Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Little Support for Appointed Council of State Positions

Do you think that positions such as Agriculture Commissioner, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Labor Commissioner, and Insurance Commissioner should be appointed or elected jobs?

Elected 65
Appointed 22

The immediate reaction of most North Carolina voters to the possibility of giving up their votes for some of the more low profile Council of State positions is a pretty clear 'no.'

The practical reality of that is that even if the legislature passed a bill to hold a referendum on making Superintendent or any other position appointed, someone would have to fund an expensive advocacy campaign to explain to voters why giving away their votes would be a good idea in order to change their initial opposition to it. It seems safe to say that no one cares enough about whether any of these positions are elected or appointed to put a significant quantity of money behind such a campaign.

While 26% of Democrats support a move to appointing these positions only 15% of Republicans do. That gap may be a product of the fact that electing Commissioners of Labor and Agriculture has made it possible to keep Cherie Berry and Steve Troxler as Republican voices on the Council of State that wouldn't be there if Bev Perdue got to appoint the people who hold their offices.

There are no subgroups PPP tracks that give even plurality support to this possible move.

Full results here.

No comments:

 
Web Statistics