Supporting Duke, not legislators

48% of North Carolinians say they're rooting for Duke to win the national championship tonight, compared to 30% who say they aren't pulling for them to win. What might be most interesting is that for all that's made of the rivalry between Duke and UNC and to a much lesser extent Duke and NC State, fans of both the Tar Heels and the Wolfpack say they're rooting for the Devils tonight. State fans say they're pulling for Duke 44/36 and Carolina fans say they're doing so by a 45/40 spread.

North Carolinians may be coming together to support Duke tonight but it doesn't mean they're jumping on the bandwagon overall. UNC still leads the state in overall fan loyalty with 30% of voters calling themselves Tar Heel fans to 21% for the Blue Devils, 19% for the Wolfpack, and just 4% for Wake Forest.

Other notes from our North Carolina poll:

-Only 31% of North Carolinians think business owners should be allowed to refuse service to gay customers, compared to 56% who say that shouldn't be permitted. Democrats (18/75) are heavily opposed to business owners being able to do that, while Republicans (48/34) are much more closely divided in their favor of it. Independents at 31/56 match the overall statewide numbers. There's even less support for allowing business owners to refuse to serve Muslims- 23% of voters think that should be permitted to 63% who dissent.

-Last week the General Assembly passed a bill to redraw County Commissioner lines in Wake County, while killing a bill to end religious exemptions for vaccinations. Voters think they took the wrong tack on both issues. Only 12% of voters in the state think the General Assembly should be involved with things like drawing City Council and County Commissioner lines, while 73% think that should be left to the local level. Republicans (10/79) are particularly opposed to this kind of maneuvering by the legislature but independents (10/73) and Democrats (14/67) aren't far behind.