March 25, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Francis De Luca (919) 834-2099
Francis.DeLuca@NCCivitas.org
RALEIGH – A new poll by the Civitas Institute shows that a plurality of NC voters approves of the legislature cancelling the state’s lease of the Dorothea Dix hospital property to the city of Raleigh.
The poll of 600 registered voters was taken March 19-21. In it, 44 percent said they favor legislation the North Carolina General Assembly is considering to cancel the lease, negotiated by then-Governor Beverly Perdue at the end of her term. Critics say she leased the 300 acres at below-market rates to the city for a park. Cancelling the lease would allow the state to renegotiate the lease, with an eye toward terms more favorable to the state while still allowing Raleigh to lease some of the property at a market rate. One-third (33 percent) of poll respondents opposed the legislation cancelling the lease.
The legislation under question is Senate Bill 334 — Dorothea Dix Lease. Republican voters were most likely to favor the legislation by a 58 percent to 21 percent margin. Unaffiliated voters were 49 percent to 29 percent in favor of the legislation. Registered Democrats were opposed 45 percent to 31 percent. There was agreement among the sexes, with men and women favoring the legislation by margins of 13 and 10 percentage points respectively. Among geographic areas, only the Triangle region of North Carolina opposed the legislation, by a 48 percent to 38 percent margin.
Text of question*:
[civitas_poll id=”2013_03″ question=”dixland”]
*Because of rounding, percentages may not equal totals.
Click for crosstabs.
About the Poll:
This poll of 600 registered voters, of which 25% (150) were cell phone respondents, in North Carolina was conducted March 19-21, 2013 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered general election voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past two general elections (2010, 2012) or be newly registered to vote since November 3, 2012. 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.”
For more information on Civitas polling, see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.
More information on the Civitas Institute is available at www.nccivitas.org, or contact Jim Tynen at (919) 834-2099.
AND THE MAJORITY AIN’T CRAZY!