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Stanford Students Favor Less Government Spending
by Gary Raichart
News Staff

A campus-wide canvassing effort last quarter of student political viewpoints discovered that over sixty percent of Stanford students favor cutting government spending as a means of balancing the budget in lieu of raising taxes. Other topics included in the survey included students' political party affiliations, positions on abortion, and levels of support for the war in Iraq.

The survey was the product of a grassroots effort by the Stanford College Republicans (SCR) to obtain objective data reflecting campus political affiliations. Walking door-to-door to about 30 different dormitories or fraternity houses for three straight weeks during the month of January 2003, members of SCR distributed the brief survey and elicited responses from 1533 Stanford students.

The survey determined that 64.6% of students who indicated a preference favored cutting government spending over raising taxes as a means of balancing state or local budgets. Raising taxes and cutting government spending were the only two options available for selection on the given question, allowing for a simple and direct comparison assessing the favored method. Four percent of students did not mark a response.

Another question on the survey asked with which political party students most identified, offering Libertarian, Republican, Democratic, Green, and Independent as options. The majority of students (54.2%) indicated that they most identify with the Democratic Party. Republicans comprise 19.3% of the student population, while 12.2% of students identify themselves as Independents. A surprisingly small number of students identified themselves as Green Party members, comprising only 6.2% of the student body, while 3.3% of students claimed Libertarian affiliation.

The survey also asked students to define themselves on the issue of abortion as most likely to be either Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, or Pro-Life with Exceptions. Only 12.2% of students described themselves as Pro-Life, with two thirds of the student body describing themselves as Pro-Choice.

Meanwhile, 19.6% of students regard themselves as Pro-Life with exceptions, which brings the total number of students describing themselves as Pro-Life overall to 31.6%. The remaining students did not select a preference.

The percentage of Republicans surveyed who revealed themselves to be Pro-Choice was much higher than the percentage of Pro-Life Democrats. Over one in three students who identified mostly with the Republican Party were Pro-Choice, with a little under a third being Pro-Life with Exceptions and the other third Pro-Life. Meanwhile, only 20.7% of Democrats surveyed described themselves as Pro-Life or Pro-Life with Exceptions. Additionally, only 21.6% of Libertarians and 21.1% of Greens were Pro-Life to any extent.

In sum, over two-thirds of the surveyed students were Pro-Choice, and three-fifths of those who identify themselves as Pro-Life do so with exceptions.

The survey also asked students whether they supported President Bush's position on Iraq. Approximately 30% of the surveys didn't receive a response on this question, and of those students who did respond, a little over one-fourth characterized themselves as "unsure."

About 55% of surveys containing a response indicated that students were not in favor of the President's plans, and only 18.5% were in favor. Over 70% of Democrats were not in favor of the Presidents position, with only 7.2% actually in support of the President. Conversely, less than half of Republicans were in support of the President, while 14.8% were against the President's plans, with the remainder undecided.

The survey also proposed the question: "If the 2004 Presidential election were held today, whom would you vote for?" Options included Bush, Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt, Lieberman, and Hillary Clinton. Surprisingly, though probably only due to the split in the Democratic vote among the many liberal candidates, Bush received the most support, garnering 27.2% of the responding votes. Clinton received the next most support of 25.3%, with Lieberman coming in third at 23.8%, after which there was over a ten percentage-point drop-off before the next-most favored choice.

More than five out of six Republicans indicated that they would vote for President Bush's re-election if elections were held today, while less than one out of 15 Democrats would support Bush.

The most favored Democratic candidate was Senator Clinton, receiving the support of 33.8% of Democrats, while Senator Lieberman received 30.8% of Democratic support. Aside from Bush, no candidate received more than five percent of Republican backing, while John Kerry was the only other candidate receiving more than ten percent of the Democratic vote with 13.6%.

Senator Lieberman received the most support among Independents, garnering 28.8%, with Bush second and Clinton third. Among Libertarians, President Bush was the most popular choice, receiving 44.4%, with no other candidate over 20%. Finally, among Greens, Clinton had the most support with 34.7%, while Lieberman was second most popular, followed by Kerry.

The methodology utilized in acquisition of the data entailed members of the SCR going door-to-door in the evenings of three straight weeks, knocking and inquiring of anyone who was present whether they would mind filling out a brief survey.

While many declined to participate, most people were willing to spend two minutes and complete the form. Students who participated had the option of remaining anonymous, and of leaving any question blank they did not wish to answer. If asked, surveyors revealed that they were with the SCR and that the purpose of the survey was to "raise political awareness on campus."

Page last modified on Thursday, 02-Mar-2006 00:23:20 MST.