Nielsen//NetRatings finds that 36.6 percent of U.S. adults online are Republicans, 30.8 percent are Democrats and 17.3 percent are Independents.
Analyst Ken Cassar, said "The fact that the online population is more heavily composed of Republicans than Democrats is principally a function of the Republican party's higher composition within the overall electorate. This is exacerbated by the fact that online penetration continues to be deeper among affluent households, which have historically skewed Republican."
The Web site with the highest concentration of Republicans was RushLimbaugh.com, then NewsMax.com and Bill O'Reilly.com. The Drudge Report and Salt Lake Tribune rounded out the top five Republican sites.
Political party members also have distinct tastes in online newspapers:
WSJ.com has predominantly Republican readers, at 40.2 percent
Democrats make up 25.8 percent of WSJ.com's readership
Independents are at 24.3 percent
The New York Times online is a favorite among Democrats:
Democrats make up 52.3 percent of its readership
Independents compose 22.6 percent
Republicans are at 18.3 percent
When respondents were asked about their political leaning:
36.1 percent, identified themselves as "Moderate"
32.5 percent, identified themselves as "Conservative/Very Conservative"
19.8 percent of respondents identified themselves as "Liberal/Very Liberal"
PS: Edison Media Research - which is doing the 2006 exit polling for all of the networks - asked a similar question of country music radio listeners last spring and found that almost half call themselves moderates and 36% say they are at least 'somewhat' conservative vs only 4% who call themselves very liberal and 11% somewhat liberal.
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