Local Politics

Poll: Burr, Hagan, Perdue get low marks

The approval ratings for U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan and Gov. Beverly Perdue all hover around 40 percent, according to a poll released Friday, and a majority of North Carolina residents think Burr should be voted out in this fall's election.

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ELON, N.C. — The approval ratings for U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan and Gov. Beverly Perdue all hover around 40 percent, according to a poll released Friday, and a majority of North Carolina residents think Burr should be voted out in this fall's election.

The Elon University Poll surveyed 508 residents statewide this week and also found that President Barack Obama has a higher approval rating than any North Carolina elected official. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Burr's approval rating among those surveyed was 40 percent, and 37 percent said they were dissatisfied with his representation on Capitol Hill. Twenty-four percent of respondents said he deserves to be re-elected in November, while 51 percent said it was time for someone else to represent North Carolina in Washington, D.C.

Still, most of the candidates lined up to replace Burr are unknown. With the exception Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, three-quarters or more of respondents don't know much about the other candidates for Burr's U.S. Senate seat.

“Despite the primary being a little more than 60 days away, people are simply not familiar with the candidates,” Hunter Bacot, director of the Elon University Poll, said in a statement. “Those polled do not like the candidates they are familiar with. It is just not a good year to be a politician and running for office.”

Hagan, who doesn't face re-election for another four years, had similarly low numbers in the poll. Her approval rating was 40 percent, and 40 percent said they were dissatisfied with her representation.

Perdue had a 41 percent approval rating among those surveyed.

Meanwhile, Obama's approval rating in the poll was 50 percent, and more people thought he would do a better job addressing the nation's problems than Congress.

Respondents gave Congress a 19 percent approval rating, and nearly two-thirds said they had little or no confidence in the House of Representatives or the Senate. While 36 percent of those surveyed said Obama would handle national issues the best, only 29 percent said Republicans in Congress would do a better job and just 12 percent said Democrats in Congress would. Eighteen percent said none of them would handle pressing issues adequately.

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