With the election of tea party Republican Pat McCrory as governor last year, the GOP completed its first takeover of the North Carolina government in nearly 150 years. Since then, the Republican governor and state House and Senate have generated one embarrassing headline after another.
A few of these include the governor’s installation as budget czar Art Pope, a Koch brothers’ Mini-me; draconian cuts in benefits for the unemployed and Medicaid patients; raising taxes on the poor and middle class while cutting taxes for for Czar Pope and his fatcat cohorts; a short-lived proposal to jettison the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and institute an official state religion in North Carolina; a bill to make it a felony for women (but not men) to expose their nipples in public; and the stealthy passage of anti-abortion bill, first on the back of anti-Sharia law legislation and then as a rider on a motorcycle safety bill, during the July 4th holiday, a week when North Carolinians vacation at the beach.
And what about jobs, jobs, jobs? Nada. At 8.8 percent in May, North Carolina has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the country.
Results of a new poll from Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling show that North Carolina voters are beginning to return to their traditional progressive moderation on political issues:
North Carolinians are very angry about the abortion bill that’s been working its way through the General Assembly…and now their anger toward state government is really being directed toward Governor Pat McCrory.
For the first time since taking office we find that McCrory has a negative approval rating this month. Only 40 percent of voters are happy with the job he’s doing to 49 percent who disapprove. That’s down a net 15 points from June when he was at a 45/39 spread…
Unhappiness over the abortion bill seems to be driving a lot of the increased unhappiness with the Republicans in state government this month. Only 34 percent of voters support the proposal to 47 percent who are opposed. They’re even more unhappy with the process- 80 percent think it’s inappropriate to combine abortion legislation with bills about motorcycle safety or Sharia Law.
This speaks to a greater issue voters have with the General Assembly’s transparency- only 19 percent think the body is transparent in how it conducts its business to 51 percent who believe it is not. As a result North Carolinians think by a 48/33 margin that McCrory should veto the abortion law, including a 51/37 margin with independents.
That’s not the only recent action by the Republicans in state government that voters are unhappy about though:
- 55 percent of voters are unhappy with the legislation that resulted in 70,000 North Carolinians losing their unemployment benefits earlier this month to only 29 percent who are supportive of it. There’s strong opposition to this development by both independents (32/55) and Democrats (10/78)…
- Voters think the ongoing Republican focus on Sharia Law is misplaced energy — just 17 percent think it’s a pressing issue state government should address to 46 percent who think it is not with 37 percent not having an opinion either way, quite possibly an indication that they don’t even know what it is. Even among Republicans only 23 percent think combating Sharia Law is an important priority.
All of this could come back to bite Republicans in next year’s election. The GOP has an overall 35 percent approval rating for how it’s running state government with 55 percent of voters disapproving. Democrats now lead the generic legislative ballot 51/42, the largest lead we’ve ever found for them since we started tracking this statistic.
