Majority in 3 States Favorable on Hillary Clinton; Give Former Sec of State 2016 Lead over Christie, Paul & Ryan

NEW YORK, March 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A majority of voters in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia have a favorable view of Hillary Clinton, and name her most often as the one eligible person that they would most like to see as the next President according to simultaneous polls conducted by Roanoke in Virginia, Rutgers-Eagleton in New Jersey and Siena in New York.  In early 2016 Presidential horseraces, Clinton leads New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Senator Rand Paul and Congressman Paul Ryan.

Asked to vote in favor of or opposed to 12 national initiatives, a majority of voters in all three states support seven and oppose one.  Overwhelming majorities are in favor of raising the national minimum wage, legalizing the use of medical marijuana, approving a path to citizenship, approving the Keystone Pipeline, using federal funds for Pre-Kindergarten education, and establishing a national gun registry.  Legalizing same-sex marriage is strongly supported in New Jersey and New York while Virginians are in favor by 53 to 40 percent.  Large majorities oppose allowing the NSA to tap domestic phone lines.

On four other current issues – the Affordable Care Act, abortion, standardized testing and extending unemployment benefits, the voters of New Jersey, New York and Virginia do not speak with the same decisiveness nor the same mind.  A majority of Virginians are in favor of repealing Obamacare, a small majority of New Jersey agrees, but a small majority of New Yorkers oppose repeal.  On two other issues, both New York and New Jersey support both reinstituting unemployment benefits, and to a lesser degree, using nationally standardized tests to assess the quality of public schools, while in Virginia, both issues find voters split. 

The one issue on which voters of each state are closely divided is making abortion illegal 20 weeks after conception.  Voters in all three states lean towards opposing this measure but only in Virginia does opposition reach beyond the margin of error and in no instance does opposition reach 50 percent.

PDF version; crosstabs; website: www.Siena.edu/SRI/Research

SOURCE Siena College