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Ciruli Associates Poll

Colorado Front Range Voters Want Ward Churchill Fired

Survey Results
March 22, 2005
Analysis by Floyd Ciruli

University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill has little support among voters in his effort to retain his job. Only 25 percent of Front Range voters believe he should be retained, whereas nearly half (48%) believe he should be fired. A buy out receives only 12 percent support. A few voters did not have an opinion (12% not familiar with Churchill or didn’t have an opinion).

Question: Ward Churchill is a tenured professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. CU is currently considering whether or not to fire him. Given what, if anything, you have seen or heard about the issue, as of today, do you believe Ward Churchill should be fired, bought out of his teaching contract or remain in his job as a CU professor?

Ciruli Associates, N505, 2005

The telephone survey was conducted March 14-17, 2005 by Ciruli Associates with 505 Colorado Front Range registered active voters (±4.4 percentage points). Front Range counties are: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, Pueblo and Weld (the 12 counties have a total of 2,554,000 voters). This analysis is part of a series of reports on Colorado and national issues published by Ciruli Associates. Additional analysis in this series can be found on www.ciruli.com.

Key Demographic Characteristics
Churchill’s highest level of support to retain his job is held by younger voters (40%) and Democrats (34%). Support for firing Churchill is correlated with age; older voters are most supportive of removing him (57% would fire him). Republicans also strongly support firing him (66%). The buy-out approach has little support among any demographic group except black voters (33%), but they are too small a part of the sample to make a definitive statement.

Ward Churchill Next Career Move Geography, Gender, Ethnicity, Party and Age
	Total in Sample	Fire Churchill	Keep Churchill	Buy Out Churchill
Total	100%	48%	25%	12%
Area
North Front Range	13	54	22	9
Metro Area	68	45	27	14
South Front Range	19	58	18	8
Gender
Male	47	50	25	12
Female	53	47	24	12
Ethnicity
Anglo	83	51	24	12
Hispanic	9	31	33	16
Black	2	44	11	33
Party
Republican	42	66	12	11
Unaffiliated	26	45	32	9
Democrat	32	28	34	16
Age
18-34	15	23	40	19
35-54	39	52	25	14
55-64	22	54	23	12
65 and over	21	57	16	4

North Front Range: Larimer, Weld
Metro Area: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert and Jefferson
South Front Range: El Paso and Pueblo

Ciruli Associates is a non-partisan research, communication and public policy firm providing consulting for Colorado and national organizations since 1976.