Republican Haley Barbour overcame high black turnout with overwhelming support from whites in Mississippi to defeat Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, an exit poll released Monday showed.
The survey showed 33 percent of voters were black - 3 to 6 points higher than in VNS exit polls in the past three presidential elections - and 94 percent of them voted to re-elect Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
But 77 percent of whites backed Barbour, propelling the Washington lobbyist and former national Republican chairman to victory with 53 percent of the overall vote.
Black turnout may have gotten a boost in Mississippi because Democratic nominees in two down-ballot races were black.
Both lost, however, as just 8 percent of whites voted for Barbara Blackmon for lieutenant governor and only 22 percent of whites backed Gary Anderson for treasurer.
Musgrove also lost some support from his first gubernatorial election in 1999. Among voters who said they backed Musgrove then, one in four voted for Barbour. And while Musgrove tried to paint his opponent's Washington ties as a negative for Mississippi, six in 10 voters said Barbour's experience would help the state.
The exit polls in the Nov. 4 elections were the first conducted for the National Election Pool, a consortium formed by The Associated Press, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC after they disbanded Voter News Service following blown projections in 2000 and computer failures in 2002.
The data weren't released until Monday so that the pollsters - Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International - could validate the results from this initial live run of their new systems.
An Edison/Mitofsky exit poll in last month's California gubernatorial recall election used older systems.
The poll showed Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, scored well among older voters (65-plus), men and whites.
Musgrove found his strongest support among blacks, women and young voters (18-29).
The poll was conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.
The survey interviewed 1,859 voters in 35 randomly selected precincts around the state.
Results for the full sample are subject to a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points; that margin is larger for subgroups, such as blacks.
Among other results:
- A majority (64 percent) said the state economy was poor or not so good, and most of them (57 percent) voted for Barbour. The third of voters saying the economy was good or excellent cast a majority of votes (53 percent) for Musgrove.
- Two-thirds of voters agreed that U.S. trade with other countries takes jobs from Mississippi. However, a majority of them (51 percent) voted for Barbour. Barbour also got strong support (57 percent) from the one-fifth of voters who said trade with other counties creates jobs in Mississippi.
- Sixty-one percent of voters said they thought if Barbour was elected, his experience in Washington would help Mississippi. Of that number, 82 percent said they voted for Barbour. Of the one-third saying Barbour's experience in Washington would hurt Mississippi, 95 percent voted for Musgrove.
- Among those who said they considered themselves Democrats, 86 percent voted for Musgrove and 13 percent for Barbour. Fifty-four percent of those who said they were independents voted for Barbour as did 91 percent who said they were Republicans.
- Around 45 percent said they definitely would vote for President Bush in 2004 if the presidential election were today while about 35 percent definitely would vote for someone else.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
