Monday, March 23, 2009

Tobacco issue has potential to hurt Burr

A Charlotte Observer story over the weekend points out that Richard Burr ranks second in Congress for receiving tobacco money.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at our February poll and see how Burr's approval aligns with folks' opinions about the proposed smoking ban in the General Assembly.

The answer? Voters who don't have an opinion about Burr one way or the other- 25% of the electorate- are also the most supportive of banning smoking in public places.

Overall we found 64% of North Carolinians support the ban with 31% in opposition. But with the swath of the electorate that hasn't formed an opinion about Burr the numbers are 69% in favor of the smoking prohibition and just 26% opposed.

With the voters ambivalent about Burr pretty overwhelmingly not sympathetic to the tobacco lobby, it will be interesting to see if this becomes a liability in Burr's reelection campaign.

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