Raleigh, N.C. – There is overwhelming support for limiting the terms of state House and Senate leaders according to the most recent Civitas Institute poll; this indicates there would be support for a proposal currently in the General Assembly which apparently has the backing of the legislative leadership.
Seventy-six percent of voters said they would support a state constitutional amendment limiting the leader of the state Senate and speaker of the state House to 3 two year terms. Sixteen percent said they would oppose it, and 8 percent said they do not know or have no opinion.
House Bill 61, “Speaker/Pro Tem Term Limits,” sponsored by Rep. John Blust (R-Guilford), says no one can serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives or President Pro Tempore of the state Senate for more than 2 sessions.
“Voters appear to be very supportive of efforts to limit the size and scope of political power in the state,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “This is a good first step in reversing a decade’s long trend of consolidating power in legislative leadership which led to political abuse in North Carolina.”
In addition, voters also expressed support for having the Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a team like the president and vice president by a 55 percent to 33 percent margin. Twelve percent of voters said they do not know or had no opinion.
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:
“Would you support or oppose a state constitutional amendment limiting the leader of the state Senate and speaker of the state House to three two-year terms?”
Total Support – 76%
Total Oppose – 16%
Strongly Support – 50%
Somewhat Support – 26%
Somewhat Oppose – 7%
Strongly Oppose – 9%
Don’t Know/No Opinion – 8%
“Would you support or oppose having the Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a team like the president and vice president?”
Total Support – 55%
Total Oppose – 33%
Strongly Support – 32%
Somewhat Support – 24%
Somewhat Oppose – 17%
Strongly Oppose – 16%
Don’t Know/No Opinion –12%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
This poll of 600 registered general election voters in North Carolina was conducted March 14-16 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.
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 two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.
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