Sam - looking at that 34 percent advantage on the county line, I can see it consisting of two parts:
1) voters who understand that the line represents the party bosses and they consciously want to “vote with management”, and
2) people who really have little opinion and just go with the nudge of ticking the first box
Any guess as to how much of each?
I can see (1) as reasonable … as far as (2) goes it makes me question the value of primaries if 1/3 of voters are mindless and their votes represent little more than the result of manipulation by elites …
I have some work forthcoming that suggests that it's about half and half.
In addition to your question of how much voters think, there is the question of what candidates think is the incentive structure. Because of (2), currently in NJ candidates have an unusually large incentive to please party elites, more than in other states by 15-20 points.
What action can we take - who can we write letters to Gov Murphy?? or??
thanks, M
Sam - looking at that 34 percent advantage on the county line, I can see it consisting of two parts:
1) voters who understand that the line represents the party bosses and they consciously want to “vote with management”, and
2) people who really have little opinion and just go with the nudge of ticking the first box
Any guess as to how much of each?
I can see (1) as reasonable … as far as (2) goes it makes me question the value of primaries if 1/3 of voters are mindless and their votes represent little more than the result of manipulation by elites …
I have some work forthcoming that suggests that it's about half and half.
In addition to your question of how much voters think, there is the question of what candidates think is the incentive structure. Because of (2), currently in NJ candidates have an unusually large incentive to please party elites, more than in other states by 15-20 points.