Perdue's low approval ratings show slight improvement

Thirty percent of people surveyed said the approved of Perdue's job performance, while 49 percent disapproved. In October, 54 percent of poll participants expressed disapproval, while 24 percent approved.

Perdue had higher marks in the Triangle, where 41 percent of respondents approved of her performance.

Among Democrats, those approving of Perdue's performance rose from 38 percent in October to 46 percent in November. The numbers of those disapproving slipped from 39 percent to 32 percent.

Twenty-four percent of independents and 11 percent of Republicans expressed approval.

"Bev Perdue still has a long way to go," said Dean Debham, president of the liberal-leaning PPP. "But, at least, it appears she may have stopped the bleeding. Her big problem is a lack of popularity with her core supporters."

Forty-seven percent of survey respondents said that Perdue is too liberal, while 39 percent said she is about right and 14 percent thought she is too conservative.

When asked to assign Perdue a letter grade, 28 percent gave her C and 22 percent rated her a B, while 35 percent gave her a D or F and 15 percent assigned an A.

PPP's analysts said in a blog that those ratings leave Perdue with room to improve her standing with voters.

"That's an indication there is a lot of ambiguity in voters' feelings toward Perdue, and that while they lean toward disapproving of her right now, getting their support back over the next three years is not an impossibility," the analysts wrote.

PPP surveyed 711 North Carolina voters from Nov. 9-11. The survey’s margin of error is +/-3.7 percent.