Highlights from survey of Iowa caucus-goers

Preliminary results of a survey conducted for The Associated Press among voters arriving at the Iowa caucuses Thursday night: IDEOLOGY

Iowa caucus-goers historically have been more ideological than voters in other states with competitive presidential nomination contests. Early Democratic arrivers Thursday were comparable on that score to past Iowa voters, while Republican caucus-goers may have been even more conservative than before.

- Half of early arrivers at Democratic caucuses described themselves as liberal, compared to 56 percent in 2004 and 49 percent in 2000.

- Close to nine in 10 of those who showed up earliest for the Republican caucuses called themselves conservative, compared to about three-quarters of voters in the last two contested GOP caucuses, in 1996 and 2000.

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PARTISANSHIP

Iowa caucus-goers also have tended to be more partisan than voters in early primary states and that pattern was holding among the early arrivers Thursday. Fewer than one in five in each party described themselves as independent. In 2000 and 2004 one in five Democrats called themselves independents; in 1996 and 2000 nearly one in four Republicans did so. DEMOGRAPHICS

- As in past Iowa caucuses and other presidential nomination contests, the early Democratic turnout was predominantly female, while a majority of Republican early arrivers were male.

- Early Democratic caucus-goers were a little younger on average than their Republican counterparts.

--- Surveys conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International at 40 sites each for Democratic and Republican caucuses in Iowa. Preliminary results from only the earliest arrivals. The Democratic entrance poll included 472 interviews; the preliminary Republican results were among 204 respondents. Sampling error in each survey was plus or minus 7 percentage points.