SCSU Survey: Obama in tight race with Romney but crushes Bachmann
The 2011 St. Cloud State University survey finds that President Obama would face the stiffest challenge from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. 45 percent of those polled say they would back Obama. 39 percent say they would back Romney. 7 percent of those polled said they would support "someone else." 9 percent of those polled are undecided. (Note: the pollster said they included a "someone else category in each question).
In a head to head with former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, Obama received 47 percent support. Cain got 36 percent support. 8 percent said they would vote for "someone else." 9 percent said they "didn't know."
The poll also found that GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann isn't getting any home state support. Just 25 percent of those polled support Bachmann in a head to head match-up with Obama. 53 percent of those polled back the president. 16 percent said they support "someone else." Six percent were undecided.
The survey found 41 percent of those polled rate President Obama's job as performance as excellent or pretty good while 59 percent rate it as only fair or poor.
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The poll also found that the state is closely divided on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. It finds that 47 percent of those polled do not support amending the state's constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. 44 percent support the proposal. 9 percent of those polled either refused to answer or were undecided.
The SCSU researchers also tried to measure how attitudes toward religion might affect answers to the marriage question. The survey found that 57 percent of those who said religion was important in their lives were in favor of the amendment, compared to 29 percent of the group who said religion was not important.
The survey also found that 55 percent think the state is on the wrong track and also found that unemployment and job opportunities are the top issue facing the state. The budget, the economy, education funding, politics/politicians and taxes are also top concerns.
A majority of those polled, or 55 percent, blame this summer's state government shutdown on the Minnesota Legislature. 18 percent blame Governor Dayton. 18 percent say they're both to blame.
The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.
You can read the news release on the poll here.
Here are the poll results released by SCSU Professor Steve Frank: