WRAL Poll

If you'd told me two or three weeks ago that I would be more worried about picking the Republican candidate for Governor wrong than the Democratic candidate I don't think I would have believed it. But yesterday's WRAL polls are further confirmation that's where we are.

They show Fred Smith leading Pat McCrory 32-31. Survey USA and PPP still show McCrory leading by four and five points respectively but the WRAL data is fresher and the trend has been in Smith's direction so they may be right. We might have to consider even doing an extra Monday poll after our standard weekend poll if this races remains too close to call.

On the Democratic side WRAL pretty much confirms that Bev Perdue has somewhere around a low double digit lead. The three polls this week have shown it at 9, 11, and 14.

In the Presidential race they show Obama's lead in the state slipping to seven. I find that entirely plausible considering the kind of week Obama is having. It would not be surprising if we find similar slippage in our polling this weekend.

WRAL doesn't seem to have the full data from these polls anywhere on its website or if they do I'm missing it. I really appreciate the fact that WTVD partners with Survey USA and puts everything out there- if you're going to invest in polling you should make as much of the information available to your viewers as possible.