Poll: Perdue, Graham Lead Gubernatorial Field

Perdue leads State Treasurer Richard Moore by a 34 percent to 24 percent margin for the Democratic nomination, with more than a third of voters still undecided, according to the poll conducted by Public Policy Polling. Meanwhile, Graham is outdistancing former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, 20 percent to 14 percent, for the GOP nomination, with more than half of voters undecided.

Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh group that represents many Democratic clients, surveyed 635 likely Democratic voters and 847 likely Republican voters by phone on March 5. The poll results have margin of error of 3 to 4 percent.

In the presidential campaign, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards leads current Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton by a narrow margin. Edwards captured 29 percent of the response, while Obama passed Clinton for second with 25 percent and teh former First Lady garnered 21 percent.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani topped Republican presidential contenders with 32 percent of the poll response. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich grabbed 26 percent, and U.S. Sen. John McCain placed third with 17 percent.

Voters in both parties cited the Iraq war as the most important issue for them, with 44 percent of Democrats and a third of Republicans calling the war more pressing than the economy, education, taxes, health care, immigration or social issues.

Social issues and immigration were cited by 21 percent and 16 percent, respectively, of GOP voters, while the economy and education ranked second and third among Democrats, garnering 15 percent and 11 percent of the response, respectively.