Individual findings from the poll were released Feb. 26 through March 8, 2013 and are available as earlier posts on this website.

Data for the poll were collected by Issues and Answers Network Inc. using balanced, random samples of Tennessee landline and cell phones. The data were weighted to match the latest available Census estimates of gender and race proportions in Tennessee. Analyses of the data were conducted and reported by MTSU Poll Director Ken Blake, Ph.D., and MTSU Poll Associate Director Jason Reineke, Ph.D., both faculty members in MTSU’s School of Journalism. The poll 650-interview sample had an overall error margin of plus-or-minus four percentage points at the 95 percent level of confidence. The poll’s response rate, calculated using the American Association for Public Opinion Research’s most conservative response rate formula, Response Rate 1, was 4.2 percent.

In releasing the data file and questionnaire, the MTSU Poll is making both freely available for use by academic researchers, media and others. It is requested that any publications using the data cite the MTSU Poll as the source.

Download links
Spring 2013 MTSU Poll Questionnaire (.pdf)
Spring 2013 MTSU Poll data file, compressed, in SPSS format (.zip)

Democrats tend to think the Republican Party should get more moderate while the Democratic Party stays put. But Republicans generally want the Democratic Party to get more moderate while the Republican Party becomes more conservative.

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Furthermore, support for Haslam, a Republican, is broad-based with even a narrow majority of the state’s self-identified Democrats, 51 percent, saying that they approve of the job he is doing as governor as opposed to 25 percent who disapprove. Even larger majorities of Republicans (67 percent) and Independents (69 percent) approve of the job Haslam is doing as governor.

Support for the Tennessee General Assembly is softer, though a 48 percent plurality approve of the job it is doing as opposed to only 23 percent who disapprove. The remaining 29 percent either don’t know or refuse to answer the question.

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A 51 percent majority disapprove of the job Obama is doing while only 33 percent approve. These figures are statistically the same as the results the last time that the poll asked Tennesseans statewide about job approval for Obama in the spring of 2012.

The U.S. Congress receives an even worse evaluation from Tennesseans. Fully 70 percent of Tennesseans say that they disapprove of the way that the U.S. Congress is handling its job while only 14 percent approve. Tennessee’s own U.S. senators, however, fare much better than Congress as a whole. A majority of Tennesseans, 54 percent, approve of how the state’s senior U.S. senator, Lamar Alexander, is handling his job while only 20 percent disapprove. Similarly, 57 percent approve of the job that the state’s recently re-elected junior senator Bob Corker is doing, while only 18 percent disapprove. The rest don’t know or refuse to answer the questions.

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A solid 62 percent majority of Tennesseans oppose “allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally,” while 28 percent are in favor, 6 percent don’t know, and the rest decline to answer, according to the poll. This nearly two-thirds opposition in Tennessee to legalizing gay marriage is significantly higher than the 43 percent opposition registered nationally in surveys throughout 2012 by the Pew Center for the People and the Press . It is higher even than the 56 percent opposition Pew found to be typical in 2012 of the South Central region that includes Tennessee as well as Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.

Somewhat paradoxically, though, a 57 percent majority oppose “a law forbidding any instruction or discussion of homosexuality in eighth grade and lower classes in Tennessee public schools,” the key provision of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill under consideration by the state Legislature. Only 31 percent support such a law, 8 percent are undecided, and the rest decline to answer. Similarly, nearly half (49 percent) oppose “a law requiring school counselors and nurses in Tennessee’s public schools to notify parents if they believe a student has engaged in homosexual activity, but not if a student has engaged in heterosexual activity.” Only 33 percent support such a law, 14 percent are undecided, and the rest decline to answer.

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“Of the gun control measures the poll asked about, allowing handgun permit holders to store guns in cars parked at work stood out as the only one that attracted majority support among Tennesseans,” said Dr. Ken Blake, director of the poll at Middle Tennessee State University.

“The poll found an even divide between those who want to toughen gun laws or keep them as they are and between those who favor and oppose banning high-capacity ammunition magazines,” Blake said. “Meanwhile, more Tennesseans favor than oppose banning so-called ‘assault-style weapons,’ and more oppose than favor increasing the number of teachers and school officials carrying guns in schools. Finally, a large majority support requiring background checks for people who buy guns in private sales or at gun shows.”

According to the poll, a 58 percent majority of Tennesseans favor a law allowing “handgun concealed-carry permit holders in the state of Tennessee to keep handguns in cars parked in their employers’ parking lots while at work.” Only 33 percent say they oppose such a law, and the rest don’t know or refuse to answer. It should be noted that the question asked about concealed-carry permit holders, while handgun permits in Tennessee allow guns to be carried openly or concealed.

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Individual question phrasing and percentages

Consistent with the results of previous polling, when asked “… do you favor or oppose letting grocery, convenience and other stores that sell food in Tennessee sell wine if they are located in places that allow the sale of alcoholic beverages?”, 65 percent of Tennesseans say that they are in favor, with only 24 percent opposed; the remainder say they don’t know or refuse to answer.

Furthermore, majorities of Democrats and Republicans, evangelical Christians and non-evangelicals, and the young and the old all favor allowing wine sales in groceries, convenience stores, and other stores that sell food.

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Conducted Feb. 11-19, the telephone poll of 650 randomly selected Tennessee adults found 46 percent opposed to the plan but 40 percent in support of it, a statistical “dead heat,” given the poll’s four-percentage-point error margin. Another 12 percent of Tennesseans said they did not know, and the remaining 2 percent declined to answer.

However, opinions on the governor’s proposal divide sharply by race, with 63 percent of minorities in favor compared to only 37 percent of whites. Twenty-eight percent of minorities oppose the measure, while the rest give no answer. By contrast, 48 percent of whites oppose the plan, while the rest give no answer.

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More than two in three voters (68 percent) say they approve of the way Haslam is handling his job as governor. Fourteen percent disapprove, and 16 percent don’t know. The rest give no answer.

Surprisingly, perhaps, in the context of a highly partisan national election, Haslam is nearly as popular among Democratic and independent voters as he is among voters from his own party.

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Nearly half (47 percent) of the state’s likely voters think a stalemate between Democrats and Republicans in Washington is likelier after the election than cooperation between the two political parties. Only a fourth or so (28 percent) think the two parties will cooperate, and another fourth (24 percent) don’t know which is likelier. The rest give no answer.

Predictions of a stalemate prevail regardless of party affiliation. Over half (53 percent) of Democrats predict a stalemate, but so do a statistically identical 46 percent of independents and 46 percent of Republicans.  Within each political group, those who foresee a stalemate outnumber those who don’t.

Meanwhile, a 43 percent plurality of likely voters say Romney has been more honest over the course of the campaign than Obama has. Only about a quarter (25 percent) say Obama has been more honest than Romney has.  Eleven percent say both have been generally honest, while 13 percent say both have been generally dishonest.

Press release
Full questionnaire
Question-by-question results