This is the link to complete TopLine results for the October 27, 2010 DakotaPoll.

October 2010 Dakota Poll – Survey Toplines

Results from the new DakotaPoll confirm what South Dakotans already know from discussions around the kitchen table. People are hurting. Despite popular headlines claiming that South Dakota has a low unemployment rate and has largely avoided the national recession, 51% of respondents to the inaugural edition of theDakota Poll say that they and their families have been negatively affected by the economy.

One in eight say the economy has affected them very negatively.

40% of the respondents to the DakotaPoll volunteered that the economy and problems related to the economy are “the most important issue facing South Dakota.”

While jobs and the economy always top the list of issue concerns in South Dakota polls, in this survey no other unprompted, voluntary, answer to the question came anywhere near the public’s focus on the economy. 9% identified “the state budget” as the most important problem.12% identified “education”, and only 4% identified the “cost of health care”.

Traditional “hot button” issues including “big government”, “guns”, “abortion” and “crime” barely registered a single digit or did not register at all.

This is the inaugural edition of the DakotaPoll. The project is independently funded to underwrite four polls a year for the next five years. (see: “What is the DakotaPoll?” on the website DakotaPoll.com) Complete results with the exact wording of all questions in the sequence exactly-as-asked (called “the toplines” in pollster jargon), and crosstab tables are available at DakotaPoll.com.

Poll results from several questions combined confirm the view that the South Dakota public is economically insecure and that the economy is the driving issue in the state.

• 29% believe South Dakota is “on the wrong track”.
• Almost one in four South Dakotans consider the American Dream to be out of reach for members of their family
• 23% responded “yes” to the question: “Do any members of your household have to work more than one job to make ends met in South Dakota?”

While 49% of adults say they have full time work, 8% describe themselves as “unemployed”.

Crosstabs (available at DakotaPoll.com) reveal many provocative themes that will be pursued in future Dakota Polls.

37% of respondents said they would be willing to sacrifice “a great deal” to “improve schools in South Dakota. Another 37% suggested they would be willing to make “some” sacrifice.

27% of South Dakotans consider themselves supporters of the Tea Party, while 61% do not.  One in five say they regularly listen to conservative talk radio.

55% of survey participants described their families as having lived in South Dakota since their great-grandparent’s generation. 22% indicated that they were the first in the family to live in South Dakota.

The Dakota Poll invites reporters, students, instructors, civic and business leaders and the general public to download and explore the data.   DakotaPoll.com is preparing a website that will allow for blogging discussion of the findings.