Poll: State’s politics split nearly evenly

ST. PAUL - A new survey this week says that if you think Minnesota is deep blue politically, you are wrong.
Gallup, which is releasing its State of the States series with in-depth polling on all 50 states, reports that its 2014 survey results put Minnesota in its “competitive” category, instead of its “solid Democratic” or “leans Democratic” and “solid Republican” or “leans Republican” categories.
And even though a Democratic candidate has won the state in presidential races going back for 40 years, Minnesota does not even crack the top 10 of the survey’s most Democratic states. The top is Massachusetts.
The numbers from the 2014 survey found that there were 43.8 percent Democrats in Minnesota and 39.2 percent Republicans.
In 2014, Republicans took the Minnesota House but Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party members held onto every other statewide office, including U.S. Sen. Al Franken and Gov. Mark Dayton.
Gallup’s survey results also say that Minnesota is more conservative than it is liberal.
Nearly 35 percent of Minnesotans described themselves as “conservative” and only 24 percent cozied up to the “liberal” moniker.
So why do Democrats seem to have an electoral advantage in Minnesota of late? The 36 percent who describe themselves as moderates could hold the key.
If the numbers are to be believed, moderate Minnesotans sided with Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012 and DFLer Dayton and every other DFL statewide candidate last year. Or it could be that more moderates with Democratic leanings turn out at the polls.
Survey results were based on telephone interviews conducted in 2014 with a random national sample of 177,034 adults. The national margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point; for most states, the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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