IPOL: Iowa Policy and Opinion Lab

The Iowa Policy and Opinion Lab (IPOL) just released its Public Opinion Report on Iowa Poll #249--which was originally conducted by the Des Moines Register in September 1981--after restoring its contents. The report evaluates Iowans' responses on this survey, focusing on sets of questions related to constitutional rights, teaching Iowa history, the Iowa Caucuses, race, and personalities and trends from 1981 that people were most tired of.

Data restored from a 1981 survey indicates that while a near-majority of Iowans supported keeping the Iowa Caucuses in January, nearly one-third preferred to shift them to March or April. These data come from Iowa Poll #249, a random sample survey of 1021 Iowans from October 1981, which has been restored as part of a larger IPOL project to recover lost data from past Iowa Polls.