THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502250194
SECTION: NORTH CAROLINA PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
President Clinton's job-performance rating continues to slip while a majority of voters in predominantly Democratic North Carolina give the Republican leadership in Congress generally good reviews, a new poll showed Friday.
Statewide, 35 percent rate Clinton's performance as excellent or good, down from 38 percent in October of 1993 during Clinton's first year in office, the Mason-Dixon media research survey reported.
The new poll asked voters scattershot questions that covered a wide range of interests.
Unusually good marks were given to Sen. D.M. ``Lauch'' Faircloth, Sen. Jesse Helms' Republican partner in the U.S. Senate. For many years, Faircloth was better known in N.C. as a devout Democrat.
Faircloth was a wheel-horse fund-raiser for the Democratic Party before he switched to the GOP three years ago after a bitter fight with former Sen. Terry Sanford, a revered Democratic Party leader and former N.C. governor.
As a new Republican, Faircloth got his revenge when he defeated Sanford in 1992.
Meanwhile, Helms as the arch-conservative senior senator, continues to win approval from voters who have returned him to office for four terms, since 1972, the survey reported. Helms could not have been elected without Democratic support.
``Senator Helms' job rating remains generally favorable. Statewide, 52 percent rate Helms' performance as `excellent' or `good,' '' said Del Ali, vice president of Mason-Dixon media research in Columbia, Md. The poll was one several prepared this week for The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
Helms' high rating was down from 54 percent in October of 1993, Ali said.
A majority of voters - 52 percent - gave congressional Republicans ``excellent'' or ``good'' job ratings, the poll showed, and 49 percent thought Speaker Newt Gingrich deserved a favorable grade.
On a variety of other questions, the poll showed:
Only 12 percent of those questioned knew what the GOP ``Contract With America'' was all about. Among those familiar with it, 73 percent approved.
School prayer was opposed by only 8 percent of those queried but the form the prayer should take brought divided answers. A moment of silence was preferred by 58 percent while 32 percent said a student should lead an audible devotion.
Parental consent before minors could get abortions was favored by 73 percent. Additional benefits for welfare women having more children were opposed by 65 percent and 71 percent would deny government abortions to women becoming pregnant while on welfare.
Of those interviewed, 70 percent said they wanted a balanced-budget amendment but 62 percent said they doubted the budget would be balanced by 2002 even if Congress passes it quickly.
Sixty-two percent said they didn't think Congress should repeal the crime bill section that prohibits the sale of 19 types of assault weapons.
Ali said the interviews were held with 809 registered N.C. voters between Sunday and Tuesday. Men and women were almost evenly divided, while whites numbered 645 and blacks 161. There were 460 Democrats, 282 Republicans and 67 Independents in the sampling.
The margin of error in the survey was 3.5 percentage points, Ali said.
KEYWORDS: POLL by CNB