RALEIGH – The Civitas Institute’s latest poll numbers on North Carolina politics and public policy are well worth your examination.

In the past few months, Civitas has broadened its traditional monthly polling program to include both “flash” snapshot polls, conducted by interactive voice response (IVR) firms, and longer-form surveys conducted by live operators. The institute’s latest poll is example of the latter category, and was designed in part to test how likely voters would respond to different ways to phrase the same basic question.

First some basics. The poll found a slight edge for Republicans, 41-39, in the generic legislative ballot. At the same time, its sample was a bit more generous to incumbents than previous Civitas samples have been, giving President Obama a 50 percent-48 percent job approval and Governor Perdue a 43-49.

As should always be expected, the respondents exhibited a mixture of views that one might consider conservative and liberal. For example, while a large majority embraced fiscal conservatism – about three-quarters expressed disapproval of the General Assembly’s billion-dollar tax increase earlier this year and 61 percent said government was trying to do too much, vs. 31 percent who called for more government action – the poll respondents were also favorable to proposals such as reducing class size and raising teacher pay that would cost taxpayers more money.

The lesson? If a legislative candidate can persuade voters that he voted for a tax increase to protect public education budgets, he might win them over. If his opponent can persuade voters that schools could have been protected without tax increases, the incumbent will have a big problem.

Some other lessons from the Civitas Institute’s October poll:

• Regarding abortion rights, more North Carolinians identified themselves as pro-life (49 percent) than pro-choice (44 percent).

• Beverly Perdue’s personal favorability rating (37 percent) was lower than her job-approval rating (43 percent). That’s not typical. The president’s favorability was about the same as his job approval in this poll, for instance. The governor has a charisma gap.

• Based on responses about partisan preferences on issues, North Carolina Democrats have another challenge. They were still clearly favored over Republicans on education (44 percent to 33 percent) while Republicans outpolled Democrats on taxes and government spending (43 percent to 27 percent). The problem is that twice as many voters (14 percent) rated taxes and spending as the most important issue facing the state as rated education the most important issue (7 percent). In close races, this issue-intensity gap may favor the GOP.

• On the other hand, Republicans counting on the fallout from the Mike Easley scandal to push them over the finish line in 2010 should note that likely voters gave them only a statistically insignificant edge over Democrats (32 percent to 29 percent) when it comes to fighting government corruption. Many voters have doubts about the ethics of both parties. While 20 percent said that the Easley scandal makes them less likely to vote for Democrats next year, 5 percent said it would make them more likely to vote Democratic, yielding a net swing of 15 percent. That’s a tailwind, but it’s not exactly gale force.

There’s much more. Read and draw your own conclusions. Mine are these: North Carolina politics is a fascinating subject. Good – I’d hate to have to come up with column topics in another state.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation