By: E&P Staff A new poll of Hispanic voters conducted for ImpreMedia's chain of Spanish-language newspapers finds that Hillary Clinton would trounce Rudy Giuliani, her closest Republican opponent, if the presidential election were held now.
By an even greater margin, Clinton is favored over Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, according to the poll conducted by Avanze in the five states with the highest numbers of Hispanics: California, Illinois, New York, Florida, and Texas. Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor who was born in California but raised in Mexico City, scores barely a blip among the Hispanics polls.
The poll was published in ImpreMedia newspapers including the dailies La Opinion in Los Angeles, and El Diario La Prensa in New York City.
The poll found registered Latino voters preferred Clinton by 42%. Giuliani, the most popular Republican, was favored by just 6%.
Hispanics who have made up their minds in the election say by big numbers that they intend to vote for a Democrat for president. Asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, 50.2% said a Democrat, while just 28.9% said a Republican.
ImpreMedia's poll, however, also found that a big slice of the Hispanic vote -- 35.4% have yet to settle on a candidate in either party.
Among Democrats, Clinton is the favorite of 55%. Obama is a distant second at 6.1%.
Richardson, the only Hispanic in the race, is third at 2.7%. He is trailed by Edwards at 1.8%.
No Republican managed to achieve even double digits in the poll for president. Giuliani leads with 6.1%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 1.1%. Neither Mitt Romney, John McCain, nor Fred Thompson was favored by even 1% of respondents.
Among registered Republicans, Giuliani is the choice of 44%, but all other candidates garnered less than 5%.
About 21% of declared Republicans said they intended to vote for a Democrat.
More than half of the respondents, 58%, said they were registered as Democrats, compared to 20% who said they were registered Republicans. By a margin of 62% to 24%, respondents said they trusted Democrats more than Republicans to manage the economy.
Still, the plurality of respondents described themselves as conservative (39%), with another 36% considering themselves moderate. About one-fifth, 21%, said they were liberal.
And while immigration may be taking center stage in the debate, Hispanic voters considered that only the second most important issue in the race. First, the choice of 40%, is the war in Iraq. Nearly half of respondents, 49%, said they favored an immediate withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, while 29% said the withdrawal should be gradual, but with a firm date for complete departure set. Only 21% favored staying "as long as necessary."
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