Did “Moral Values” and the Gay Marriage Backlash Play a Key Role in Bushs 2004 Victory?
Source: Monkeycage.org (blog) (12-13-07) [I am an assistant professor in political science George Washington University. Before coming to GW, I was an assistant professor of political science and applied statistics at Washington University. I received my BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland and PhD at Columbia University.] Journalists (via political pundits)** and political scientists have conflicting accounts of the 2004 elections. Both are very convincing. Let me first start with the journalists’ account. Twenty-two percent of the voters told election pollsters that “moral values” were their top issue (and of that group 80 percent voted for Bush) and thirteen states voted to ban same-sex marriages. The NY Times backs up that account in their article, Same-Sex Marriage Issue Key to Some G.O.P. Races, with interviews with political consultants: [T]he ballot measures also appear to have acted like magnets for thousands of socially conservative voters in rural and
