Interest in Campaign News On Par With 2007

Public interest in the presidential campaign is as about high as it was four years ago, despite the fact that only one party currently has a competitive nomination contest. And while the focus this year has been on the GOP’s race, Democrats express about as much interest in 2012 candidates as do Republicans.

Overall, 21% of the public say they followed news about the potential presidential candidates very closely last week, according to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey conducted June 30- July 3 among 1,001 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Interest has been at about this level for the past several months. At a comparable point in the presidential race four years ago, 20% said they were very closely following news about the candidates hoping to represent their parties in the 2008 election. As is the case today, the level of interest fluctuated only slightly week to week in 2007. News coverage of the 2012 campaign, which has increased in recent weeks, also is about the same today as it was at this point in the previous campaign, according to data collected by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.