6 years ago 
 
 Washington (CNN) - A new national poll indicates a majority of American voters say they support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. 
 
 According to the Politico/George Washington University Battleground survey released Monday, 62% of registered voters say they back an immigration reform proposal that would allow illegal or undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship over a period of several years, with 35% opposed. 
 
 
 
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 The new poll is in line with an ABC News/Washington Post survey conducted right after the November election that indicated Americans supported a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants by a 57%-39% margin. 
 
 And a CNN/ORC International poll conducted in late September indicated 56% of registered voters said the main focus of U.S. policy on illegal immigration should be a plan to allow them to become legal residents, with less than four in ten saying the main emphasis should be deporting illegal immigrants and stopping more from coming to the U.S. That was a switch from last year, when only a minority said the main focus should be to allow illegal immigrants to become legal residents. 
 
 The new survey's release comes as reports suggest President Barack Obama may put his attention on pushing immigration reform next month, after the hopeful resolution of negotiations to prevent the country from falling off the fiscal cliff. Any deal on immigration could possibly include a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. 
 
 According to the Politico/George Washington University poll, 74% of Democrats and 61% of independents back a plan that would give undocumented immigrants eventual citizenship, with 49% of Republicans in favor and 45% opposed. 
 
 The survey also indicates that more than three quarters of voters support a push to allow the children of undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. permanently if they complete college or serve in the armed forces. The legislative proposal, known as the DREAM Act, has not been passed by Congress, but 12 states have similar laws. 
 
 Although Obama overwhelming won the Latino vote in the presidential election, he was criticized during the campaign for not forcefully pushing immigration reform during his first term in the White House. By a 48%-45% margin, voters disapprove of the job he's doing handling the immigration issue. 
 
 Only 2% of those questioned in the survey say illegal immigration is their most important issue, far behind government spending, jobs and the economy. 
 
 The Politico/George Washington University Battleground poll was conducted Dec. 2-6, with 1,000 registered voters questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. 
 
 CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report ||||| If President Obama wants immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, he may not want to mention it at all in tonight’s State of the Union speech, a new Washington Post poll suggests. 
 
 Seven in 10 people in the survey said they would support a path to citizenship, including 60 percent of Republicans. But when the same question was asked of a separate sample of respondents, this time with Obama’s name attached to it, support dropped to 59 percent overall and just 39 percent among Republicans. 
 
 On other hot-button issues like banning the sale of semi-automatic assault weapons or ending the war in Afghanistan, however, lending Obama’s name to the proposal made each viewed more favorably — and therefore if he were to put his political weight behind them it could actually increase their chances of passing. On doing something about climate change, there was no noticeable movement. 
 
 Here’s the full chart, courtesy of our friends at Capital Insight: 
 
 Look deeper into the numbers and you can see how much partisanship drives the movement on each of the issues. 
 
 On a path to citizenship, Republicans don’t mind the idea in theory but loathe it when attached to Obama. Independents are slightly less likely to support a path to citizenship if it is cast as Obama’s proposal, while Democrats favor it in basically the same numbers with or without the president’s name being mentioned. 
 
 The reverse is also true. While six in 10 Democrats support an assault weapons ban, that number jumps to more than three in four when the proposal is cast as Obama’s. Independents move slightly more in favor of an assault weapon ban when Obama is tied to it, while Republicans don’t like the idea with or without Obama. 
 
 Here are the four issues broken down by party identification: 
 
 The results aren’t terribly surprising. Partisan polarization has never been higher in the country and, therefore, Obama’s name attached to a proposal can really move the needle among the bases of each party. 
 
 But they do provide a fascinating backdrop for Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight and make clear how the issues he chooses to emphasize as his own could well make a major difference in whether those proposals can pass through Congress. 
 
 Hagel showdown set for today: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) on Monday set a vote on Chuck Hagel’s confirmation for 2:30 p.m. today, at which point Republicans on the committee will be faced with a stark choice. 
 
 Some in the GOP are still upset about the lack of disclosure from Hagel and from the administration when it comes to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. And there was even some chatter that some of them might stage a walkout. 
 
 Doing so on the eve of the State of the Union, needless to say, would be a huge story and would highlight the partisan divisions in Congress. Levin seems to be trying to call the GOP’s bluff. 
 
 And it might be a smart move. Perhaps the leading GOP senator on foreign policy matters, John McCain (R-Ariz.), says he won’t walk out and that doing so would be disrespectful. And neither will the panel’s ranking Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). 
 
 From here, the question is whether the GOP is united in its opposition to Hagel and whether it will opt for seldom-used and risky tactics to stop his confirmation. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), for example, has threatened to put a hold on Hagel’s nomination in the larger chamber. 
 
 Oh, and for what it’s worth, Hagel’s brother says Hagel is only emboldened by the opposition. 
 
 Fixbits: 
 
 Michael Bloomberg has made a six-figure donation to Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly’s new PAC. 
 
 Oregon, whose voters banned gay marriage in 2004 by double digits, may vote on whether to overturn that ban in 2014. 
 
 State of the Union update: Ted Nugent will be Rep. Steve Stockman’s (R-Tex.) guest, while a man fighting deportation will be Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s (D-Ill.). 
 
 Former Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff (D) has a clear shot in the primary to face Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) after state Rep. Karen Middleton (D) opted not to run. 
 
 Democrats also landed an opponent for Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), who is considering a run for Senate in a swing district. 
 
 A new memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee makes a pre-SOTU point we’ve made before: that President Obama’s more liberal tack could hurt Democratic senators running for reelection in red states. 
 
 Must-reads: 
 
 “New Rove Group Could Backfire on G.O.P.” — Nate Silver, New York Times 
 
 “Obama Prepares To Screw His Base” — Ben Smith, BuzzFeed 
 
 “Gauging the probability of success for Obama’s agenda post-State of the Union” — Zachary A. Goldfarb, Washington Post
– Once the fiscal cliff has been put to bed, immigration reform will reportedly be President Obama's No. 1 priority, and a series of surveys indicate most voters will be behind him. Some 62% of American voters support giving illegal or undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, a new poll finds, while 35% oppose the idea. The Politico/George Washington University (PDF) poll echoes a November survey that found 57% backed the plan, with 39% opposing it; a September poll had similar findings, CNN notes. More of the poll's nitty-gritty: 74% of Democrats and 61% of independents support such a plan A plurality of Republicans are behind it, 49%-45% More than 75% of voters back the DREAM Act's effort to allow undocumented immigrants' kids permanent US residence if they finish college or serve in the military And while immigration may soon be Obama's most important issue, the same can't be said for voters; only 2% ranked it as their most important But his tackling it could move some voter numbers in his favor: Those polled currently disapprove of Obama's handling of immigration, 48%-45%