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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Congressional challenger John Jacob was slightly favored among voters for whom the immigration issue was "very important," but incumbent Republican Chris Cannon won the election with the moderates' support, an exit poll indicated.
Cannon received 55.8 percent of the vote in Tuesday's primary election to Jacob's 44.2 percent.
"Really what you see here is there's a very conservative contingent on issues like immigration, but there just aren't enough of them to elect a very conservative candidate," said Quin Monson, assistant director for the Brigham Young University Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, which conducted the exit poll.
The poll found that 88 percent of the respondents said the issue of illegal immigration held some level of importance for them in casting their vote. Fifty-four percent said the immigration issue was "very important," and Jacob was favored by 52 percent of those voters. Cannon found strong support from the groups who called immigration "somewhat important" (66 percent for Cannon), "not too important" (56 percent) or "not important at all" (52 percent).
Kelly Patterson, center director, said Cannon's attempts to create a broader appeal netted him crucial support from voters who were less concerned about immigration.
"I think what the exit poll showed was there was one issue that really mattered to a particular segment of the voters, while those voters who were less concerned with it tended to vote for Cannon," he said. "The immigration issue, while very powerful and very potent, can't mobilize enough voters to give any candidate a majority."
Cannon has backed proposals by President Bush to allow many illegal immigrants to stay in the United States under certain circumstances, while Jacob has said such proposals amount to an amnesty and has called for tougher legislation.
Cannon was endorsed by President George Bush and his wife. The exit poll found that when voters were asked to rate the president on a scale of one to five, 65 percent gave him a four or five, and the majority of those voters supported Cannon.
Voters who had a less favorable view of the president, giving him a three or less, were more likely to vote for Jacob.
Jacob said Wednesday that he believed Bush's endorsement was key to Cannon's success.
The exit poll was conducted by students at 30 randomly selected polling locations in the 3rd U.S. House District. Students interviewed 1,483 voters, 1,264 of which cast a vote in the Republican primary. The poll has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.92 percent.
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Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
