What do people give a rip about?
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
I'm sitting here watching the bonding bill debate on the floor of the Minnesota House, surrounded by lots of charts that may or may not be telling me something interesting. I'm not sure, yet. Charts do that to me.
As you may know, as part of the Campaign 2006 Web site, we've been asking folks to fill out a form to ask what issues candidates should be focusing on in the coming campaign. Ideally, this information will then be given to show producers, hosts, and reporters for some cred.
The folks who are doing this, the Public Insight Journalism team at MPR, haven't yet processed these to weight them according to registered voter breakdown, which might be important because Republicans and Democrats -- and I know I could knock you over with a feature here -- have different takes on the issues, including what they are.
Let's break it down between U.S. House and Senate races and the state-level races.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
SENATE AND HOUSE
Republican rankings (first choice)
1. National security
2. Abortion
3. Taxes
4. Immigration
5. War in Iraq
6. Federal budget
7. Health care
8. Social security
9. Energy
10.Patriot Act
Democrats (first choice)
1. War in Iraq
2. Health care
3. Federal budget
4. Global warming
5. National resources/environment
6. Ethics
7. Energy
8. Abortion
9. Early childhood education
10. Higher education
STATE-LEVEL
Democrats
1. K-12 funding
2. Health care
3. Early childhood education
4. Transportation
5. Natural resources/environment
6. Higher education
7. Gay marriage
8. Energy
9. Budget
10.Local government aid
Republicans
1. Taxes
2. Gay marriage
3. Abortion
4. Budget
5. K-12 funding
6. Health care
7. Crime
8. Immigratin
9. Higher education
10. Stadiums
None of those are terribly surprising, and keep in mind that's just a list of what people's first choice is. When you drill down a bit and look at other issues they're interested in, it gets a bit more fascinating. Atop that list is electoral reform.
I find this fascinating, and am encouraging this to get into some polling we're going to do. One of the bills that's languished up at the Capitol this year -- and gotten no spotlight at all -- is one that would reduce the size of the Legislature and make it so some members of the Senate are up for election every other year. There's also the possibility of instant run-off voting.
What issues are you interested in seeing get some more publicity? Let us know.
