Survivor

If billionaire New York mayor Michael Bloomberg were to run as an independent, he'd do more to help the Democrats, according to the poll. In a three-way race against Clinton and Giuliani, Clinton leads with 44 percent to Giuliani's 38 percent and Bloomberg's 11 percent.

Evangelical Republican voters, meanwhile, do not appear to be gravitating toward one candidate in particular. Their support is divided among Giuliani (23 percent), McCain (17 percent), Thompson (15 percent), Huckabee (10 percent), and, lastly, Romney, who is Mormon (9 percent). Among Republicans who do not identify themselves as Evangelical Protestant, 34 percent are backing Giuliani, putting him well ahead of Thompson (15 percent) and Romney (14 percent).

Interestingly, this is shaping up to be an election where there is no single overriding issue that concerns voters. The economy and jobs actually come before the war in Iraq (22 to 19 percent), followed by health care (17 percent) and terrorism and national security (15 percent). Voters today are split on whether the situation is worsening in Iraq (29 percent) or improving (26 percent.) In August, 41 percent held the negative opinion; 16 percent thought the situation was improving.

This poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,002 registered voters.  Registered voters were screened from a random-digit-dial (RDD) telephone sample of national adults.  Registration status is self-reported.  77 percent of adults in the sample reported being registered. Results are weighted so that the sample demographics match Census Current Population Survey parameters for gender, age, education, race, region and population density.  The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for results based on 1,002 registered voters. Results based on smaller subgroups are subject to larger margins of sampling error.

SAMPLE SIZE/MARGIN OF ERROR FOR REGISTERED VOTERS SUBGROUPS:

337        Republicans (plus or minus 7)
315        Democrats (plus or minus 7)
288        Independents (plus or minus 8)
430        Republicans/Republican leaners (plus or minus 6)
433        Democrats/Democratic leaners (plus or minus 6)
93          Republican leaners (plus or minus 13)
118        Democratic leaners (plus or minus 12)
501        Red states (plus or minus 6) (voted Bush in 2004)
501        Blue states (plus or minus 6) (voted Kerry in 2004)