I know, it’s a running joke, right… But according to a new poll by ABC News, Tiger Woods’ favorable rating is higher than that of our own Gov. Bev Perdue.
In a basic measure of popularity, just 39 percent express a favorable opinion of Woods
overall, essentially unchanged from its level just before his apology and still vastly below its
peak, a remarkable 88 percent nearly 10 years ago.
According to our latest poll from February, only 38 percent of North Carolina voters had a favorable opinion of Perdue.
And if you remember back to last fall, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina during the aftermath of his “hiking expedition” had higher poll numbers than Perdue.
So do voters really think sex scandals aren’t as bad as raising taxes, cutting education and slashing teacher pay? Or is there just something else about Gov. Perdue they just don’t like?
In our poll this month, we asked voters if Gov. Bev Perdue nicknaming herself as the “Jobs Governor” was an appropriate title for the Governor given her first year in office. Only 12% of voters said yes. 68 percent said no.
As for her favorability rating this month it comes in at a -5 (43% unfavorable, 38% favorable), about the same as it was in December (-5).
Perdue’s numbers have rebounded from her lowest points this summer when the rating was -14. This is mainly through her improved standing among Republicans where her unfavorables have fallen from a high of 72% in October to 56% now. Perdue is now back up at 50% favorable with members of her own party for the first time since April 2009.
Wow, just when you thought Gov. Bev Perdue’s hypocrisy on releasing inmates from prison couldn’t get any worse, it does.
So despite her very public, poll number pandering position on keeping some felons sentenced to life in prison in the 1970s locked up, Perdue’s actions continue to show she feels otherwise.
On August 28, 2009, Gov. Perdue signed into law two bills (SB 488 and SB 489) which collectively slash the sentences of many future rapists, murderers and other felons.
Now, WTVD catches Perdue throwing a Christmas winter solstice party at the Governor’s Mansion for the inmates that are assigned there on work release.
Yep, just one day after looking straight into TV cameras across North Carolina and professing that:
“How would you feel if you go home tonight and next door to you is the house where these folks are gonna be living?” she said. “How would you feel for your children? Is that the way we want to do things in North Carolina?”
She then attends a party that “included Reginald Patterson, who is serving life in prison for murder. There were nine other convicted killers and four armed robbers –a total of 17 prison inmates invited to the party, because they work at the governor’s mansion.”
So it’s not OK for some to rejoin society after serving 40 years in prison, but it’s perfectly fine to party with others and to cut the sentences of future felons.
One of the more interesting findings of this month’s poll results on Perdue’s favorability is her relative weakness with members of her own party. So it has to be asked, could she be vulnerable to a primary challenge in 2012?
Let’s explore the evidence:
1. She’s already ticked off a big portion of the Democratic base vote (teachers and state employees) with her executive order that cut their pay by 0.5% — which now seems unnecessary since she had $150 million left in the State’s Rainy Day fund unspent. (Remember, cutting their only got the state $60 million).
2. Perdue’s favorability rating among Democrats dropped below 50% in June and has never recovered. In our December poll, it’s at 43%.
Perdue’s Favorability with Democrats:
3. Also in our December poll, we asked what is called a “hard re-elect” question. This is used to gauge a politicians core support. Basically, it asks would you vote for (Insert Politician X) regardless of who ran against them. When asked about Perdue more than half of Democrats (51%) said no, they wouldn’t vote to re-elect her regardless of the opponent. Only 28% say they would. So more than half of Democrats are open to another candidate.
So what would happen if a popular Democrat got in the race against her? What if Cal Cunningham runs a good race against Sen. Burr but loses in a squeaker? Or Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton? Could an untarnished Democrat give her a run for her money?
Or could she be vulnerable from a challenge from her left? She’s cut salaries of teachers and state employees, slashed funding for Medicaid and other social programs and passed a very regressive tax increase. The BlueNC crowd isn’t exactly enamored with her.
It would be interesting to see. The problem for Perdue is if she takes steps to rebuild her base, she runs the risk of further alienating everyone in the middle and right. Or she can keep trying to play it down the middle as she’s doing now and make everyone unhappy. That might work in negotiations, but it could be a death sentence in politics.
Despite the N&O’s assertion that Perdue is “winning over critics” the percentage of voters giving her a favorable opinion remains near her all time low. In fact, the percentage of voters giving her a favorable rating is down 5 percentage points this month. All that has changed with this poll is some of the unfavorables have moved to “no opinion.” That’s not exactly winning them over.
Supporters of the Dell deal in 2004 promised the state taxpayers that they would benefit from the $300 million tax giveaway deal. With Dell’s closing, even Speaker Joe Hackney is still trying to convince the public that the state will at least break even.
“The company didn’t get most of the incentives,” said Hackney, D-Orange, who was House Democratic leader at the time of the Dell deal. While the bottom line is still being calculated, he added, “either we didn’t lose money or we had a net gain in revenues for the state.”
But Hackney isn’t waiting for the final FACTS on the deal. From WRAL:
RALEIGH, N.C. — Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) officials said Tuesday that the company is entitled to keep the money saved through tax breaks the state offered to convince the computer maker to build an assembly plant in Winston-Salem.
And Governor Perdue currently looks somewhat foolish on this. At the time she was presiding over the senate, now she’s trying to defend the bad deal. Her words are almost comical if not for the fact that it is OUR money she made the mistake of not understanding.
“I will fight them if they want to fight about this,” Perdue said. “They made some agreements. We offered some incentives. The locals offered some incentives, and they need to live up to their side of the bargain. If that means going to court, I guess we will.”
Her aides later clarified her comments, conceding that, by law, Dell might be entitled to keep some of the tax breaks they earned while in business.
Obviously the Governor and the supporters of this bad deal didn’t read the small print. And if they go to court, we also pay. While the Democrats are caught up in this because they led, the GOP left itself little wiggle room on the deal as many of them also voted for it. Taxpayer lose yet again! This could have been a real issue for the GOP heading into next year’s elections. And very little coverage is being given to the dozens of incentive deals at the local level that have failed statewide.
Among the allegations “…approximately 50 North Carolina Politicians, including former and present governors, who were personal friends of both Rand, and Carrington, its former owner. The list showed that those persons had purchased large amounts of LEA stock in 2004 and 2005.” Carrington refers to former State Senator John Carrington (R-Wake) who served with Rand in the state senate until 2005.
While there is no proof that any of the claims are true it is interesting to note that The News & Observer published a story confirming that Gov. Bev Perdue (D) and former Gov. Mike Easley (D) both purchased stock in LEA. Easley and Rand have had what appears to be a close relationship over the years including an interesting real estate deal uncovered by Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington.
Looking at the history of LEA as a stock shows that it has had a very low volume of trades except for a brief period in the 2004 – 2005 time period. Given that not many people trade the stock and it can be considered a penny stock, it will be interesting to see if a number of politicians with connections to Rand turn out to have invested in this rather obscure stock.
As Francis pointed out earlier, Gov. Bev Perdue seems to be bending the truth when it comes to her stance on the gas tax. During her announcement on of a controversial funding mechanism to finish I-485 she told reporters that she would not “ever” raise the gas tax.
Apparently she meant qualify that and say ever again.
In fact, she was a co-sponsor of the legislation in 1989 that created the Highway Trust Fund which raised the gas tax by 5.25 cents per gallon.
Then again in 1991 she voted for HB 1222 which temporarily raised the gas tax by half cent per gallon. When that half cent was set to expire in 1995, she voted for SB 943 which made the increase permanent.
When it comes to taxes Perdue seems to promise one thing and do another. Remember back on October 23 of last year when candidate Perdue said: “I don’t believe that you can raise taxes in an economy with folks struggling the way they are” and then signed into law a $1.1 billion tax increase this summer.
Now she’s saying she wouldn’t ever raise the gas tax just 6 months after signing into law a gas tax increase.
In August, we were all told by the leadership of the General Assembly that $1.1 billion in tax increases were necessary in order to stave off massive, destructive cuts to “critical” state services.
Apparently we were lied to.
According to the Gov. Perdue’s budget director, the state has about $600 million socked away for a potential budget shortfall this year.
Perusse’s office estimates it will have $469 million from unused funds and holdbacks of up to 5 percent from state agencies ordered by Gov. Beverly Perdue to ensure there’s money to pay bills. There’s another $150 million in the rainy-day reserve fund.
So a little over half of the tax increase wasn’t even necessary! Apparently there was an extra 5% padded into the budget that Perdue could “holdback.” So why wasn’t that money just cut in the budget, making $469 million in tax increases unneeded?
Because raising taxes wasn’t about balancing the budget — it was about finding the manna needed to continue the General Assembly’s appetite for increased spending.
There’s that, and there’s also the argument that they raised taxes more than needed this year (2009) so they could avoid tax increases in an election year next year. Nah, the General Assembly wouldn’t place it’s own political survival over the best interests of the people of North Carolina now would they?
