Strong Approval for Perdue

Perdue Transition

Approve 60
Disapprove 24

Bev Perdue's getting strong marks across the board from North Carolina voters for how she's handled her transition into office.

The general election contest was closer than expected because of an unusual number of Democrats crossing over to support Pat McCrory but the way she's handled the beginning of her administration seems to have overwhelmingly won over folks in her party, as she gets an 82% approval rating from them. She also has a better than 2:1 approval from independents expressing an opinion, and has a third of Republicans looking favorably upon her performance so far.

Perdue was on the news pretty much every night in the Triangle during her first week of office, and that's paid off with particularly strong numbers there, where 66% of respondents approve of how she's handled the transition.

It does appear she still has some work to do winning folks over on the home ground of her November opponent. In the metro Charlotte area 50% of voters approve of her transition with 37% disapproving. That net approval of +13 runs 23 points behind the statewide figure of +36.

Perdue's approval is steady across demographic lines with a majority of every race, gender, and age group we track saying they approve of what she's done so far.

When I decided to ask this poll question a couple weeks ago I thought it was going to come out somewhere along the lines of 25% approve, 20% disapprove, and 55% expressing no opinion. The fact that Perdue's numbers came out so much better than that is a testament both to the fact that she's come across strong and substantive during her first few weeks in office, and also that she's done a good job of being visible enough that the public at large knows what she's been up to.

Often we elect strong campaigners who end up doing a poor job at governance. Perdue was surprisingly wobbly on the trail, but if she turns out to be better at governing than she was at campaigning that's probably a good deal for North Carolinians. It will be interesting to see if she can keep it up.

Full results here.