THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 19, 1996 TAG: 9602190018
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
North Carolina voters have a mighty low opinion of their elected officials.
It's so low that four out of 10 support a third political party, a poll shows.
Voters say politicians are either too conservative or too liberal and interested only in getting re-elected. Politicians look after corporate issues over individuals' concerns, but mostly they look after themselves, voters say.
``The polarization now between the right and the left is really absurd,'' says Charlotte Homsher, a writer in Asheville. ``You listen to those people talk and they don't say anything. All they're doing is putting each other down about issues.''
Only 15 percent of citizens believe their elected officials represent the public interest, the poll shows. Twice as many say politicians look after corporate interests. Whose interests do politicians most often represent? Their own, almost half the citizens say.
``There's no more statesmen,'' says Richard Moore, 79, who lives in Jackson County. ``They're all politicians looking out for their own well-being - how they're going to raise another million dollars to get elected.''
The poll was conducted for a consortium of North Carolina newspapers and television and radio stations. It was based on 1,000 interviews with adults across the state conducted Jan. 10 through 24. The sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
``Politicians don't talk about much of anything that means anything to me,'' says Paulette Owen, 52, a legal secretary in Transylvania County's Lake Toxaway. ``They're just interested in getting back into office. They give you answers that they think you want to hear.''
Like many, Melinda Hughes of Cary wishes her representatives would devote more time to solving problems and less to politics as usual.
``I wish they'd try to work together,'' she says. ``I'm tired of the party line. The Republicans are conservative, the Democrats are more liberal. There is a middle ground, if they quit these ego trips.''
While North Carolina residents seem turned off by traditional politics, interviews and other polls suggest that people are not as angry as they were in 1994, when they fired Democrats by the dozens and hired many new Republicans.
According to the poll, only a third of North Carolinians say Congress is moving in the right direction. By contrast, 51 percent say state government is on the right track.
The federal budget crisis and recent government shutdowns convinced many that some elected officials are more interested in political posturing than finding real solutions to problems.
``I would say grow up and stop behaving like little kids,'' says Ilona Sher, a 40-year-old systems analyst from Raleigh.
``Stop worrying about your own political careers and really care about the people you represent. Hopefully that will get them re-elected, and not the things they think they need to get re-elected.''
But elected officials could be forgiven if they scratch their heads at some mixed signals people send about government.
North Carolinians worry about government spending. Fifty-nine percent worry a lot about the budget deficit; 56 percent about the amount of taxes they pay. Three out of four want to reduce welfare spending. But:
Four out of five say Americans have a right to quality health care, regardless of their ability to pay.
Two out of three want more regulation of corporate mergers.
And most people would spend more on services such as education, child care and helping the poor.
The poll was conducted by KPC Research, which is owned by Knight Publishing Co., publisher of The Charlotte Observer.
These media belong to the consortium that sponsored the poll:
The Asheville Citizen-Times, The Charlotte Observer, the Fayetteville Observer-Times, the News & Record of Greensboro, The News & Observer of Raleigh and the Morning Star of Wilmington.
And: UNC-TV, WLOS-TV in Asheville, WBTV in Charlotte, WGHP-TV in Greensboro-High Point, WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, WWAY-TV in Wilmington and WUNC-FM in Chapel Hill.
KEYWORDS: POLL by CNB