Raleigh, N.C. – It seems no matter which political party is in charge of the legislature, just 50 percent of voters know Republicans control the North Carolina House and Senate.
According to a new poll released by the Civitas Institute, 50 percent of North Carolina voters said the Republican Party is in charge of both houses of the state legislature. Eighteen percent said they think the Democratic Party is in charge, 16 percent said it is split, and 14 percent said they do not know.
There has been little shift in these percentages since a March 2010 Civitas poll which then revealed that 49 percent of voters said the Democratic party controlled the state House and Senate.
“This shows that voters are still not getting good information on what happens in Raleigh concerning the legislature,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “This has to be disappointing to Republicans who want to get credit for their accomplishments this year and to Democrats who want to blame Republicans for everything bad that is happening in North Carolina. Message to both parties - half the people do not know who is in charge.”
Voters age 18-25 were most aware of who is in charge (58 percent) along with those age 56-65 (57 percent). And regardless of party registration, just around half of voters know which party controls the state legislature: 52 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Republicans, and 46 percent of unaffiliated voters.
The Civitas Poll is the only regular live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina. For more information on Civitas polling see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.
Full Text of Question:
“To the best of your recollection, which political party is in charge of the North Carolina House and Senate?”
Republican party – 50%
Democratic party – 18%
It is split – 16%
Don’t Know/Refused – 15%
For the full results and crosstabs, click here.
This poll of 600 likely 2012 general election voters in North Carolina was conducted September 22-25, 2011 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of likely 2012 general election voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past three general elections (2006, 2008, 2010) or be newly registered to vote since November 2, 2010.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in at least one of the past three general elections or is newly registered since November 2, 2010.
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