On March 14, 2008, Inside INdiana Business.com published "Poll Asks if Hoosiers Are Ready for Minority or Female President." The article featured results from the IndianaViews survey conducted by ThemeVision LLC and JEM Research. The article stated, "More than 75 percent of Hoosiers asked believe Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) could win this year’s presidential election. Less than 60 percent of respondents believe Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) has a chance for victory in November." The IndianaViews survey also showed that Indiana residents are divided in their belief about whether most Hoosiers are ready for an African-American president. Fifty-seven percent said "yes," 39 percent said "no" and 4 percent "don’t know." Similarly, 53 percent of respondents believe most Hoosiers are ready for a female president, compared to 44 percent who say Hoosiers are not ready and 4 percent who "don’t know."
"This data is very telling and gives us insight into Hoosiers’ thoughts about the Democratic candidates for President and their likelihood of becoming the Democratic nominee,” said Christina Studebaker, a Ph.D. psychologist and vice-president of ThemeVision, who helped conduct the survey. “What’s interesting about the results is that Obama is perceived similarly among different groups. He’s favored as much by conservatives as by liberals, by Republicans as by Democrats. In comparison, Clinton is favored by Democrats but not by Republicans,” she added.
The IndianaViews Survey is a collaborative effort of JEM Research Inc. and ThemeVision LLC. JEM Research, Inc., located in Valparaiso, Ind., supports marketing and trial consulting firms nationwide with data collection and project management support services. ThemeVision LLC is a trial consulting and opinion research firm based in Indianapolis that specializes in studying public perceptions of legal, political and social policy issues.
“The survey challenged participants to answer the big questions behind the presidential race based on their own opinions as well as their perceptions of public opinion,” said ThemeVision President Dennis Stolle, a Ph.D. psychologist.
Methodology: Results were based on telephone interviews with Indiana residents, aged 18 and older, conducted March 1- March 6, 2008. Interviews were conducted with respondents from households with listed telephone numbers. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is +/- 5 percentage points. The margin of sampling error is larger for subgroups used in the analysis. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.