Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Protesters more popular than McCrory, lawmakers



Here's something that will likely stick in the craw of N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory and his fellow Republicans in the legislature who've mocked and lampooned the Moral Monday protesters. N.C. residents like the protesters way more than they like the lawmakers.

That's according to a survey by Public Policy Polling released Tuesday. The poll shows 47 percent of those surveyed had a favorable opinion of the folks getting arrested protesting the General Assembly's actions; 40 percent had an unfavorable opinion. By a 47/41 margin, respondents said they have a higher opinion of the protesters than they do of the General Assembly. Only 20 percent approved of the job the legislature is doing. Democrats had a higher favorable rating than Republicans - 40 percent approval vs the GOP's 35 percent aproval rating. (The GOP's unfavorables were at 55 percent to the Dems 45 percent.)

Compare that to McCrory's falling approval ratings: For the first time since taking office, the pollsters found that McCrory has a negative approval rating this month. Only 40 percent of voters are happy with the job he's doing to 49 percent who disapprove. Only 68 percent of people who voted for McCrory last fall continue to approve of his job performance.

"Unhappiness over the abortion bill seems to be driving a lot of the increased unhappiness with the Republicans in state government this month," writes Tom Jensen of PPP. "Only 34 percent of voters support the proposal to 47percent who are opposed. They're even more unhappy with the process- 80 percent think it's inappropriate to combine abortion legislation with bills about motorcycle safety or Sharia Law."

Also, the poll showed dissatisfaction about these issues:

Transparency - Only 19 percent think the legislature is transparent in how it conducts its business to 51 percent who believe it is not. By a 48/33 margin, respondents thought that McCrory should veto the abortion law, including a 51/37 margin with independents.

Unemployment - 55 percent of respondents are unhappy with the legislation that resulted in 70,000 North Carolinians losing their unemployment benefits earlier this month to only 29 percent who are supportive of it.

Fracking - 76 percent of respondents say companies engaged in fracking in North Carolina should have to disclose all the chemicals they inject into the ground with only 13% opposed. Republicans in the State Senate have been trying to exempt them from having to do so. There's a strong bipartisan consensus (81/13 among independents, 80/9 among Democrats, 68/18 among Republicans) that disclosure should be required.

One funny note North Carolina voters across party lines agreed on one thing: 78 percent support mandatory drug testing for members of the General Assembly; 12 percent opposed. That included independents (84/11), Republicans (83/9), and Democrats (70/15) alike.

The poll included 45 percent Democrats, 35 percent Republicans and 20 percent independents. It included 30 percent of people identified themselves as liberal, 43 percent who identified themselves as conservative and 26 percent who identified as moderate.

12 comments:

Matt M said...

If you look at the survey data it is clear that Democrats and Independents are VASTLY OVERREPRESENTED. Only 35% of those polled were Republicans.

Of course the numbers are skewed. And, this type of polling is NOT accidental.

Not_a_hypocrit said...

If you see that a poll has been done by PPP count on skewed results

Shelly said...

They sure didn't ask me. The protesters are all those opposed to discontinuing hand outs, of course people like them. Especially, if you ask those receiving handouts. Living within your means is hard and takes work ( pun intended).

Unknown said...

only 31% of the registered voters in NC are registered Republican so if anything they are over represented

Damon said...

I wonder who is this minority that still supports our legislature every republican I know has expressed regret for voting for McCrory he ran as a moderate but is governing as a radical, he needs to go.

Not_a_hypocrit said...

Gary..your figure on the breakdown of voters is flawed. The GOP makes up 35% to dems at 44%. Independents make up 21%. This is per the state board of elections. According to Pew, the indepentent voters have been voting with the GOP more so than the dems as indicated by a vast majority of GOP in the legislatue and governorship.

Matt said...

So in other words, sine those polled almost exactly match the demographic makeup of the state's voters, the results are NOT skewed, right hypocrit?

Not_a_hypocrit said...

Matt....I don't believe you can make that statement because you don't know how the indendents went and what percentage of the results were from indendents. The headline on the PPP site is that Kay Hagan leads her GOP rivals by double digits. Then they compare her numbers to each of the 6 GOP candidates. Of course a single candidate will have a lead on any 1 of 6 candidates. The headline is misleading as is often the case with the PPP.

sumday said...

Matt I don’t by your claim that dems and independents are OVER represented. There are more registered Dems in this state then there are gop so it makes sense to have more dem opinions then gop opinions , however if you paid attention to what you were reading you would see the break down of how each group voted so in theory you could extrapolate how each group truly felt about the issue. Independents only made up 20% of the survey which is less than the 35% of the gop. I am independent and some times vote gop and sometimes dems just depends on the issue. The fact is independents are the fastest growing party bc we are basically tired of both parties. The gop seem so out of touch with true concerns of the public (like the fracking practices) and dems seem so out of touch with keeping a sustainable budget that many of us just cringe to think of being part of either party. I think if you did a survey asking people which party they hail to, and then ask them about their conviction on each issue you would find many people who do not agree or support their respective party. Personally I think we should do away with the whole party system and have candidates who run on their own plat form rather than a party platform- to many people these days treat political parties like sport fans treat their favorite team. They careless about the issues and more about who's side is winning when in reality we are all one team. We are 1 country not 2 countries and therefore we should only have 1 party system not 2 parties which only serve to further divide this country.

Matt M said...

Sumday - I don't think I want to live in a 1 party system.

Matt M said...

And, perhaps I should have clarified my statements. When I said Democrats were overrepresented - I was referring to voters who were only registered once.

Unknown said...

according to the State Board of Elections website (http://www.ncsbe.gov/), as of today there are 1,986,962 Republicans registered in NC out of 6,451,592 registered voters. Pretty sure that comes out to 31%. 43% Dems and 26% Una.