Republican primary voters in New Hampshire have had it with politicians, poll says
Candidates: three.
Days in elected office: zero.
That’s right, the top three presidential choices among Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, according to a WBUR poll released Wednesday, have never been elected to public office.
The poll, conducted by MassINC Polling Group, showed Donald Trump, a real estate magnate and former TV personality, Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, and Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett Packard CEO, leading the GOP field in the “First in the Nation’’ primary state.
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“Voters explicitly say that that [holding elected office] is not an important attribute to them,’’ Steve Koczela, the president of MassINC Polling, told Boston.com.
Koczela pointed out that “having experience in other elected office’’ was the least important factor to GOP primary voters in the Granite State — only 24 percent said it was an important attribute. The second lowest was being “a true conservative.’’
On the other hand, that a candidates says “what he or she truly believes’’ was ranked the single most important attribute, at 87 percent.
“Being elected to public office doesn’t really get them anything,’’ said Koczela, noting the dismal level of public trust in government.
“You see over and over again in other polls that voters are expressing historic discontent over how things in Washington work,’’ he said.
The last president to have not previously been elected to public office was Dwight Eisenhower. Elected in 1952, Eisenhower was previously a five-star Army general in World War II and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe.
Even though the top five 2016 Democratic presidential candidates (six, including Joe Biden, who is not officially running, but polling third) have significant public office experience, Koczela said that factor isn’t particular to either party.
According to Gallup, Republicans and Democrats’ respective trust in the executive branch is influenced almost entirely by the party of the presidency.
Subsequently, Koczela pointed out that in 2008, Republicans ran nearly all elected officials, while the Democrats nominated Barack Obama.
“Even though Obama was a senator, he was a relative newcomer,’’ he said. “This year, Republicans have implicitly taken on the ‘Change You Can Believe In’ mantra.’’
2016 presidential candidates
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