Civitas Poll: Walker Leads Selected GOP Hopefuls | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Jim Tynen, was originally published in the Elections & Voting and Politics sections of Civitas's online edition.

    The most recent Civitas Flash Poll shows Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with a lead among likely North Carolina Republican primary voters in a survey of selected candidates for the 2016 GOP nomination for president.

    Walker was the choice of 29 percent of the respondents. He was followed by Jeb Bush at 16 percent, Mike Huckabee at 14 percent and Dr. Ben Carson at 13 percent. Eight percent named Rand Paul, 7 percent Chris Christie and 3 percent Rick Santorum. Ten percent were in the "other/undecided" category.

    "Our survey showed Walker clearly in front for this survey," Civitas President Francis De Luca said. "However, there are numerous other prominent Republicans who have been mentioned as possible presidential candidates. Future Civitas polls will survey opinions about a range of potential contenders, a list that may well shift in response to news events and political trends."

    The poll also asked GOP primary voters about whether they approved of how President Obama, Gov. Pat McCrory, Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, and Attorney General Roy Cooper do their jobs.

    The poll surveyed 400 North Carolina Republican primary voters March 20-23, and had a margin of error of plus/minus 5 percent or less. Those respondents reached on a home telephone were interviewed by a recorded announcement. However, 18 percent were not reachable at home phones, and they were called and interviewed by live operators.

    Text of selected questions*:

    If the North Carolina 2016 Republican primary election for President of the United States were today, and these were the only Republican candidates on the ballot, who would you vote for? (Names rotated)

16%	Jeb Bush
29%	Scott Walker
8%	Rand Paul
7%	Chris Christie
13%	Ben Carson
3%	Rick Santorum
14%	Mike Huckabee
10%	Other / Undecided

    Do you approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as President?

5%	Approve
92%	Disapprove
3%	Not Sure

    Do you approve or disapprove of the job Pat McCrory is doing as Governor?

69%	Approve
20%	Disapprove
11%	Not Sure

    Do you approve or disapprove of the job Richard Burr is doing as United States Senator?

60%	Approve
20%	Disapprove
20%	Not Sure

    Do you approve or disapprove of the job Thom Tillis is doing as United States Senator?

67%	Approve
16%	Disapprove
17%	Not Sure

    Do you approve or disapprove of the job Roy Cooper is doing as North Carolina Attorney General?

38%	Approve
28%	Disapprove
34%	Not Sure

    *Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding.

    Crosstabs here.

    About the poll: Exclusively for the J.W. Pope Civitas Institute of Raleigh, on March 20-23, 2015, SurveyUSA interviewed 400 registered North Carolina voters who had cast a Republican ballot in one or both of the 2014 and 2012 Republican primaries. Respondents reachable on a home telephone (82% of primary voters) were interviewed on their home telephone in the recorded voice of a professional announcer. Respondents not reachable on a home telephone (18% of primary voters) were called by live-operators, who hand-dialed the phone, qualified the respondent, interviewed the respondent, logged the respondent's answers, and remained on the line until the conclusion of the call.

    For more information on Civitas polling, see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.