Despite evidence that the still-ongoing Democratic primary has taken a toll on Hillary Clinton's poll numbers, Democrats -- by a 2-to-1 margin -- believe the Clinton-vs.-Bernie Sanders contest lasting through June is helpful to the party, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Forty percent of Democratic primary voters say the Democratic race continuing through the final primaries in June is good for the Democratic Party, versus 22 percent who think it's bad; 36 percent say it makes no difference.
This is a reversal from 2008, when the April NBC/WSJ poll back then found just 21 percent believing the long Barack Obama-vs.-Hillary Clinton race was good for the party, compared with 37 percent who said it was bad.
The new NBC/WSJ poll was conducted May 15-19 of 1,000 registered voters, including 450 cell phone-only respondents and another 46 reached on a cell but who also have a landline. The overall margin of error is plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.
