If the outcome of this year's presidential race depended solely on the whims of computer industry workers, it appears that there'd be a draw.
Or at least that's what a survey of 600 employees in that space recently found. The questionnaire was conducted just before the early March primaries by the Computing Technology Industry Association, or CompTIA, a trade association that represents mostly smaller technology companies, and Rasmussen Reports, a public-opinion research organization.
In response to a question about who'd get their votes if the election were "today," both Democrat Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain received 29 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton trailed behind them with 13 percent, according to results released Tuesday. (Here's CompTIA's PowerPoint presentation of the findings.)
Republican Mike Huckabee racked up 11 percent of the vote, and Internet sweetheart Ron Paul nabbed 9 percent. Another 9 percent of the survey respondents said they were undecided.
More broadly, 35 percent of the survey respondents identified themselves as Republican, 26 percent as Democrat, and 40 percent as "other." Broken down further, 39 percent identified themselves as conservative, 36 percent as moderate, 24 percent as liberal, and 2 percent as "not sure."
Update at 1:45 p.m. PST: The survey was conducted by phone and through a scientifically random distribution, CompTIA spokesman Mike Wendy said. Call recipients were asked first whether they were American, over the age of 18, and an information technology worker, and if they answered affirmatively to all three, the call proceeded. That process was repeated until 600 IT workers were reached.
The findings demonstrate that the high-tech workforce, which CompTIA says numbers about 12 million, is "clearly a large and well-off group of independent-minded voters, whose loyalty is up for grabs," said Roger Cochetti, the group's public-policy director.
Still, it would seem that the economic sector isn't necessarily representative of the American public. Obama, after all, did lose Silicon Valley to Clinton on Super Tuesday, though he has shaped up to be more of an Internet darling than his rival.
Rasmussen's own latest "presidential tracking poll" of 1,600 likely voters, regardless of employment sector, indicates a much tighter race on the Democratic side than the tech sector survey suggested. A Monday night survey found that Obama was favored by 45 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, while Clinton attracted 44 percent.
A roundup of other recent polls by Gallup, CNN, USA Today, and others, found that Obama averaged a 2 percent advantage, though Clinton was favored in some of the individual surveys.
An average of those polls also shows that less than a percentage point separates McCain from Obama or Clinton, based on separate polls pitting him against each of the Democrats.
For the record, men composed the largest chunk of survey respondents, at 77 percent, which may account to some degree for the lackluster Clinton vote. About three-fourths of the survey respondents were white, and nearly half were college graduates. About a third of them said they earn more than $100,000 annually, but otherwise, income levels were all over the map. About a fourth of the respondents said they had contributed to a presidential campaign.
The survey--the second of what CompTIA has billed as a series of surveys aimed at amplifying technology interests in this year's election cycle--didn't delve much into specific policy topics. But it did note that respondents ranked the economy, the war in Iraq, and immigration, respectively, as the top three most important issues for the next president.
A more detailed report dissecting specific policy issues that inform technology workers' votes is expected to be released later this month.
When Meg Whitman steps down from her post as eBay chief executive at the end of the month, another prominent position awaits her: co-chair of John McCain's presidential campaign.
Meg Whitman
(Credit: eBay)The presumed Republican nominee said Friday that he has asked Whitman to play a "lead role" in the campaign, helping to lead fund-raising, traveling the country on McCain's behalf, and assisting with policy development.
Whitman said in a statement that she was "honored" to be selected.
The Arizona senator's "unshakable commitment to lower taxes, strong trade, and innovation sets the right course for America's economy and future prosperity," she said. "I'm enormously excited to be a part of his team and believe in his vision for our country."
Whitman joined eBay in March 1998, witnessing its rise from a start-up to an international cult sensation, along with its more recent slowed growth due to competition from Amazon.com and others.
Involvement with the McCain campaign isn't her first foray into the 2008 presidential race. When former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was still a contender, she helped to manage his fund-raising activities.
Whitman has also been a generous Republican Party donor for years, cutting checks to a variety of congressional campaigns and committees. According to campaign finance records compiled by the organization Opensecrets.org, she gave $25,000 last November to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The California-based executive apparently hasn't ruled out political ambitions of her own, either. She's reportedly flirting with the possibility of running for governor of her home state in 2010.
Carly Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard, is stepping into a high-profile role in Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's campaign.
The Republican National Committee on Friday tapped Fiorina to be chairman of fundraising for get-out-the-vote efforts and a leading surrogate for the campaign, according to the San Jose Mercury News. She'll apparently be touring the country in an effort to get folks to rally behind McCain and his economic policies.
Since her stormy reign at HP, Fiorina has been slipping further into the political realm. During her lecture series in the San Francisco Bay Area last year, her discussion veered swiftly from business-related matters to political rhetoric, including the U.S.' role in Iraq and what she called the government's risk-aversion.
Fiorina reportedly has been a longtime backer of McCain, as has Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers.
Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign bus rolled into the South Nashua, N.H., campus of prominent defense contractor BAE Systems for a town hall meeting with employees on Friday afternoon.
(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com)SOUTH NASHUA, N.H.--Sen. John McCain may have dubbed his campaign bus the "Straight Talk Express," but his Friday campaign visit to a prominent military technology maker here arguably sent some mixed messages.
On one hand, the Arizona senator lavished praise on BAE Systems' employees and products, which he credited with keeping "young Americans" safe in dangerous zones. BAE, which makes "fighting vehicles" and other equipment frequently used in Iraq, also happens to be one of New Hampshire's largest employers.
"Keep going and keep doing what you're doing," he told an overflow crowd gathered at the global company's snow-covered campus here. "Al-Qaida is on the run, and they're not defeated."
Yet the longtime foe of wasteful government spending couldn't resist taking the opportunity, in response from one audience member's question, to attack the current set-up for awarding defense contracts, of which companies like BAE tend to be multimillion-dollar beneficiaries. (On Friday, for instance, the company announced it had won a $29 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security to test and install a missile defense system on American passenger planes.)
"I'm hard on people who waste the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars," McCain said during his visit, which lasted about a half hour.
He was referring to a past scandal involving contracts between the Air Force and Boeing. Perhaps naturally, he had nothing but kind words for the BAE Systems employees whose votes he was courting Friday, even if BAE itself is no stranger to controversy. Just last fall, watchdog groups accused members of Congress of proposing some $25 million in defense spending bill earmarks that would benefit the British company.
Like Sen. Hillary Clinton on Friday morning, McCain also shifted his talk to energy in response to an audience member's question about his plans. McCain called for taking advantage of "interesting technology" designed to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. He proposed increased use of electric cars and of nuclear power, which he deemed a necessary "part of any real meaningful reduction we make in greenhouse gas emissions."
Recent polls peg McCain as the Republican favorite in Tuesday's primary election here. He already has at least one avowed fan at BAE: CEO Walter Havenstein, who couldn't resist divulging at the event that he'd already voted for the senator, absentee-style, because of a commitment that will put him out of state during the live contest.
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