On December 20, Public Policy Polling released these results concerning the presidential election. Questions 12 through 18 ask voters how they would vote if confronted with seven different three-way general election choices. For all seven, the assumption is that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee.
The seven “other” candidates tested, and their percentages, were: Donald Trump 19%, Ron Paul 17%, Jon Huntsman 11%, Gary Johnson 9%, Mike Bloomberg 8%, Bernie Sanders 7%, and Rocky Anderson 4%. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the link.
What I found interesting was that Rocky Anderson’s primary support came from staunch conservatives. To me these numbers indicate that the masses don’t know much about the above mentioned political ideologies of Johnson, Anderson, and Bloomberg. Instead, they like the idea of another name on the ballot besides the D and R option.
This seems to be reminiscent of most polls that are released 10-12 months before an Election featuring 3rd party/Independent candidates.
The idea that Trump would get a higher vote total then Paul isn’t reasonable. Paul has a national campaign and is the current GOP front runner. Trump couldn’t even get anybody to show up for his lame debate.
Bernie Sanders scores higher than Anderson, and his ideology is well known. 7% sounds about right for progressives willing to support a generic non-Dem candidacy one year before the election.
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