In our poll this month, we asked Democratic and Unaffiliated voters if they had a preference in the Democratic Primary for the US Senate nomination, and by and large they do not have a preference yet. 75 percent of voters were undecided on any of the three announced candidates. The breakdown was: Marshall – 14% [...]
- 1Jan25
Civitas Poll: Voters Divided on Privatizing ABC
North Carolina voters are fairly evenly split on privatizing the ABC system versus keeping it state-run according to our poll for January. 47% say keep the government in charge. 44% say let private businesses run it. This issue presents a bit of a double-edged sword for many rural legislators, especially Republicans. While just about everyone [...]
- Jan21
More on Basnight and the Pier
After seeing our article from Jan. 12 detailing how Basnight Construction received a subcontract job to build a portion of the $25 million fishing pier in Sen. Marc Basnight’s district, news reporters caught up with him yesterday to ask him about his involvement. Sen. Basnight’s response according to the N&O was that he resigned from [...]
- Jan19
NAACP Not Representing Its Members on Wake Schools
The NC chapter of the NAACP has been quite vocal in its support of continuing the Wake County Public Schools policy of busing children across the county in order to achieve “diversity.” They have even gone so far as to introduce race-baiting terms like “resegregation” to the debate and more or less call opponents of [...]
- 1Jan08
Good Intentions Take Away Rights
Great op-ed in the Kinston Free Press today on how the seeming best intentions of the nanny-staters only take away individual rights: We think that most people in North Carolina know that and are capable of making their own decisions on which restaurants or bars to frequent. Unfortunately, our legislators thought that they knew better. [...]
- Jan08
State Gives (Another) Tax Break to Warren Buffett
As every person in North Carolina saw their tax bill increase last year, the State of NC was busy granting a tax break to a company owned by the world’s 2nd richest man — Warren Buffett. The Greensboro News & Record today reveals that flight simulator company FlightSafety is expanding operations to Greensboro will receive [...]
- Jan06
Timing
Ah, nothing like comedic timing from the General Assembly. This hit my email box today… The Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change will meet Wednesday, January 13, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 544 of the Legislative Office Building . I wonder if they will be discussing the latest round of global cooling. Somehow I [...]
- Dec22
Poll Odds and Ends
The full poll results for December will be released on the website tomorrow, but if you’ve missed any of the results so far, the press releases are up on our website here. A couple of tidbits before the full poll comes out tomorrow: Generic legislative ballot is back to a 3 point Democratic advantage after [...]
- 1Dec18
Well That Settles Things…
Good to see Sen. Tony Rand got that little annoyance over the accusations of insider trading cleared up. Nothing like an independent review of your actions by your business partner, personal accountant, Treasurer for your campaign committee and the person you put in charge of running the Department of Transportation. The report was commissioned by [...]
- 2Dec17
Perdue’s Hypocrisy Reaches New Heights
Wow, just when you thought Gov. Bev Perdue’s hypocrisy on releasing inmates from prison couldn’t get any worse, it does. So despite her very public, poll number pandering position on keeping some felons sentenced to life in prison in the 1970s locked up, Perdue’s actions continue to show she feels otherwise. On August 28, 2009, [...]
- Dec17
Term Limits Back En Vogue?
Could a populist idea from the 1990s come back into debate today as a way to clean up corruption in government? According to our latest poll, yes. 73 percent of voters say they support term limits for members of the General Assembly. And when asked an open-ended question on what’s the best way to clean [...]
- Dec15
Wake Voters Support New School Board Agenda
In advance of the Wake County School Board meeting scheduled for later today, we went in the field yesterday with a flash poll to gauge Wake County voters’ opinions of the more contentious issues. And the results were pretty surprising. Those issues we thought were supposed contentious really aren’t. The voters are loud and clear [...]
- Dec14
Obama Favorability Hits New Low
President Barack Obama’s favorability in North Carolina hit a new low in our poll this month with less than half of voters having a favorable opinion of him. It now stands at 48% favorable, 38% unfavorable, down from a high of 64% the first time we asked in March of this year.
- Dec14
Perdue Flights — More Questions Than Answers
Gov. Bev Perdue’s campaign committee disclosed late last week five additional airplane flights then then Lt. Gov. took but were not previously disclosed on campaign finance reports. This report continues to raise more questions than answers about how many more flights are out there that have not been disclosed and why is it so hard [...]
- Dec09
Could Perdue be Vulnerable to a Primary Challenge?
One of the more interesting findings of this month’s poll results on Perdue’s favorability is her relative weakness with members of her own party. So it has to be asked, could she be vulnerable to a primary challenge in 2012? Let’s explore the evidence: 1. She’s already ticked off a big portion of the Democratic [...]
- Dec09
Perdue Favorability
Despite the N&O’s assertion that Perdue is “winning over critics” the percentage of voters giving her a favorable opinion remains near her all time low. In fact, the percentage of voters giving her a favorable rating is down 5 percentage points this month. All that has changed with this poll is some of the [...]
- Dec08
Polling the Health Care Bill
Support for Obamacare continues to struggle in North Carolina according to our latest poll with only 40% supporting and 48% in opposition. We’ve had the public opposed to the bill by an 8-10 point margin since September and it doesn’t seem much has changed despite all the rhetoric and debate on both sides. The breakdown [...]
- Dec07
“In These Times”?
The News and Observer on Friday exposed the Raleigh City Council for holding a $10,000 welcoming suaree for themselves at the beginning of the new council terms. While many members expressed shock and regret for splashing that kind of cash on themselves, it seems from their comments that they really only had a problem with [...]
- Dec07
Burr’s Huge Misstep on Eastern District US Attorney
Apologies to Greensboro blogger Guarino for borrowing his title in describing Hagan’s actions (or rather inaction) on the nomination of a new US Attorney for the Eastern District of NC, but Burr’s announcement on Friday that he would not block Thomas Walker’s nomination is an even bigger misstep. According to poll results we released on [...]
- Dec01
Define “Ever”
As Francis pointed out earlier, Gov. Bev Perdue seems to be bending the truth when it comes to her stance on the gas tax. During her announcement on of a controversial funding mechanism to finish I-485 she told reporters that she would not “ever” raise the gas tax. Apparently she meant qualify that and say [...]