THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607280099
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 66 lines
By accident or by design in an age of anxiety, a national political polling organization has created a worry-menu for North Carolinians who might otherwise overlook concerns that bother their neighbors.
More than half of those questioned in a presidential preference survey conducted by Mason-Dixon Media Research of Columbia, Md., said job security, the economy, candidate character and deficit spending worried them the most.
The Mason-Dixon researchers keyed their poll to the question: ``What issue do you feel will be most important to you when making your choice in this year's presidential race?''
There were some surprises:
Topping the worry-menu was job security, which bothered 19 percent of those questioned.
Presidential candidate-character came next, with 18 percent.
Deficit spending and the need for a balanced budget bothered 16 percent of the respondents.
No other concerns hit double-digit percentages, , said Brad Coker, a Mason-Dixon analyst.
Other issues included:
9 percent got steamed about welfare reform and social issues.
Tax reform bugged 8 percent.
Health/Medicare concerned 7 percent.
Education, 7 percent.
Abortion/morality, 4 percent.
Crime/drugs, 3 percent.
Political party policy, 2 percent.
Defense/foreign affairs, 2 percent.
Immigration, 1 percent.
Environment, 1 percent.
``Other'' and ``Not Sure'' each got 3 percent.
Abortion in the poll was broken down into ``Pro Choice,'' which would give women an option in abortions without government restrictions, and ``Pro-Life,'' which would make abortions legal only for rape, incest and the need to save the life of a mother.
Pro-Choice and Pro-Life split evenly among those polled, with 47 percent in each category, Coker said.
Sixty-five percent of likely Clinton voters were Pro-Choice, the poll showed. Sixty-four percent of probable Dole voters were Pro-Life.
Thirty-three percent of those surveyed said they had confidence in the U.S. economy, but 64 percent said they were worried about it.
Seventy-one percent said they thought the global U.S. military stance was ``volatile,'' and 24 percent said they felt the nation was not threatened at present.
Forty-three percent said they thought the Whitewater developments that involved the Clintons were essentially a witch hunt and not serious. Forty-nine percent said Whitewater was ``serious.''
Coker said the Mason-Dixon polling technique produced figures that would be 95 percent accurate if the entire state population were sampled. A total of 812 registered voters were questioned between July 18 and July 20.
In the sampling were 399 men and 413 women. Whites numbered 641, blacks, 169. There were 473 Democrats and 273 Republicans. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
What are we worried about?
[For complete graphic, see microfilm.]
KEYWORDS: MASON DIXON POLL NORTH CAROLINA ELECTION SURVEY by CNB