Tag search result

Gov. Pat McCrory remains popular in North Carolina but his Republican colleagues in state government and the legislature are underwater.

The governor -- recently named one of the most conservative in the nation -- received 49 percent job approval with 36 percent disapproving. Another 15 percent remain undecided, according to the latest survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.

With his numbers holding steady for the past few months, McCrory is faring much better than Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue, whose neared negative territory about this point into her term.

Raleigh pollster Tom Jensen landed on Business Insider magazine's list of the 36 most powerful people in politics, joining the likes of Bill Clinton, Chris Christie, Michelle Obama and Karl Rove.

Jensen, a Chapel Hill resident, is the chief pollster at Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm that does automated polling. Business Insider writes: "Largely unknown prior to the 2012 campaign, Jensen's North Carolina-based firm ended up being the most reliable public pollster of the election. The firm correctly predicted the winner of the presidential race in all 50 states, and at the end of the election, PPP was rated as the most accurate polling company of the campaign.

In North Carolina, big money mattered. It fueled million-dollar legislative campaigns and lifted Republicans to record majorities in the state House and Senate. Political parties, especially Republicans, unleashed their firepower. And outside spending topped $14 million, according to the Institute for Southern Studies. More than $12 million was spent on just 10 races. Read more here.

More political headlines:

--The 2012 presidential election will be remembered as the year of the pollster. And Raleigh’s Public Policy Polling finished at the top of the list. Read a Q-and-A with pollster Tom Jensen about the firm's secrets.

The final poll before the election in North Carolina showed the presidential race deadlocked and the governor's race tightening a bit.

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are tied at 49 percent, according to Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm that surveyed likely voters Saturday and Sunday. It's the firm's third poll in a row to show a tie. Obama built an advantage in early voting, the poll found, 54 percent to 45 percent, but Romney will have an advantage with those planning to vote on Election Day, 57 percent to 41 percent.

In the governor's race, Republican Pat McCrory continues to lead -- but his double-digit advantage is shrinking. McCrory received 50 percent to 43 percent for Democrat Walter Dalton.

The often-overlooked races for the state's top posts are surprisingly close this campaign season with Republican challengers keeping it close against Democratic incumbents, according to a new poll.

In the lieutenant governor's race, Republican Dan Forest and Democrat Linda Coleman are essentially tied, a Public Policy Polling sruvey shows, with Forest holding a one-point advantage (38 to 37 percent) within the margin of error.

Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, a Democratic incumbent who won  by 14 points in 2008, leads Republican challenger Ed Goodwin, a first-time statewide candidate by just six points, 43 percent to 37 percent. Democratic Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin leads Republican rival Mike Causey by four points. Goodwin won in 2008 by seven percentage points.

"The Republican strength at the top of the ticket looks to be making the other statewide offices more competitive than usual this year as well," writes pollster Tom Jensen with PPP, a Democratic firm.

Tom Jensen is the guru at Public Policy Polling -- so it's probably no surprise he won Dome's election pool.

Jensen guessed four out of five questions correctly. He admitted to guessing in the GOP presidential contest and not using any poll data. The one he missed: the governor's race. He called Walter Dalton by 7 percent. Dalton won 8 percent. (He received partial credit and won with 4 1/2 points.)

It was a close race. Dome user inandoh had 4 points -- a half-point away from a win because of a better guess than Jensen on overall turnout.

Out of more than 30 entires, no one guessed everything right. But plenty of people beat the Dome political team. Top finishers (three points and above): dcope, stevefm, danmanley2299, Sam Spencer and Jim Blaine.

The News & Observer asked four area political pundits -- John Hood, Tom Jensen, Gary Pearce and Carter Wrenn -- to share their reaction about Monday night’s gubernatorial debate. Here are their thoughts:

Tom Jensen, director Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning polling firm based in Raleigh: “Most Democratic voters are undecided in the race for Governor and I don’t think this debate did anything to change that. The frontrunners, Dalton and Etheridge, did little to distinguish themselves from each other. Faison was entertaining but is ultimately irrelevant.”

Gary Pearce, veteran Democratic strategist in Raleigh who blogs at Talking About Politics: “Etheridge won: smiling, at ease and physically dominating the stage. Dalton was too tightly wound; Faison, too combative. No disasters and no knockouts. With minor differences on policy, personality trumps.”

A Democratic firm released a polling memo on the day Pat McCrory enters the governor's race suggesting his major liability is being linked to the unpopular Republican legislature.

Public Policy Polling, based in Raleigh, shows McCrory with a significant advantage against a long list of potential Democratic candidates -- in part because "he has an unusual level of popularity with Democrats and independents," writes pollster Tom Jensen. (His favorability sits at 57 to 31 percent.)

But in a separate survey conducted for Progress NC, a liberal advocacy group, 57 percent of voters said they were less likely to vote for McCrory after being told he supported the state budget that led to teachers losing jobs. A similar result came when voters knew McCrory voted early childhood education cuts. The wording of the questions is, well, questionable -- but it provides a window into the efficacy of a line of attack against McCrory that Democrats are likely to exploit.

Gov. Bev Perdue's job performance rating continues to tumble with less than one in three North Carolina voters approving and more than half disapproving, according to a new poll.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic survey firm based in Raleigh, found that Republican challenger Pat McCrory maintained his double-digit lead among likely voters in a hypothetical matchup, winning 52 percent to 41 percent, a very slight improvement from last month.

Perdue's 32 percent approval rating is her lowest since March, down 6 percentage points from November. Her disapproval is at 51 percent. McCrory's favorability remained essentially the same (down 1 percentage point) and his unfavorable numbers improved from 28 percent to 24 percent ahead of his expect announcement to formally enter the governor's race.

Here is the year end North Carolina report card for North Carolina politicians.

Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue and Republican Sen. Richard Burr have shown improvement. Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan is holding steady. And Democratic President Barack Obama has declined.

That is according to survey data from Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh-based firm with Democratic leanings.

The firm looked at how Tar Heel residents viewed those four figures at the end of 2010 compared to how they viewed them at the end of 2009.

Perdue showed the most improvement, with her standing rising 17 points.

A year ago, Perdue had an approval/disapproval rating of 27/53. Now it is 35/44.

As pollster Tom Jensen put it, she has gone from “being incredibly unpopular to just somewhat unpopular.” Despite the 17-point gain, she is still six points behind the average governor elsewhere in the country, Jensen said.

A year ago, Burr's approval rating was 35/37. Today it stands at 36/34.

“Burr's name recognition went up over the course of the year as he advertised on television but two months removed form the election, voters seem to have forgotten about him already – the level of ambivalence toward him is higher than for just about any other senator in the country,” Jensen said.

Hagan has hardly moved. A year ago, she had an approval/disapproval rating of 36/44 rating and today it stands at 36/43.

“Although Perdue is generally thought of as the state's most unpopular politician,” Jensen said, “Hagan actually performs worse compared to the mean of her peers at this point.”

Obama's approval/disapproval rating has dropped in North Carolina during the past  12 months from 48/47 to 46/49.

Jensen said Obama's standing in North Carolina “is essentially identical compared to where he is nationwide.” Jensen that may seem surprising because Obama ran seven points behind in North Carolina than he did in the rest of the country in 2008. But Jensen said Obama's polling numbers are holding up better in states with substantial African-American populations such as North Carolina.