THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996 TAG: 9605020431
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
If the general election were held today, Republican Sen. Bob Dole would defeat President Clinton in once solidly Democratic North Carolina, a new poll reported Wednesday.
Dole would receive 48 percent of the state's votes to 42 percent for Clinton, the Mason-Dixon political survey for The Virginian-Pilot showed. Ten percent of those polled said they were undecided.
In Northeastern North Carolina, Dole led with 47 percent of those polled to 43 percent for Clinton.
``Dole's popularity is a bit mixed but is still significantly better than Clinton's,'' said Del Ali, vice president of Mason Dixon Media Research in Columbia, Md.
``Senator Dole's popularity is down slightly from the 52 percent to 37 percent advantage he held three months ago.''
The new numbers showed a major gender gap among the North Carolina voters who were questioned.
``Statewide, Dole has a large 53 percent to 37 percent advantage among men,'' said Ali, ``while Clinton leads 47 percent to 43 percent with women.
``And not surprisingly, there is a strong racial divide with North Carolina blacks backing Clinton 77 percent to 7 percent. Whites favor Dole 58 percent to 33 percent.''
Among North Carolina Republicans, Dole's lead was a comfortable 85 percent to 7 percent for Clinton, the poll showed. In his Democratic Party, Clinton polled 61 percent of the Democratic vote, but ``Dole's 28 percent share among that group is significant,'' Ali said.
Pat Buchanan, Dole's only likely GOP challenger in Tuesday's Republican primary, is all but out of the running in the survey, trailing Dole 21 percent to 67 percent in the Mason-Dixon poll. Twelve percent were undecided when asked which Republican they would vote for in the primary.
Few voters in North Carolina think much of Ross Perot and his independent candidacy.
``Perot's negatives continue to rise,'' said Ali, ``with 60 percent now saying their opinion of him is unfavorable.''
In a three-way race with Dole and Clinton, Perot would get only 5 percent of the vote, down from 9 percent in February, the poll showed.
With Perot running on such a triangular course, Dole would get 47 percent of the votes and Clinton 41 percent, the Mason-Dixon survey reported.
Mason-Dixon conducted the survey April 29 and 30, interviewing 829 registered North Carolina voters by telephone. All said they voted regularly.
In the survey sample were 410 men, 419 women, 656 whites, 172 blacks and one ``other.'' Politically those questioned included 483 Democrats, 279 Republicans and 67 independents.
``The margin for error in the survey, according to statistical standards, is no more than plus or minus 3.5 percentage points,'' said Ali. by CNB