Romney leads poll, occupy support strong


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A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is the front-runner for the GOP ticket with support from 27 percent of registered Republicans in the state.

Stand up · Thousands of protestors gathered Thursday in Downtown Los Angeles as part of Occupy L.A. A recent poll found 47 percent of Californians support the occupy movement. - Kelvin Kuo | Daily Trojan

 

The poll also found support for the Occupy Wall Street movement is divided along party lines.

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain trails behind Romney with 20 percent of registered California Republicans’ support, followed by Newt Gingrich with 14 percent, Ron Paul with 6 percent and Rick Perry with 3 percent.

While Romney’s support among California primary voters has not wavered for much of the year, his opponent has changed, said the director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics Dan Schnur. In a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll conducted in September, Romney and Perry had 22 percent support of Republican primary voters and Cain had 4 percent support.

According to the most recent poll, among supporters of the Tea Party, Cain has a slight lead of three points over Romney.

Forty-seven percent of California voters reported favoring the Occupy Wall Street movement and 33 percent said they oppose it.

When asked what the movement says about the country, a majority of Democrats said they agree with what the movement is suggesting, while a majority of Republicans reported disagreeing. Sixty-two percent of registered Democrats agreed and 15 disagreed; 21 percent of registered Republicans agreed and 55 percent disagreed.

Yul Kim, a sophomore majoring in public relations, said she agrees with the statement Occupy Wall Street protesters are making.

“Corporations being greedy are unfair to the 99 percent,” Kim said. “I admire all the people out there who are not at work and participating in this movement for the greater good and the majority of society.”

The poll also found approval for President Barack Obama, at 50 percent, has not changed significantly since the last USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll, conducted in September. African-American and Latino voters overwhelmingly support Obama, with 81 percent and 64 percent, respectively, saying they approve of the job he is doing.

The poll, which surveyed 1,500 registered voters in California, was conducted over a period of nearly two weeks. The margin of error for the overall sample is 2.52 percentage points.