Bhutto assassination has little effect on race

DES MOINES, Iowa — The assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto did not raise the profile of terrorism as an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign in Iowa, according to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll.

“People are still voting on what they were voting on a week ago,” said Brad Coker, pollster for Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.

Democrats still rank terrorism a very low priority. The survey found 5 percent of Iowa Democrats calling it their top concern, up from 1 percent earlier in the month, but with virtually no change during three nights of poll calls that started the evening before the assassination and continued the next two evenings when news of the murder dominated national media.

Republicans still rank it highly, with 29 percent calling it their top issue, down from 31 percent in the previous poll Dec. 3-6.