Obama regains large leadRaleigh, N.C. – After a week in which Barack Obama made several appearances in North Carolina and confronted the controversy with his pastor by making a major speech on race, he has expanded his lead in North Carolina to 21 points.
Obama leads Clinton 55-34 in the state. His gains were particularly strong in the Triangle, the media market where his major speech on the war last week in Fayetteville got the greatest amount of attention.
Obama also pulled within a 47-40 margin of Clinton with white voters after trailing Clinton 56-30 last week, an indication that his speech on race in Philadelphia last week may have earned him some points.
“The rule of thumb in this Presidential race is that if you don’t like how things are going, just wait a week and they’ll turn around,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Obama has really improved his standing in North Carolina by visiting the state and openly taking on some of the controversies swirling around his campaign.”
In the Governor’s race Richard Moore has pulled within seven points of Bev Perdue after launching his first negative ad. She leads 41-34. The poll also showed that 50% of likely voters say there is a chance they could change their votes between now and the election.
Kay Hagan continues to maintain a double digit lead over Jim Neal in the primary for US Senate, 19-9. 61% of voters remain undecided in that race. For the Lieutenant Governor’s race, Walter Dalton leads at 10% followed by Dan Besse and Pat Smathers at 7%, and Hampton Dellinger at 6%.
PPP surveyed 673 likely Democratic primary voters on March 24th. The survey’s margin of error is +/- 3.8%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_032508.pdf
