by Jodi Hunley
Daily Lobo
Officials at the Institute for Public Policy at UNM expect to have the results of a survey they are conducting regarding New Mexicans' opinions of the war in Iraq within a week.
"We are looking for New Mexicans' point of view toward the war," said Amelia Rouse, deputy director of the institute. "The survey is nearly complete. We are hoping to have it completed within the next week."
The survey, which was conducted before the start of the war in Iraq, began March 6 and was conducted over a 10-day period ending March 16.
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"We knew the war was coming and we wanted to find out the perceptions of people's thoughts of North Korea and Iraq and their views on possible decisions," Rouse said.
The survey asks where New Mexicans stand on support and opposition for the war.
"We want to see if New Mexicans think like the rest of America or not," Rouse said.
The survey was conducted by telephone and is considered scientific because the institute called random numbers at varying times of day, Rouse said. When the survey is complete, the institute will have interviewed about 1,000 New Mexicans from around the state.
Respondents were asked questions about their support or opposition for the war and why they thought that way. The survey also asked for beliefs about why America was at war, said Amy Sue Goodin, institute associate director of research who wrote the survey in conjunction with Rouse.
The findings of the pre-war survey found that 56 percent of New Mexicans approved of George Bush's job as the nation's president. Also, 40 percent strongly supported the decision to go to war.
However, 31 percent were strongly opposed to a war in Iraq and 29 percent expressed either limited support or opposition, according the institute's Web site.
The institute conducted a second portion of its survey that was administered a few days after the war in Iraq began.
For the second survey, the institute called back the same people it interviewed in the pre-war survey and a new group of people, Goodin said.
"We wanted to see if there was a 'rally around the flag effect,'" Rouse said. "In the data we already have, there is a tiny one."
Rouse said that a "rally around the flag effect" is a phenomenon in which people who were not initially for the war get behind the president once war breaks out.
Surveys from the institute are funded by the institute's internal budget, Rouse said.
"We conduct surveys for our own academic interest because it's important to know other people's opinions," Rouse said. "This way, New Mexicans can compare their views."
The institute also contracts for other entities, Rouse said. It recently conducted a series of surveys for Sandia National Laboratories concerning the public's perceptions and views of terror and national security.
The Institute for Public Policy is a non-partisan forum for social scientific research and education, according to its Web site. The institute's staff, resources and research efforts incorporate the perspectives of political science, economics, psychology, communication, engineering and geography. The institute is affiliated with the Political Science Department and receives its funding from contract work and grants.
