NBC17, N&O Poll: State Voters Concerned About Economy And Illegal Immigration, Undecided On Candidates

Friday, Apr 04, 2008 - 10:30 PM

By Stacy Peterson
Online Producer
NBC17 WNCN

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina telephone poll conducted for NBC17, The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and WCNC of Charlotte shows that those polled view the economy and illegal immigration as two of the most important issues facing both the state and the nation in the next election. The poll also shows that most Democratic voters are still undecided between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.


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The four media organizations joined together to conduct the poll through Braun Research of Princeton, New Jersey. The poll, which consisted of 803 telephone interviews between March 29 and April 1, broke down numbers for both Democrats and Republicans and has an overall sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Republicans made up 403 respondents with 400 respondents claiming to be Democrats.

Going over the numbers, the poll shows that residents view the economy as the most important issue facing those seeking political office.

According to the results, 47 percent of respondents said the economy was the most important factor for national politics. That was followed by 20 percent who viewed the war as the most important, 11 percent who responded to illegal immigration, 10 percent for healthcare, 7 percent for homeland security and 4 percent for education.

For state races, the economy topped the list at 31 percent followed by illegal immigration at 28 percent, education at 18 percent, crime at 13 percent, growth and transportation at 7 percent and the environment at 3 percent.

On the Democratic side, 35 percent favored Obama while 26 percent favored Clinton. However, 39 percent responded that they are still undecided.

When it comes to state races, those who responded as Republicans favored Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory for governor and Sen. Elizabeth Dole for Senate. Meanwhile, those who said they planned to vote Democrat favored Richard Moore by a slight margin over Beverly Purdue by 25 percent to 19 percent. Still, 53 percent of Democrats are still undecided. At the same time, 83 percent of respondents were undecided on the Senate seat. On the Republican side, 62 percent were undecided on the race for governor.

In the presidential race, respondents gave high marks for intelligence to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. However, Republican candidate John McCain ranked higher than both in experience and homeland security. At the same time he scored low for ability to connect to voters.

Clinton also ranked low when it came to questions about being able to run the country from the first day, homeland security and trustworthiness.

When Republican respondents were polled, more said they would vote for McCain if he faced Clinton than if McCain faced Obama.

Finally, those polled disapproved of the job of President George W. Bush. In a combination of both Democrats and Republicans, 44 percent of men and 46 percent of women disapproved of the job Bush has done in office. Only 8 percent of men and 6 percent of women responded to his performance at "excellent."

Of the numbers, 23 percent of men and 24 percent of women responded that Bush had done a "good" job as president.

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