Source: Civitas Press Release, March 24

Raleigh, N.C. - By a narrow margin, North Carolina voters think politicians in the state are ethical, according to a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute.

Forty-five percent of voters said they think politicians in the state are ethical.  Forty-three percent said they are not, and 11 percent said they do not know or did not answer.

This is a large increase over a January 2010 Civitas poll when 34 percent said they thought the average elected official in the state was honest and ethical compared to 50 percent who said they were unethical and dishonest at that time.

Looking at party registration, voters are split on the issue.  Democratic (52 percent yes – 35 percent no) and unaffiliated voters (46 percent yes – 44 percent no) think politicians in the state are ethical.  Republican voters disagree by a 35 percent – 56 percent margin.

“While the public’s opinion of elected officials has improved since the November 2010 election, they remain skeptical as news stories continue about investigations into political campaigns and the intense coverage of the new legislature,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca.

The Civitas Poll is the only regular live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina.  For more information on Civitas polling see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.

Full text of question:

“Generally speaking, do you think politicians in this state are ethical?”
Yes – 45%
No – 43%
Don’t Know/Refused – 11%

Click here for full results and crosstabs.

This poll of 600 registered general election voters in North Carolina was conducted March 14-16 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ.  All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina.  For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.

The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.