VPAP’s top news stories for 2014

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Virginia Public Access Project, more commonly known as VPAP, polled their subscribers and 475 participated (including me) with their responses about the top news stories for 2014 (see Top News Stories for 2014):

More than 475 VaNews subscribers participated in our annual top stories survey. Here is the result:

Story that will have most asting impact on Virginia:

1. McDonnell Case (52.5%)

2. Puckett Resigns; GOP Controls Senate (12.4%)

3. Cantor Defeat (11.8%)

4. Medicaid (10.9%)

5. Budget Sequestration (8.4%)

6. Warner-Gillespie Race (2.9%)

Other stories getting votes: McAuliffe takes office; U.S. 460; and 3rd District boundaries ruled unconstitutional

Headline with biggest impact on Warner-Gillespie Senate race – ALL RESPONDENTS

1. “Virginia GOP says Warner voted with Obama 97 percent of the time” (43.5%)

2. “Warner discussed job for Puckett’s daughter” (14.4%)

3. “Warner may have wooed wrong voters” (13.1%)

4. Outside groups spending little in Virginia” (10.5%)

5. “Va. Libertarian Sarvis joins Senate ballot” (8.4%)

6. “Former Gov. McDonnell and Wife Found Guilty” (5.4%)

7. “Mark Warner targets Ed Gillespie’s Enron work” (3.6%)

8. “Gillespie uses Redskins name issue in ad against Warner” (1.3%)

A cross-tab shows agreement that those who self-identify as Republicans and Democrats agree the “97 percent” story had the biggest impact on the race. But the partisan agreement breaks down over the headline selected by the second-highest number of respondents.

One in five Democrats say Warner’s strategy had the biggest impact, while one-in-five Republicans picked the presence of Libertarian Robert Sarvis on the ballot.

Check out VPAP’s link for the entire survey. Many thanks to VPAP for their daily news clips.