Dante Chinni, author of this article, stated that a big political predictor is how often people attend Church or a religious service. He used the data from the Romney-Obama 2012 Presidential Election.
The data showed that Obama, a Democrat, had 50% of the Catholic vote while Romney, a Republican, had 48% of the Catholic vote. Romney had much more Catholic voters who attended Mass more frequently than Catholic voters who voted for Obama.
While this data does seem to create a correlation between political parties and Church attendance, I feel that many other factors need to be brought up for NBC's audience to see a bigger picture.
First, Catholics' personal views are not mentioned. What if a majority of Catholics, who just so happened not to attend Mass frequently, felt Obama was a good choice for president in 2012? They may be Republican or bipartisan who decided to stray from their political parties for this one instance.
Also, not all Catholics vote. Not all Catholics filled out this survey. There could be thousands, maybe even millions who could impact the percentages of this survey.
The point is that there are many factors that could impact this survey that were failed to be brought up. A lack of substantial data is also missing. This is just one piece of data: the 2012 Presidential Election.
Finally, I myself don't identify with either party nor am I bipartisan. I maybe would have voted for Obama if he was pro-life. I attend Mass each week. One cannot judge what another's political party is based off Church attendance.
You'll find data tables below from the article to get a better idea of the voter numbers.
Link: http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/bigger-political-predictor-religion-how-often-you-go-church-n335306
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