Some positives for Perdue

Bev Perdue's poll numbers are still pretty bad, but after almost a year of nothing but bad news they're beginning to show some positive signs.

30% of voters in the state express approval of the job she's doing with 47% disapproving. Here are the positives:

-47% is the lowest percentage of North Carolinians disapproving of Perdue since last April when it was 40%. From May to December of 2008 a majority of the state's voters gave Perdue bad marks in all but one month, but now both PPP surveys in 2010 have shown her disapproval back below 50%.

-Perdue's 29% approval rating with independents is the best it's been since that April poll and her 17% with Republicans is the strongest it's been since last March. Those numbers with Republicans and independents are about par for the course for a Democrat in this tough political climate.

Her overall numbers are still pretty bad because voters within her own party continue to be unenthusiastic about her. Just 41% of Democrats like the job she's doing with 37% disapproving. She's particularly struggling with black voters who were critical to her victory in the primary two years ago- 42% of them disapprove of Perdue to just 37% giving her good marks.

The last time Perdue's approval rating was in positive territory she was at a 61/22 spread with Democrats, so those are the kinds of numbers she needs with her base to get her overall approval back to a healthy level.

This much seems clear for Perdue though: the bleeding has stopped. Fewer North Carolinians think she's doing a bad job now. What she hasn't done yet is convince enough that she's doing a good job. A lot of voters have moved from the disapprove column to the ambivalent one. Perdue still has a lot of work to do but things don't look nearly as dire for her as they did last summer. And that makes her a rare Democratic politician whose position is improving this winter.

Full results here