent in 2003.
Among the survey's other findings:
— The percentages of voters who think that secular liberals have too much control over the Democratic Party and religious conservatives have too much control over the Republican Party have decreased since 2005. The decrease has been more dramatic for Democrat voters.
— A large majority of respondents in all religious and ethnic categories oppose churches endorsing political candidates, with 63 percent of all respondents opposing such endorsements and only 28 percent favoring them.
— Significant majorities of the public continue to support abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research and oppose legalizing same-sex marriage.
— Diversity exists among white evangelical Protestants even when it comes to controversial social issues. Of respondents in that category, 31 percent supported both embryonic stem-cell research and unlimited or mildly limited access to abortion, and 14 percent supported same-sex marriage.
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