#ncsen: PPP says Hagan 46, Tillis 43, Haugh 5
This survey of 780 likely voters was conducted by left-leaning Public Policy Polling from October 16 to 18. It has a margin of error of +-3.5 percent.
Like the Gravis poll, PPP also took a look at a Hagan-Tillis head-to-head matchup. They found Hagan still leading 47-44. PPP polled Haugh voters and found they favor Tillis over Hagan — as their second choice — by a slim margin of 34-30.
PPP found a 41-50 approve-disapprove rating for Hagan. Tillis’s approve-disapprove rating was at 37-49. It looks like attack ads run by both sides have inflicted serious damage on each candidate.
The PPP survey found Obama’s approval-disapproval at 42-52.
There was one particularly interesting nugget in the poll’s findings that ought to finally shut up the Blueprint crowd. General Assembly Republicans and Democrats are just about matching each other in terms of respondent disapproval. Also, a generic General Assembly Republican candidate edges out a generic Democrat candidate 46-44 in this poll.
Whenever a Libertarian runs above the 2% mark, it is an indication of either 1) an exceptional LP candidate (not the case in this race) or 2) voters using the LP line as a substitute for ”None of the Above”. GOP voters are particularly prone to do the latter when they are unhappy with the GOP nominee.
One major blunder of the TIllis campaign was not using the last debate when Haugh was present to make him unacceptable for GOP voters as a ”none of the above” option. There was a clear issue to do that on, amnesty and open borders. Polls show that the number one issue of GOP voters this year in cracking down on illegal immigration, but Haugh is a radical proponent of open borders. Exposing that would make Haugh radioactive for conservative voters who are not so happy with Tillis. The debate was such a golden opportunity to do this, but the numbskulls running the Tillis campaign totally blew it. An added bonus of hitting this issue is that the Washington Post polling showed opposition to a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens is a vote winner for Republicians among independents and moderate voters. This was a win / win for Tillis if he had just had the sense to use it.