poll shows, but their mood
lightens considerably when asked about Montana.
Nonetheless, a majority of Republicans - 52 percent - said they likewise thought the country was on the wrong track.
Just 17 percent of those queried said they thought the country was moving in the right direction. Ten percent said they weren't sure.
The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., of Washington, D.C., and for Lee Newspapers of Montana. Pollsters contacted 625 registered Montana voters by telephone from May 19 to May 21. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Montanans reported a strikingly sunnier attitude about their own state.
Sixty percent of those surveyed said they felt the state was headed in the right direction. The optimism spread across all boundaries: a strong majority of Democrats, Republican, independent voters, men and women all said they felt Montana was on the right track.
Some 25 percent said they felt the state was headed in the wrong direction, while 15 percent said they weren't sure.
Democrats were most likely to report positive feelings about the state, with
66 percent saying Montana was on the right track. Fifty-three percent of Republicans reported a similar sentiment, along with 62 percent of independents.
The results are a striking contrast to just six months ago, when Lee Newspapers asked voters an identical question. Back then, in December of 2007, 56 percent of those surveyed said they thought the country was headed in the wrong direction. Sixty-four percent said then they felt the state was on the right track.
Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon, said the sputtering U.S. economy is beginning to affect the way Montanans feel about the nation.
“The whole national economy is starting to pull the states' economy down,” he said.
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