North Carolina voters are disgusted with the state legislature. We’re not just saying that based on what we see on MSNBC. Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll results show that.
According to polls, NC GOP candidates are already unfavorable for state and federal elections.?According to the PPP President:
We’ve found month after month in our polling that North Carolinians are unhappy with what’s happened to their state this year.
The polls show that after only nine months since the term began, NC voters are already fed up with the GOP legislative super-majority and control of the governor’s seat.
Why are North Carolina voters disgusted and unhappy?
- the gutting of reproductive rights
- unemployment assistance
- voting rights
- education funding
Similar concerns have drawn protesters by the thousands nearly every week since?Moral Mondays?began in the spring.
Here are four of the top reasons that GOP leaders should be worried now.
1. The public disgust of the NC legislature is bolstering Sen. Kay Hagan’s re-election, according to the PPP.
Hagan’s most-probable challengers, Thom Tillis and Phil Berger, struggle even with the GOP base. The same poll shows that voters?are respectively?49 and 41 percent?less likely to support either because of their roles in the General Assembly. The poll taken last month also shows a 7 and 11-point lead for Hagen, in spite of an oversample of Republicans.
2. The public’s anger carries over to Gov. Pat McCrory as well.
McCrory’s approval rating has been in a 26-point free-fall from March. The credit, according to the PPP report, is the backlash for McCrory’s hand in the General Assembly’s actions. McCrory’s 39 percent approval only tops scandal-ridden Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell by 8 points. On Thursday NC Attorney General Roy Cooper became the third Democrat to consider opposing McCrory in 2016.
3. The NC Voter ID law, the GOP’s solution to minority and youth voting, is unlikely to be in effect during the elections.
Courts suspended Voter ID laws in Pennsylvania?and Wisconsin?during recent elections and could extend the same in NC. Moreover, the ruling will likely be based on the test used in the last Supreme Court case on Voter ID: if the need for the law justifies the burdens it imposes. While only?121?of the nearly 7-million votes cast in NC last year were investigated for fraud, an?estimated 318,000 voters did not have the required ID.
4. The entire GOP stands to lose more than just control of NC if the GOP is held accountable for the General Assembly.
The RNC platform heavily touts many of the positions that have cost the NC GOP public favor. Since NC legislators serve two year terms, every seat faces election in 2014. If the GOP is clobbered after fulfilling the party platform in the GOP’s backyard, surely Republicans in battle-ground states will think harder before refusing to compromise. Even with the election more than a year away, the rate at which the political momentum has shifted should be a cause of concern for GOP leaders.
edited by Kyla B
