Perdue approval falls

Bev Perdue's approval rating has fallen over the last month from 44/35 to 41/40 following the unveiling of her budget proposal.

The drop is relatively steady across party lines with a ten point drop among Democrats (from +49 to +39), a seven point one with Republicans (from -39 to -46), and a seven point one with independents (from -2 to -9).

Digging deeper into the numbers though it appears that the more left leaning a voter is the more likely their opinion of Perdue is to have suffered since mid-March. Among respondents describing themselves as liberals she's gone from +56 to +41, among moderates she's gone from +31 to +20, and among conservatives her numbers are actually slightly improved from -34 to -33. Some liberals have complained about Perdue's budget, wishing that she would be more willing to generate additional revenue to keep programs they value at their current levels of funding or greater.

Some clear trends are beginning to emerge in Perdue's numbers now that she's been in office for a little more than three months. Her numbers have been their weakest in the Triad and in the Mountains on each of our approval polls. This time around she's at 38/48 in the former and at 35/38 in the latter.

There's some good news for her as well though. For the third time in a row this month her numbers in the greater Charlotte region outshine her overall statewide performance, an indication that outreach efforts where she fared poorest against Pat McCrory last fall are paying some dividends. Her strongest numbers are generally coming in the Triangle, where her work gets the most attention in the media. It's a good sign for her that where voters are most familiar with what she's doing she receives her highest marks and it may mean she just needs to do more to boost her visibility in other parts of the state.

Full results here