Four out of five North Carolina residents -- including 74 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of Democrats, and 82 percent of Independents -- say the state should focus on increased energy efficiency, conservation and sustainable energy sources before building new coal-fired power plants.

That's among the findings of a new poll conducted by the Opinion Research Corp. for the Civil Society Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Massachusetts. The results were released today -- Earth Day, of course -- by the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, a Durham-based group that's fighting to stop Duke Energy from opening a new coal-fired power plant in the western part of the state.

The poll also found that 69 percent of North Carolina residents would pick wind or solar energy if they could decide where to invest money for new electric power generation. In addition, it found that 59 percent of the state's residents -- including majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike -- would be more likely to vote for a political candidate who spoke out against Duke's plans.

"The pressure to cancel Cliffside will keep growing as the public learns the intensity of our climate crisis," said N.C. WARN Director Jim Warren. "We urge [Duke CEO Jim] Rogers to avoid dragging Duke Energy through a four-year battle against the people of North Carolina."

But when it comes to educating the public about Duke's plans, Warren and his allies have their work cut out for them. The poll found that two-thirds of North Carolina residents have little or no awareness of the company's intention to build the Cliffside facility. Only 34 percent said they were aware of the plans, with just 9 percent "very aware."

Labels: climate, coal, Duke Energy, global warming, Jim Rogers, NCWARN, polls

Sen. Barack Obama is still in the driver's seat for the North Carolina primaries next month. A new poll by the conservative Civitas Institute shows that Obama has expanded on a lead that's grown into the double-digits over the last month:

The Civitas Institute’s April DecisionMaker shows Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) leading Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) 45-27 in the Democratic primary for President. 28 percent of those polled were undecided.

“Unless Hillary Clinton can do something dramatic in the next few weeks to change voter sentiment, it appears that Sen. Obama is on his way to winning North Carolina quite handily,” stated Civitas Institute Executive Director Francis DeLuca.

An equally interesting story: Sen. John McCain appears to be benefiting from the long Democratic primary in North Carolina.

Looking forward to a potential General election matchup, presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) leads both Democratic counterparts by sizeable margins. McCain leads Obama 48-39 and leads Clinton 50-37.

The Civitas poll reflects a trend that is likely disturbing N.C. Democrats: McCain's growing advantage in a general election match-up against both Democratic candidates.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has shown the most vulnerability. After polling close to McCain for several months, the last three surveys in North Carolina have shown Clinton down by double digits going head-to-head with the Republican nominee -- all polls show McCain with at least an 11 point advantage.

Obama fares slightly better in a North Carolina match-up with McCain. The last two polls of a McCain/Obama contest show McCain winning by nine points -- except for a recent Rasmussen poll, which shows McCain and Obama tied.

UPDATE: A Public Policy Polling survey echoes Obama's big lead in N.C.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, john mccain, north carolina primary, polls

This is the latest installment in a series on the upcoming North Carolina primaries.

Maybe Sen. Barack Obama will run away with the North Carolina primary after all.

On Wednesday, I tried to make sense of a recent Public Policy Polling survey (pdf) which showed Obama with a whopping 21 point advantage over Sen. Hillary Clinton among N.C. Democrats.

Given that previous polls had put Obama's lead in the 5-8% range, I concluded it was too early to tell if his lead was really that big.

But a new InsiderAdvantage poll suggests Obama may indeed be headed for a rout in N.C. The latest survey shows Obama leading Clinton 49% to 34% in North Carolina -- a commanding 15 point advantage.

Political Wire reports on the key findings:

[According to the pollsters] "A modest but significant portion of whites are drifting from Clinton back into the 'undecided' column."

Said pollster Matt Towery: "If [Clinton] loses badly here, regardless of any modest gains in the national delegate count, her candidacy may be done unless her primary victories in Florida and Michigan somehow end up being seated at the national nominating convention."

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, north carolina primary, polls

This is part of a series of Facing South posts covering the upcoming North Carolina primary elections.

A survey from Public Policy Polling this week turned heads: After releasing a poll in mid-March showing Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama neck-and-neck in North Carolina (Obama 44%, Clinton 43%), PPP came out with another poll this week (pdf) showing Obama with a commanding lead.

In the poll released on Monday, Obama had expanded his lead over Clinton to 21 points -- 55% to 34%. As PPP reports:

This 21 point lead is the largest he has shown in any NC polling to date, and an indication that the Wright controversy isn't causing him any long term harm at least in this state.

It's hard to argue with the analysis, but that's still a big jump in one week. How big really is Obama's lead in NC?

The truth is likely somewhere in the middle, but with momentum in Obama's favor.

Most other polls of the Democratic presidential candidates in North Carolina were done earlier in March, before the latest round of "controversies" (Obama and Rev. Wright; Clinton and Bosnia).

But they all show an Obama lead, the margin being roughly in the middle of that found in the two latest PPP surveys:

Survey USA (March 8-10): Obama 49%, Clinton 41%
Rasmussen (March 6): Obama 47%, Clinton 40%
PPP (March 3): Obama 47%, Clinton 42%

The latest PPP poll may or may not be an outlier, but it likely does capture some real momentum in Obama's favor. That would be in line with trends over the last few months -- especially since January, when Obama began passing Clinton regularly in the North Carolina polls, as this graph from Pollster shows.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, north carolina, polls

Sen. Hillary Clinton squeaked out a winner in the Texas primary showdown yesterday for lots of reasons, including strong organization and a slew of hard-hitting attack ads that drew blood.

The exit polls show four overlapping constituencies were largely responsible for the Clinton victory: seniors, Latinos and those without a college education -- all groups she won by a 2-1 margin -- and of course women, who made up 57% of the electorate and voted for her by an 11 point margin.

Lurking near the bottom of the exit poll questions, however, are some possibly disturbing numbers about the role race and gender played out in Texas.

First, gender. Almost one in four voters -- 24% -- said that gender was "important" in deciding who should be president. But that didn't work against Clinton -- indeed, 61% of those who felt gender was "important" voted for her, and only 39% of them went for Obama.

Race is a different story. Slightly less -- 19%, or one in five voters -- said that race was important in their decision. But of those who felt race was important, 52% voted against Obama and went for Clinton; 47% of those who felt race was "important" went for Obama.

In other words, gender seemed to help Clinton, but race seemed to hurt Obama.

This is in line with the results of exit polls from Super Tuesday, which found almost one in 10 voters openly saying Obama's race was a factor in not voting for him. Those saying Clinton's gender was a factor in opposing her was slightly less (8.5%).

And those are just the people who admitted it.

So the take-away from Texas appears similar to Super Tuesday: sexism and racism are both alive and well -- but race is having a greater impact, to Obama's detriment.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, gender, hillary clinton, polls, race and racism, texas