Voters Unsure of Who Runs Legislature

Raleigh, N.C. – With the NC General Assembly set to adjourn later today, the July Civitas Institute DecisionMaker Poll suggests that North Carolina voters are in the dark concerning which party holds power in the General Assembly.

Among the 600 likely voters polled, less than half of all respondents identified Democrats as the party in charge of the N.C. House.  For the N.C. Senate, 60% either did not know or thought the Republicans were in charge. Don’t tell anyone but the Democratic Party enjoys a majority in both chambers of the General Assembly.

Conversely, 61 percent of voters were able to correctly identify that a Democrat was in the Governor’s mansion. Voters in the triangle were more likely to pick correctly while voters in the Charlotte area were the least likely to get it right.

“When a majority of North Carolina voters cannot correctly identify who is in control, it means campaigns focus more on name ID and personality than issues and policies,” said Francis DeLuca, Executive Director of the Civitas Institute. “Governor Easley with his endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the Primary and ensuing publicity seems to have firmly established him in the minds of the voters as a Democrat,” concluded De Luca.

When asked:

WHICH PARTY, THE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRATIC, CONTROLS:
                     THE NORTH CAROLINA HOUSE?
                      
                                                               #       %  
         1.  DEMOCRATIC                      291   49    
         2.  REPUBLICAN                      100   17    
        98.  NOT SURE                          208   35    
        99.  REFUSED                           1  
 
THE NORTH CAROLINA SENATE?
                      
                                                              #       %  
        1.  DEMOCRATIC                      243   40    
        2.  REPUBLICAN                       93   15    
       98.  NOT SURE                          264   44    
 

THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE?
                      
                                                               #     %  
        1.  DEMOCRATIC                      366   61    
        2.  REPUBLICAN                       84   14    
       98.  NOT SURE                          149   25    
       99.  REFUSED                           1         

                  
The study of 600 registered voters was conducted July 14-16 by Tel Opinion Research of Alexandria, Virginia. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2002, 2004 or 2006 general election or were newly registered voters since 2006. The voters were interviewed using live callers.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95% of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4.2% of the “True Values.”  “True Values” refer to the results obtained if were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2002, 2004 or 2006 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2006.

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If you would like more information regarding this topic, or to schedule an interview with Francis De Luca, please call Gabe Dellinger at 919.747.8065 or email Gabe at Gabe.Dellinger@nccivitas.org.