AND
THE 2006 MIDTERM ELECTIONS
GenJones
role in ’06 U.S. Midterms
The U.S. midterm elections were held on November 7, 2006. Jonathan Pontell released a study on October 31, the only generational analysis of the U.S. electorate to be released during the election cycle, which revealed the key role of Generation Jones. The study was conducted using extensive polling data (cross-tabulated into the five generations) by top pollsters Mason-Dixon, Research2000, SurveyUSA, Pew Research Center, Harris Interactive, RassmusenReports, Marist College, Quinnipiac University Poll, and IPSOS. Among the key findings in the study:
* Generation Jones was clearly the most volatile (ie. “swing voting”) of the five generations, vacillating the most between the political parties throughout the election cycle
* Generation Jones played a decisive role in the key races which decided control of the Senate. In most of those races, GenJones was the segment most “in play”: swinging most from poll to poll, most evenly divided, and with the highest percentage of “undecideds”
* Generation Jones had by far the strongest negative reaction to the Mark Foley page scandal, with a huge swing away from the GOP in the week after that scandal broke on Sept. 29
(Full data set and study details available upon
request)
Media about GenJones & 2006 Midterm Elections
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Nov. 2 appearance on Fox News Channel |
Nov. 4 appearance on MSNBC |
Jonathan Pontell appeared on many TV/radio programs in the last week before Election Day'06, discussing the potentially key electoral role of Generation Jones, including:
National TV news networks (including Fox News Channel,
MSNBC, etc.)
National radio news networks (including
Metro
Networks (airs on over 3000 radio stations); CNN Radio
Network (airs on over 2000 radio stations), USA Radio
Network (airs on over 1500 U.S. radio stations), Talk Radio News
Service (airs on over 300 U.S. radio stations)
Nationally syndicated radio newsmagazines (including
America in the
Morning (airs on over 400 radio stations)
Nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts (including
The Jim Bohannon
Show, The Lynne Breidenbach Show , The Armstrong
Williams Show, etc.)
Top-ranked News/Talk radio stations (including
WRKO, WBAL,
etc.)
Regional radio networks in key election states (including Missouri Net
(airs on over 65 Missouri radio stations), etc.)
MSNBC.com ran
this article titled “Keeping
up with the Joneses: They’re tech-savvy, and they may decide the election” on
Nov. 6, the day before the election
Pollster Research2000 has been studying the political behavior of Generation Jones in the 2006 midterm campaigns, they issued a press release on Nov 1 headlined: "GENERATION JONES COULD BE KEY TO MIDTERM ELECTIONS RESULTS"; you can read it on their site
here
Renowned Columnist Suzanne Fields wrote an op-ed about GenJones and the midterms which was published in The Washington Times Nov. 2, read it here
Pollster SurveyUSA has been cross-tabulating their data by generation this election cycle, revealing interesting insights about Generation Jones electoral behavior. SurveyUSA issued a press release about this on Oct 31, you can read it on their site here
GenJones' role in
the midterm elections has generated buzz on many blogs, click and scroll down the page for this example from
TownHall.com
Many message boards have had very active discussions about GenJones’ place in
the election, like this one
here on
FreeRepublic.com
The MicroEnterprise Journal launched a special project on Oct. 30 to conduct interviews only with members of the Senate who are specifically members of Generation Jones. You can hear their first interview
here,
with Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas
Acclaimed Baby Boomer expert Brent Green wrote an Oct. 27 piece discussing the absurdity of the traditional lumping together of Jonesers and Boomers, particularly in light of the fact that these two generations are political opposites. click here to view the piece
Other Recent Elections Generation Jones has emerged as a crucial voting segment in recent Western elections.
Below are examples from the '04 U.S.,'05 UK, and '05 New Zealand elections: |
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| Generation Jones and the '04 U.S. election | ||
Top pollster Mason-Dixon's '04 post-election study (on it's website above) found Jonesers' support for the GOP so massive that M-D concluded: "History will show it was one generation of voters-Generation Jones- that was the decisive vote that re-elected George W Bush". |
After studying voter volatility rates from July through Oct. '04 with over 20,000 voters, pollster Scott Rasmussen concluded that Generation Jones women were the main swing voters, vacillating more than any other segment. Rasmussen put press release about GenJones women as swing voters on his site (above) 6 days before election day |
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The Polling Report ran a cover story immediately after the '04 election titled "Generation Jones: The Invisible Generation Elects a President". This long feature was then published on The Hotline, and many newspapers nationally (like The Denver Post above)
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Generation Jones' role in the '04 election was discussed on many national TV and radio programs, including FOX News Channel's (above)discussion of Jonesers as key swing voters |
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| For more on GenJones and the '04 U.S. election, click here | ||
| Generation Jones and the '05 UK Election |
Generation Jones and the '05 NZ Election |
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Top UK newspaper The Independent commissioned weekly polling of Jonesers, with a GenJones article each week leading up to the election. GenJones received so much major UK election media attention that The Times concluded that of all the new voting catchprases, Generation Jones was "our one freshly identified demographic with a future". |
Generation Jones' role in the New Zealand election was widely considered to be pivotal by Kiwi pollsters and media (above image of Jonathan Pontell discussing Generation Jones on "Campbell Live"--the top New Zealand current affairs TV show (Kiwi equivalent of U.S. TV show "Meet The Press") |
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| For more on GenJones and the '05 UK Election, click here | For more on GenJones and the '05 NZ Election,
click here |
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