The people of North Carolina have spoken.  And they are not happy with the state government’s handling of the economy. 7,672 North Carolinians responded to the “Concerned Citizens Survey”: 87 percent of the respondents vote in every election, another 11 percent vote in most elections. (Politicians, do we have your attention now?) Could this widespread populist anger spell trouble for Democrats in the state in 2010?

Here are some survey highlights:

>> “Do you think North Carolina’s economy is improving or getting worse?”

• Getting worse - 67.6%
• About the same - 25.3%
• Improving - 7.1%

>> “What economic issue concerns you the most in North Carolina?”

• Government spending - 40.0%
• Taxes - 19.3%
• Cost of Health Care - 14.3%
• Education - 10.3%
• Immigration - 9.0%
• Annexation - 7.1%

>> “Do you think the budget crisis in North Carolina is due to a slow economy or from too much wasteful government spending?”

• Wasteful spending - 74.5%
• Slow economy - 19.8%
• Other - 5.7%

>> To the question of “What is the most important factor in deciding who gets your vote?”, respondents rated honesty, standing on the issues, and experience as the top three factors. Party affiliation and campaign advertising were rated as “Not Important” or “Least Important” by 52 percent and 79 percent, respectively.

>> And a few of our favorite responses to the question, “If you could have a conversation with your local elected officials, what would you like to tell them?”

• “Stop wasting our money!”
• “We as citizens tighten our belts…why doesn’t the government?”
• “What is REALLY happening with the ‘education’ lottery money?”
• “Stop spending. Listen to your constituents.”
• “Stop spending money we don’t have!”
• “Taxed. Enough. Already.”
• “Spending, not revenue, is the problem.”
• “I’m embarrassed by the state government of North Carolina.”
• “I’m a life-long Democrat, but I just changed to Independent.”
• “Get your priorities straight!”
• “Remove 100% of pork spending before you raise a single dollar in additional taxes.”
• “Listen to the people.”
• “I would like to tell him that he will be the former elected official from my district.”
• “STOP SPENDING!!!”

The citizens have spoken.  RunSmart2Win will make sure the politicians representing the people of North Carolina hear them. RunSmart2Win will hand-deliver the survey results to Legislative Office Building in Raleigh. We will post a video of the survey results being delivered. Stay tuned for that; it’s sure to become a YouTube classic!

Click here to download the full results of the NC Concerned Citizens Survey.

Tags: Carolina Strategy Group, Concerned Citizens Survey, Gov. Bev Perdue, NC House of Representatives, NC Politics

This entry was posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 10:22 am and is filed under Grassroots Activism, NC Politics, Polls & Surveys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.