Perdue, Moore, and state employees

There's been a mini controversy brewing today about polling, state employees, and the ceaseless Perdue/Moore bloodbath.

SEANC (the State Employees Association of North Carolina) recently commissioned a poll that showed 47% of responding members supporting Bev Perdue for Governor, with 32% supporting Richard Moore.

The poll was conducted by Hart Research Association, which also happens to be Perdue's pollster. My understanding is that Peter Hart himself works with SEANC while his partner Fred Yang works with Perdue, as he also worked with Mike Easley.

Some folks think that's a problem and some people don't, according to a Charlotte Observer article today.

Meanwhile Richard Moore's campaign released results from a poll it did showing Perdue with only a 32-30 lead over Moore among respondents who worked for state government or were state retirees.

My take:

-On the conflict of interest issue, it's really up to the members of SEANC and the Perdue campaign to decide if there's a problem or not. If both entities are comfortable with it, it doesn't seem like an issue.

-In the absence of more specifics the numbers Moore's camp put out today are meaningless. If their poll surveyed 800 people I would guess fewer than 100 were current or retired state employees and with a sample of that size the results would have little significance. It would be good for the Moore campaign to release more specifics if they want to make the case that the SEANC numbers were overly friendly to Perdue.