Rich, college educated Republicans likely to give Palin limited support

NEW YORK - Plenty of well-to-do and well-educated voters are unlikely to support or give limited support to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin should she decide to run for president in 2012.

Three recent surveys of Republican primary voters suggest significant divides in support for Palin based on the educational attainment of the voter.

A poll released this morning by Marist College shows Palin as the first choice of 17 percent of Republicans who have not graduated from college, giving her a slight lead among that group. But her support is just seven percent among Republican college graduates, which placed her fifth behind Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingirch and Chris Christie.

According to the New York Times, a Quinnipiac poll, likewise, finds Palin with the support of 22 percent of Republicans who have not graduated from college, but of 10 percent of those who have.

A CNN poll, meanwhile - using a slightly different criterion that focuses on whether voters attended college, whether or not they graduated from it - finds Palin drawing 20 percent of Republican voters who haven’t attended college, but only nine percent of those who have.

The candidate whose numbers move in an opposite direction from Palin is Mitt Romney.

On average over the three surveys, he had the support of 15 percent of “no college” voters, but 25 percent of Republicans with higher levels of educational attainment.

It is possible that some of these differences have to do with socio-economic status, instead of or in addition to educational attainment.

Nevertheless, all else being equal, a candidate would usually prefer to do better among higher-status voters, because they vote more reliably in Presidential primaries. (ANI)