(Host) Brian Dubie and Peter Shumlin are working hard to attract every vote they can because they’re locked in a dead heat in the governor’s race.
Last week’s VPR Vermont Poll showed Dubie with 44 percent support and Shumlin with 43 percent – which is well within the margin of error of four percentage points.
One of the key constituencies is women. And the poll showed that Dubie is lagging. The poll says 51 percent of women surveyed chose Peter Shumlin and 39 percent chose Dubie.
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy and Congressman Peter Welch both lead among women in their bids for re-election.
Dartmouth College Political Science Professor Linda Fowler says for decades, there’s been a growing gender gap between men and women. She says women are more likely to be independents and Democrats.
(Fowler) "Women tend to be more dovish in the use of military force. Women also are more supportive of social welfare programs than men and they’re less interested in tax cuts and more interested in maintaining spending for education, health, social security and basically safety net programs."
(Host) In the VPR Vermont Poll, women also lined up behind the Democratic candidates for secretary of state and auditor of accounts. But in the race for lieutenant governor, Republican Phil Scott and Democrat Steve Howard are neck-and-neck among women. Scott got 38 percent support and Howard got 37 percent support.
Fowler says the gender gap should matter to candidates:
(Fowler) "In the past, women were less likely to turn out than men. But now they’re slightly more likely to turn out then men. So the gender gap on issue preferences can have consequences in a tight election."
(Host) The VPR Vermont Poll showed that more women than men opposed a 20-year license extension for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Women also were more likely to be opposed the war in Afghanistan. When it came to school district consolidation, 41 percent of women supported the idea, while 38 percent were opposed.
The poll was conducted last week by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research of Washington, D.C. A total of 625 registered, likely voters were interviewed.