Republican state Sen. Richard Stevens of Cary appears vulnerable to a challenger, according to a poll conducted earlier this week by a liberal advocacy group.
When likely voters in Senate District 17 were asked whether they would support Stevens or another candidate, 44 percent picked a challenger compared to 35 percent who supported the incumbent. Another one in five voters weren't sure, according to the poll conducted by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling on behalf of Progress NC, a group critical of the Republican legislative majority.
Stevens' rating is likely linked to another question on the survey that shoes 55 percent of the people in the district disapproved of the state legislature's job performance, compared to 27 percent who approve.
But when you put a name to a challenger -- as the poll did with Democratic Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht -- it's a dead heat. Stevens pull down 40 percent in the hypothetical matchup compared to 39 percent for Weinbrecht, the poll showed. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
