THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190358
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 37 lines
Democratic Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. is holding a strong lead over Republican challenger Robin Hayes in the race for North Carolina governor, according to a new poll Wednesday that showed 27 percent of the voters now supporting Hunt are Republicans.
Overall, Hunt has the backing of 58 percent of likely voters, and Hayes has the support of 32 percent.
In July the governor's lead was 52-35, ``and the GOP candidate seemed to be slowly cutting into Hunt's lead,'' said Brad Coker, a Mason-Dixon poll director at the Columbia, Md., headquarters of the company.
``Since then Hunt has moved his base support well above the 50 percent threshold and widened his margin significantly,'' Coker said.
``While fellow Democrat Bill Clinton is an underdog in North Carolina, Governor Hunt's re-election campaign appears to be gaining strength,'' Coker said.
The poll noted that Hunt is maintaining his ``strong base'' among black voters of 85 percent while building up his recent surge of support almost exclusively among white voters.
In the July poll, Hunt and Hayes split the support of white voters, 43 percent to 42 percent, but the governor now has a 51 percent to 31 percent lead among whites, the poll showed.
The governor's surge in support since the July poll ``appears to be primarily a pro-Hunt vote rather than a rejection of Hayes,'' Coker said.
Fourteen percent of those polled said they had never heard of Hayes, a state representative from Concord and an official and heir to the Cannon towel textile complex.
Regionally, northeastern voters and Charlotte-area voters supported Hunt over Hayes by 60 percent or more in the poll.
KEYWORDS: POLL GUBERNATORIAL RACE by CNB