Pre-recorded campaign calls, or “robo-calls,” have become the leading form of campaign communication in the 2008 primary season with 39% of voters nationwide saying they have received at least one.

About three-in-ten Americans (31%) say their opinion of Hillary Clinton has grown less favorable in recent days, including 28% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents; by comparison, 24% of Americans — and only 13% of Democrats and Democratic leaners — report less favorable views of Barack Obama.

A relatively large minority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (40%) say they have come to feel more favorably toward GOP presidential nominee John McCain in recent days.

Analysis of Pew surveys conducted in late February and March finds Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama running equally well against Sen. John McCain among voters in the big swing states of Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania; Obama led McCain 52% to 40% among a representative sample of voters living in these states, while Clinton bested McCain by a statistically comparable 51%-to-42% margin.

Slightly more than one-in-ten adult internet users say they have used a search engine to find information about someone they are thinking about hiring or working with.

Nearly one-in-three (31%) US adults with less than a high school education are members of evangelical Protestant churches.

Just 11% of the public rates the economy as excellent or good, down from 17% in early February, and 26% in January.

While the Clinton-Obama face-off in today’s Pennsylvania primary has claimed the bulk of media coverage, far more Americans — 36% — say the news they have been hearing about GOP presidential candidate John McCain is generally positive than say that about either of the two Democratic candidates.

Catholics are the largest religious community in Pennsylvania, making up 29% of the state’s adult population, followed by mainline Protestants at 25% and evangelical Protestants at 18%. White Catholics have been a pillar of Hillary Clinton’s voter coalition in her big-state victories to date.