THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030556
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
With less than a week before Democrats choose their candidate for the U.S. Senate, Charlie Sanders has closed the once-wide margin between him and Harvey Gantt, a poll released Thursday shows.
Incumbent Jesse Helms, however, would beat either man in November, according to the poll by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research.
Gantt, the former Charlotte mayor who lost to Helms in 1990, remains the favorite for Tuesday's primary, but his edge over Sanders has dropped from 31 percentage points in February to 6 percentage points this week.
At the same time, Sanders's recognition rating rose by 50 points.
The poll shows that if the election were held today, 45 percent of voters would support Gantt and 39 percent Sanders, with 16 percent undecided.
Because the survey's margin for error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, the match is technically too close to call.
A Mason-Dixon pollster said Gantt, who is black, will need to rally minority voters to succeed in the primary. Gantt is favored by a 76 percent to 10 percent margin among blacks, while Sanders, who is white, holds a 53 percent to 29 percent lead among white voters surveyed.
``Gantt seems to need a large black voter turnout next Tuesday if he is going to hold off the hard-charging Sanders,'' pollster Del Ali said in a release Thursday.
Sanders has been running as the man who can beat Helms in November, but the poll indicates merely that he would lose in a closer race than Gantt.
This week's telephone survey of 829 North Carolina registered voters shows Helms fending off Sanders by a meager 45 percent to 43 percent margin, which is too close to call. The poll gives Helms a 46 percent to 38 percent advantage over Gantt.
The poll shows that North Carolina voters remain almost evenly divided over whether they like or dislike Helms. His favorable rating is 43 percent, nearly identical to his rating at this point in the 1990 campaign. His unfavorable rating is 41 percent, up five points from May 1990.
Gantt's rating is 34 percent favorable and 30 percent unfavorable, with nearly a third of those polled feeling neutral toward him. Sanders was rated favorably by 27 percent of those surveyed and unfavorably by 19 percent.
Northeastern North Carolina's view of a possible Helms-Gantt race nearly parallels the state as a whole, the survey shows. Helms leads Gantt 47 percent to 37 percent in the Northeast, compared with 46-38 statewide.
Helms holds a wider margin of support over Sanders in Northeastern North Carolina than in other regions.
Voters polled in 28 Northeastern counties supported Helms by a 48 percent to 40 percent gap. Statewide, Helms leads Sanders 45 percent to 43 percent.
The survey also showed that former auto racer Richard Petty, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, has a sizable lead over the principal Democratic contenders for the job.
Nearly two-thirds of voters are still undecided in the six-way Democratic primary race for secretary of state, the poll shows.
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE SENATE RACE POLL by CNB