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Catholic Dem. PAC Survey: Palin Too Polarizing, Hillary Voters Go to Obama

By Jeralyn

Update: The survey data is here.

Received by e-mail from the Catholic Democrats Communnications PAC:

An independent nationwide survey run the week of September 1, 2008, by the Catholic Democrats Communications Political Action Committee shows that nearly all the Catholic voters who voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton will now cast the vote for Sen. Barack Obama. Nearly 500 Catholics responded to the survey.

It is clear that the alleged defection of Clinton voters to McCain is not happening, " said Bill Roth, President of the PAC. "Nearly 95% of the Clinton voters now intend to vote for Sen. Obama. This repudiates the idea that Gov. Palin should somehow appeal to the Clinton voter." [More...]

The second major conclusion of the survey is that the choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as VP candidate is a polarizing one. The survey showed that among Catholic surveyed, 74% though she was a "terrible" or "bad" choice. It should be noted the bulk of the respondents were self-identified as Democrats.

From what I can tell, this group is focused on promoting the social issues contained in Faithful Citizenship, by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

The Catholic Democrats PAC is an FEC-registered political action committee dedicated to supporting Democratic politicians and elected officials of all creeds who support the values outlined in the US Bishops' document, Faithful Citizenship. This political action committee is a direct response to Pope Benedict XVI's teaching in Deus Caritas Est...

Update: Here are the group's position on issues, which I just received from them by e-mail in response to an email I sent:

0. We're not aligned withe the bishops.
1. We support the "seamless garment of life" from conception to a natural death.
2. We oppose throwing women and doctors in jail, and criminalization of abortion generally. There are other solutions. See here.
3. We oppose the death penalty
4. We support immigrant rights.
5. We oppose the Federal Government interfering in the practice or definition of marriage as practiced by the Church.
6. We support full, equal rights for the LGBT community, and oppose California Prop. 8.
7. As for prevention vs. prisons for example, we oppose Prop 6 which would divert money from education to pay for more prisons. This is not an appropriate kind of re-distributive justice.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).