A statewide poll released by KAET-TV Tuesday found that political moderates, women and Republicans who voted Democratic provided Governor-elect Janet Napolitano's victory.
According to the poll of 768 registered voters, 20 percent of Republicans voted for Napolitano, while only 10 percent of Democrats voted for Republican candidate Matt Salmon, a two-to-one party crossover.
"I would say the closeness of all the campaigns for statewide office indicates the Democrats did an unusually good job of getting their base vote to the polls on election day," said poll director and ASU journalism professor Bruce Merrill.
Fifty-six percent of women polled voted for Napolitano, compared to Salmon's 39 percent. Merrill said this made a big difference on voting day because some Republican women might have crossed over because they are pro-choice.
Sixty-five percent of political moderates chose Napolitano. Only 27 percent of moderates voted for Salmon.
"She did very well with the middle-of-the roader," Merrill said.
Voters were also asked what they thought the top priority of the new governor should be. Balancing the budget and supporting education dominated voters' priorities.
Forty-one percent of voters said funding the state government and fixing the budget crisis were the main issues facing the governor.
At 37 percent, almost an equal amount of voters said funding public education was their primary concern.
Only two percent of those polled said funding colleges and universities should be Napolitano's top priority, falling under creating jobs, cracking down on crime and drugs and improving health insurance availability.
Merrill said universities haven't been very market-driven in the past, causing the low amount of concern by the public.
"In my opinion, we need to do a better job of telling our story of why we're so vital," he said.
A surprising amount of those polled supported the idea of raising taxes. Forty-four percent supported the raise while 45 percent opposed it. Eleven percent of voters said they were undecided about a tax raise.
Merrill said voters understand that to fund education, which they rated as one of their top priorities, some taxes would have to go up.
"People aren't as stupid as some of the politicians think," he said. "Part of the problem is that 60 percent of the budget goes to public education and universities. Where are you going to cut without cutting education?"
Tax raise supporters were overwhelmingly Democratic, at a two-to-one margin of 65 percent supporting and 35 percent opposing.
Republicans were almost exactly opposite of Democrats. Sixty-four percent opposed a tax raise and only 36 percent supported it.
Thirty-three percent of voters for Salmon said the draw to vote for him was because he was the Republican candidate.
Napolitano's supporters, however, said their main reason for voting for her was because they believed she was a better candidate and ran a more impressive campaign.
Fifty-eight percent of the interviews were conducted in Maricopa County.
Reach the reporter at megan.rudebeck@asu.edu.
