What North Carolinians think
Published December 13, 2013
by Public Policy Polling, December 12, 2013.
-After bottoming out in September, Pat McCrory's approval numbers continue to tick back up. 42% of voters approve of the job he's doing to 47% who disapprove, a big improvement from 35/53 three months ago. McCrory's numbers are most notably improving with independents- he's back on narrowly positive ground with them at 44/43 after having dropped all the way to 32/57 in September. He's also seeing some progress with his party base, going from 62/24 in late summer up to 68/18 now.
Voters aren't happy with the McCrory administration's policy of making people pay for any public records request that takes more than 30 minutes to process though. Just 23% say they agree with that rule to 62% who disagree with it, and even Republican voters say by a 34/48 spread that they disagree with the McCrory administration's approach on that issue.
-The state legislature remains very unpopular even while out of session. Only 20% of voters approve of the job it's doing to 53% who disapprove. There's plenty of unhappiness to go around for both parties. The Democrats in the legislature are unpopular with a 35/45 favorability rating, and the Republicans are even more unpopular at 34/51. Democrats hold a narrow 45/43 advantage on the generic legislative ballot but that's well down from what it was over the summer and may limit their opportunities to make gains next fall.
Perhaps because voters don't care for the legislature Moral Monday protesters were rallying against, only 28% think those who were arrested should be prosecuted compared to 54% who think the charges should be dropped. Democrats (72/15) overwhelmingly think charges should be dropped, a majority of independents (50/27) d0, and even a third of Republicans (32/46) do.
-Just as we found a month ago Chris Christie is the only Republican who leads Hillary Clinton at this point in North Carolina, 45/42. Clinton has modest leads over Jeb Bush (46/45) and Rand Paul (48/44) and then holds a wider lead over Ted Cruz at 49/41.
Duke and East Carolina may have remained stuck in 3rd and 4th place despite having the best seasons of anyone in the state, but they're also the fan bases most happy with their coaches. Both David Cutcliffe and Ruffin McNeill sport 58/5 approval spreads with their school's fans. UNC coach Larry Fedora does decently well at 42/5, although it's clear a lot of fans are still waiting to make a judgment. The coach with the weakest numbers by far is State's Dave Doeren, who gets only a 24% approval from his school's fans with 21% disapproving.
December 13, 2013 at 11:06 am
Norm Kelly says:
Let's look at what would make liberals in both political circles and media circles truly happy. The 2016 presidential election comes down to Chris Christie and Hildabeast. The socialists and media (aren't they one & the same?) go nuts. They are the happiest people in the country. Hildabeast becomes a shoe-in for the office.
Republicans/conservatives/TEA people are depressed and once again stay home. The reason? Because Christie is the choice of the liberals, not a choice of the Republican party.
We've tried running almost-Republicans against hard-line socialists. Why would the 2016 cycle be any different? What would be different about it? An almost-Republican in Christie. A card-carrying, socialist-to-the-core, central-planners in charge of every aspect of the lives of 'the little people', Hillary. She's even more of a socialist than her husband. He could at least read the tea leaves and change direction when the winds were blowing against him. Hillary will take her lead from the current King, and ignore the winds knowing that if it worked for the first black president, it will certainly work for the first woman president.
Is there history to show my prediction is right? Of course. How strong a conservative was Bob Dole? He lost. How strong a conservative was John McCain? Since he was the darling of the media during the primaries, the obvious answer is that he is not a conservative. He lost, remember. How strong a conservative was Mitt Romney? He refused to take on the King on specific stands he took on issues. He was afraid to be called a bully and racist by the media. He lost. If we run a wannabe against Hildabeast, what's the chances he'll win? What's the chances his loss will result in wins in Congress? How often does it happen that the party doesn't win the WH, but does win Congress?
I say if the left/socialist party is going to run a socialist (Hillary!), then the right has nothing to lose by running a true conservative. Someone who is willing to articulate the differences between themselves and the socialist party. Let the conservative run on allowing people who earn money, keep money. Let the conservative run on getting the federal budget under control. Let the conservative run on reducing central planner interference in our day-to-day lives. Let the conservative run on getting the doctor-patient relationship back to only a doctor-patient relationship.
The only people who will oppose reducing central planner control are those on the government dole. The only people who will oppose eliminating the annual deficit, and making real dents in the national debt, will be the true socialists in the DemocRAT party and the media. If the left refers to conservatives as racist when we oppose the socialist agenda of King Barack, then we need to refer to them as socialists when they want to give more power to the central planners and take it away from we the people. When the left pulls out the 'war on women' line when the conservative candidate disagrees with Hildabeast (on actual policy differences!), then we pull out the central planner issue showing that she just wants to give more control to the central planners and less control to we the people.
So, what would make the press and socialists in Washington happy? If the Republican party nominates a wannabe so Hillary can win. Why does this surprise anyone?
