Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards are the presidential front runners in North Carolina, according to a new poll.
Giuliani has the support of 32 percent of Republicans in the state, leading Arizona Sen. John McCain with 22 percent and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 10 percent, according to a poll conducted for the Civitas Institute, a Raleigh-based think tank.
If former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are added to the mix, Giuliani still leads with 26 percent, followed by McCain (16 percent), Thompson (13 percent) and Romney (6 percent).
On the Democratic side, Edwards leads with 26 percent, followed by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, each with 20 percent.
In the governor's race, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue leads state Treasurer Richard Moore, 34-23, in a poll of Democratic voters. On the Republican side, state Sen. Fred Smith of Clayton and former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr of Raleigh each have 13 percent, followed by Salisbury attorney Bill Graham with 7 percent.
The survey of 800 likely voters was part of a monthly poll conducted for Civitas by TelOpinion Research of Alexandria, Va. It had a margin of error plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
