Perdue's drop by voter group

In four months Bev Perdue's approval spread has gone from 44/35 to 25/55. I know conservatives want to claim it's all because she went public supporting a tax increase but her biggest drop actually came from April to May before she did that, so while I certainly wouldn't dispute that's part of what's going on I don't think it's the biggest thing.

Perdue's biggest declines in approval have come among moderate Democrats (a 30% drop) and liberal Democrats (a 24% drop). Those are the two party/ideology groups most likely to be opposed to huge spending cuts and most open to tax increases so there has to be something more to what's going on here.

I offered some theories last week, but here's my big question: why is Bev Perdue so unpopular, especially with her base? Is it lack of overall vision, failure to support progressive legislation, not being visible enough? We're interested in doing a poll digging deeper about why Perdue is where she is and any ideas you have about why that can be translated into coherent poll questions are very welcome.

This chart shows her overall approval decline by party/ideology group comparing March and July:

Group	Perdue Approval in March	Perdue Approval in July	Change
Moderate Democrats	68	38	-30
Liberal Democrats	72	48	-24
Moderate Independents	43	22	-21
Conservative Democrats	50	29	-21
Moderate Republicans	29	11	-18
Conservative Republicans	13	8	-5
Conservative Independents	17	17	No Change