Election Entry: Wolfpackers really are more red & Tar heels really are more blue

Miscellaneous & Fun Stuff64

We are not going to completely ignore the biggest the story in the world today; but, at least we can kick off the entry by tying the election to our primary focus here on the blog.

With that said, I thought you would be interested in this little poll put together by the folks at Elon. It is always interesting to me how numbers and statistics often support stereotypes and generalities. (Of course, the stereotypes have to evolve from SOMEWHERE — usually they evolve from more truth than not or the ideas wouldn’t stand the test of time)

It seems the jersey colors of the premier men’s college basketball teams from North Carolina might also reveal their fans’ picks for president.

The latest Elon University Poll asked likely voters to share which North Carolina men’s hoops programs they support during college basketball season. Of the top three schools cited in the poll:

Those who wear the “red” of the North Carolina State University Wolfpack overwhelmingly back Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, by a 59-30 margin.

UNC Tar Heel fans and their “Carolina blue” apparel prefer incumbent President Barack Obama this fall by a 53-41 margin.

And Duke University? Blue Devils supporters are nearly divided with a slight edge favoring Obama (47-45 percent).

In the race for North Carolina governor, it turns out there is something that unites diehard fans of all persuasions: Pat McCrory.

The Republican former mayor of Charlotte, N.C., draws support from all three fan bases, most notably from N.C. State fans, where 63 percent of Wolfpack voters said they support McCrory over his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton. Tar Heel fans would vote for McCrory as well by a 52-38 margin. Duke fans are more evenly divided, though McCrory still holds a 47-43 edge.

The live-caller telephone poll of 1,238 likely voters was conducted Oct. 21-26, 2012, and has an overall margin of error of 2.79 percentage points. Both landlines and cell phones were included in the sample.

Just because NC State supporters tend to be more conservative and support Republican candidates does not mean that the professors and administrators in West Raleigh follow step. This tidbit of work done by Technician would seem to indicate that the beliefs of NC State students and faculty diverge a bit.

It is no secret that relative to most college campuses, NC State’s student body and overall campus environment has historically leaned relatively moderate-to-conservative. With this said, I would welcome your thoughts on other large universities around the country that has a similar ‘political profile’ than State. Of course, Texas A&M immediately comes to my mind as a/the bastion of conservatism for colleges. Is there anyone else that even comes close to them?

For this entry only we are going to let SFN become a little more ‘free flowing’ than normal. With this said, please feel free to politically ‘go to it’ today on this entry. You can also feel comfortable sharing news, updates and links in this entry as well in this open thread on message forums. Outside of that, the rest of our message forums – linked here – are hot with dozens of currently relevant NC State sports topics.

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Miscellaneous & Fun Stuff

64 Responses to Election Entry: Wolfpackers really are more red & Tar heels really are more blue

  2. Khan 11/06/2012 at 9:18 AM #

    Good morning.

    Go vote.

  3. PackMan97 11/06/2012 at 9:26 AM #

    Just another reason to dislike Carolina.

  4. TopTenPack 11/06/2012 at 9:29 AM #

    I prefer to keep my sports teams and politics separate.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203846804578101281578171860.html?google_editors_picks=true#articleTabs%3Dinteractive

    The WSJ shows the 19% of NC Democrats favor NC State and 19% of NC Republicans favor NC State. The Split for *NC is 32%. Looks pretty even between the parties.

  5. wevaugha 11/06/2012 at 9:33 AM #

    Amazingly stupid entry. Why would you attempt to politicize sports or our support of our alma mater?

  6. 64GTO 11/06/2012 at 9:35 AM #

    In ’08 Rove predicted Republicans would win the House and Senate and Presidency, so I don’t place much faith in his predictions. I’ve never understood why Rove is regarded as some kind of political genius given his track record. But he did guide GW Bush into the White House, for better or worse.

  7. HPWolf 11/06/2012 at 9:53 AM #

    No surprise here. Jesse Helms was right when he called it Communist Hill. UNC…….Cheaters on the field, Cheaters in the class room, Cheaters at the polls. F em all.

  8. PeeDub 11/06/2012 at 9:54 AM #

    You left off a few options on that poll, there. Voted for Gary Johnson, myself, but considered not voting.

  9. GhostFace 11/06/2012 at 9:57 AM #

    I see your Rove and raise you…. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/

  10. LifeLongWolf 11/06/2012 at 9:59 AM #

    Gary Johnson. “Just say No” to Obamney.

  11. packof81 11/06/2012 at 10:58 AM #

    Agreed LifeLongWolf. There’s a fairly sizable contingent of the “None of the above” camp.

  12. bill.onthebeach 11/06/2012 at 11:10 AM #

    University History shows us that this red and blue thing regarding students has been the case since around 1889….

    That said, it is also interesting to note that NC State was several years ahead of that ‘blue’ school with respect to it’s inclusion of women and minorities.

  13. SMD 11/06/2012 at 11:50 AM #

    I echo what Ghost said. Rove is a partisan hack (as is, say, Axelrod) whose job it is to spin for his side, OF COURSE he’s going to predict a Romney victory, that’s his job. So it’s not exactly an informed analysis to post a Rove piece on this.

    I follow the poll trackers at not only 538, but also Talking Points Memo and Real Clear Politics. This election has been over for some time. Granted, it is going to be a little closer than 08, but it’s still a done deal.

    Here in NC, expect the margin to be razor thin either way. In my line of work, I get daily analyses of the early vote, and the Obama campaign exceeded their goals through every day of the early vote. If they can execute as well here on “game day”, they should squeak out NC again.

    To the topic at hand, I have long been interested in the political differences among the fanbases. For example, it is no secret that post civil rights movement, native white Southerners vote Republican. Everyone inherits the perceived political values of their socio-economic group.

    That would easily explain why Duke has more liberal fans/alumni, as most of their people come from the Northeast, a region that post civil rights movement, votes reliably Democratic.

    But that doesn’t explain Chapel Hill, since in theory, they get as many NC natives as we do. My guess is it has something to do with the academic mission of each school and the type of student it attracts, but that’s just a guess.

    What I do know is that as a white, native NC-ian and State alum, I’m the weird one being a staunch Democrat! :-p

  14. tjfoose1 11/06/2012 at 11:58 AM #

    Think it has more to do with the type of thought processing…

    NC State, engineering, analytical thought, logical, hard data, reality, results based.

    u*nc, liberal arts, feelings, emotion, intent vs results.

    Or, if to use a parental analogy… a doting parent that spoils a child or a parent that ‘parents’ the child and prepares it for life.

    [Edit] Oops, forgot the stereotype angle too. Farmer, agriculture, redneck hicks (ie, the ‘common’ folk) vs the uber liberal elitest snobs (ie, the ivy league ‘intellectual’ types).

  15. tjfoose1 11/06/2012 at 12:04 PM #

    Dick Morris has gone waaaaaaay out on a limb and predicts a Romney landslide, based strictly on the current polling and what he considers the incorrect weighting of the two parties.

  16. ganymebe 11/06/2012 at 12:05 PM #

    I left Raleigh to live in Utah. If you want an easy prediction, check out BYU. I would guess 99% Romney, and the other 1% is probably some form of mistake. There is no surprise in the general election here. The only elections that make any difference are local ones, where anyone can win, and the Republican primary, which determines who will win the general election.

    Kind of boring, not matter what your party. I’m registered as an Independent.

  17. MP 11/06/2012 at 12:06 PM #

    “Those who wear the “red” of the North Carolina State University Wolfpack overwhelmingly back Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, by a 59-30 margin.”

    Whether in the 59 or in the 30 – Still Wolfpackers – And that’s all that matters around here.

  18. whitefang 11/06/2012 at 12:17 PM #

    Fun entry. Can’t say I’m a bit surprised.

  19. wolfie91 11/06/2012 at 12:32 PM #

    Plenty of anecdotal evidence to support this poll. I realize the State Fair is in Raleigh, but every year I am struck by the number of State fans there as well as Republican supporters. Birds of a feather….

  20. mikeD 11/06/2012 at 12:39 PM #

    StateFans, you nailed the Texas A&M comparison. Spent ’09 – ’11 in College Station and they are absolutely republican (or American as they might say).

    I’ll even draw another parallel – their most hated rival (UT Austin) is incredibly liberal. I was surprised by that, since I grew up thinking all of Texas was completely republican. Austin is the democratic base of Texas.

    I’ve always thought it odd that most of my professors through college leaned very hard to the left, although I never figured out why. It was probably because most were from Europe.

  21. Semper_WolfPack 11/06/2012 at 12:46 PM #

    MP – “Whether in the 59 or in the 30 – Still Wolfpackers – And that’s all that matters around here.” Agreed.

  22. tdawg 11/06/2012 at 12:55 PM #

    I will always be a State fan, but I will never be red when it comes to politics. I think you can’t really mix sports and politics, and come up with the generalizations that you can about people based on the two subjects. Also, I think most of you red state Wolfpackers have been out of school for quite some time, because most of the student body can’t afford to pay for school on their own, or have their parents do it for them, which is why more of the educated youths here are voting for Obama today.

  23. TruthBKnown Returns 11/06/2012 at 1:05 PM #

    If memory serves, there were a lot of polls that had Kerry winning the electoral college in 2004, too. You have to consider the location of these polls. Polls have to include information about the people being polled, and in most cases, you’ll see that they are polling more democrats than republicans.

    Think about it. It makes logical sense. The media WANTS poll results showing a closer election than it really is. They WANT eyes glued to their broadcasts on election night. They don’t WANT the losing side (which is about 50% of their potential viewers) going to bed early because they can’t stand seeing an undesired election result.

    Relax, people. Romney has this.

  24. bluelena69 11/06/2012 at 1:30 PM #

    I don’t particularly like this every, but must comnent on one post from tjfoost1. I’m not sure where you get your information regarding the following, but I presume that you are implying that NC State=more conservative and UNC=more liberal.

    NC State, engineering, analytical thought, logical, hard data, reality, results based.

    u*nc, liberal arts, feelings, emotion, intent vs results.

    I just want to point out that the traits you ascribe to each group are actually backwards…if you want to believe actual studies and research on exactly this topic. Look it up. There have been many recent studies-generally stemming from recent US conservative hostility towards hard science-that directly contradict your assertions.

  25. NCSU84 11/06/2012 at 1:40 PM #

    My political views and opinions have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the school I selected to attend or the team I cheer for. One of the nice things about this board/blog is it unites the Wolfpack nation (hence the name SFN). To produce an article about politics on a sports blog serves only to divide us – something we do not need at this juncture of our program. NC State athletics is starting to emerge from the depths of mediocrity. Let’s not steer the ship in a different direction with divisive and controversial topics. If one wants to talk politics, go to CNN’s website – SFN is not the appropriate venue.

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