Turns out, voters can do nuance [View all]

[mopinko]

A couple of Chicago mayoral race polling results from last month have been stuck in my head ever since they were released.

The BSP Research poll, taken March 15-23 for Northwestern University’s Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy, found the two mayoral runoff candidates were running neck and neck. The poll was almost universally ignored by the city’s news media, yet it might’ve possibly contained an important nugget that could help explain at least part of Brandon Johnson’s win and Paul Vallas’ loss.

The poll found that 82% of Chicagoans supported the idea of increasing the number of police on the force. OK, no surprise there.

Immediately after answering that question, however, 63% said they supported the idea of decreasing police funding and investing in addressing root causes of crime. According to the poll, 68% of Black people, 66% of Latinos and 59% of whites supported that idea.

“If that second result is even close to accurate, it upends everything we’re supposed to believe about this contest,” I wrote at the time.

https://capitolfax.com/2023/04/17/turns-out-voters-can-do-nuance/

rich miller is a very astute observer, and this lays out what i saw happening, however many others didnt.