Public Policy Polling (7/23-27, likely voters, 6/26-29 in parens):
Bev Perdue (D): 46 (42)
Pat McCrory (R): 37 (41)
Michael Munger (L): 6 (5)
(MoE: ±3.4%)
Perdue may have gotten a bit of a boost after her primary opponent, state Treasurer Richard Moore, recently endorsed her. Pollster Tom Jensen has some more thoughts:
Pat McCrory has lost some of the luster off of his ‘change’ message in recent weeks with revelations of large amounts of out of state money being spent on his behalf and news of a letter sent to lobbyists to help in raising money for his campaign. He’ll need to turn it around quick to keep the race from getting away from him, particularly with Perdue’s large overall fundraising advantage.
This race has been very, very tight since the start of the year, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on Perdue to see if she can break away in more polls.
SSP currently rates this race as a Tossup.
NC has voted for Democrats as Governor in the last four elections (Mike Easley twice and Jim Hunt) and six of the last nine elections before a long unbroken streal of Democratic governors before 1973. Hunt served four terms stretching from 1977-1985 and returning from 1993 to 2001. That is more terms than Republicans have served in the last 100 years (3).
It looks like, everything being equal, North Carolinians will choose a Democrat as Governor. Unfortunately, the corollary seems to be that they will tend to choose Republicans for the US Senate. Current polling simply affirms the status quo.
Apparently PPP also has Foxx only head of her Dem challenger Roy Carter 51-41.
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