STORRS, Conn. – While a range of challenges confront President Barack Obama as he begins his second term, Americans and Connecticut residents agree that his top priority in Tuesday’s State of the Union Address should be jobs and the economy.
A new University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant Poll found those pocketbook issues are very much at the forefront of people’s concerns right now, far surpassing other topics like the budget deficit, gun control, and immigration.
About 44 percent of Americans want the president to focus on the economy and employment, compared to about 49 percent of Connecticut residents. The only major difference between the state and the country on the subject is gun control: 14 percent of Nutmeggers want that to be the main topic of Tuesday’s address to Congress, compared with 8 percent nationally.
Download the National Data (PDF).
Download the Connecticut Data (PDF).
These findings are based on The University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant Poll. The national sample of 1,002 randomly selected adults were interviewed by landline and cellular telephone between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28, 2013. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points for the entire sample, and larger for subgroups. The sample of 511 randomly selected Connecticut residents were interviewed by landline and cellular telephone between Jan. 24 and Jan. 28, 2013. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4 percentage points for the entire sample, and larger for subgroups.
The data have been weighted by the number of adults in a household and the number of telephone numbers, land and cellular, at which adults in the household can be reached in order to equalize the chances of an individual adult being selected. The data have also been weighted by the sex, race and level of education of the respondent based on the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census.