RALEIGH, N.C. – With a widely publicized video of a confrontation with two students on a Washington, DC sidewalk circulating, incumbent Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge now trails Republican challenger Renee Ellmers according to a new SurveyUSA poll released today by the Civitas Institute

 

 

According to the poll of 400 registered voters in North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional district, Ellmers leads Etheridge 39 percent to 38 percent. Twelve percent said they would vote for Libertarian Tom Rose and 11 percent said they were undecided.

 

Five out of six voters in the district had seen or heard about Etheridge’s on-camera confrontation with two college-aged students who asked him if he supported the Obama agenda. Of those voters who had seen it, 45 percent said the video made them less likely to support Etheridge now, including 32 percent of Democratic voters.

 

Of those polled, 40 percent said they have an unfavorable opinion of Etheridge. While only 25 percent view him favorably. Thirty-three percent said they had no opinion or were neutral.

 

Thus, Etheridge has a net -17 favorability rating when subtracting his favorability rating from his unfavorable rating.

Etheridge has been in elected office since 1973 and has served in Congress since 1996. Ellmers, a medical clinic director from Dunn, is relatively unknown to voters. Of those polled, 71 percent said they are neutral or had no opinion of her.

 

“With the mood of the voters in the second district, this was always going to be a tough race for Etheridge. However, the video confrontation has vastly complicated his efforts and has now put him in the national spotlight,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “Even prior to the video, Etheridge’s votes on the bailout, health care and Cap and Trade were hurting him with voters.”

 

Ellmers is also benefitting from the low approval ratings for President Obama by receiving support from almost 85 percent of majority voters who disapprove of Obama’s job performance. She also is getting almost 79 percent of the voters who think North Carolina is headed in the wrong direction.

 

“The second district is a conservative leaning district with suburbs, small towns and farms, the very places that are expressing the most displeasure with the current political agenda in Washington,” added De Luca. “If Ellmers can capitalize on the national publicity generated by the video and raise the resources to compete with Etheridge’s war chest she will be in a very good position.”

 

The district is rated as an R+2 district by the Cook Political Report – an index that rates the relative partisan voting habits of individual legislative districts.

 

The survey of 400 registered voters was taken June 15-16 by SurveyUSA on behalf of the Civitas Institute using the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) method. It has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.