Civitas Poll: Legislative Leaders Unknown

This probably comes as little surprise to many of us, but is disappointing nonetheless — the leadership of the General Assembly are virtually unknown to the vast majority of North Carolinians.

We tested the name ID of the Republican and Democratic leadership of both the House and Senate and here are the results:

Opinion of Mark Basnight
Very Favorable – 4%
Somewhat Favorable – 8%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 4%
Very Unfavorable – 3%
No Opinion – 18%
Not Aware – 63%

Opinion of Tony Rand:
Very Favorable – 3%
Somewhat Favorable – 5%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 3%
Very Unfavorable – 2%
No Opinion – 23%
Not Aware – 64%

Opinion of Phil Berger:
Very Favorable – 1%
Somewhat Favorable – 6%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 2%
Very Unfavorable – 1%
No Opinion – 22%
Not Aware – 68%

Opinion of Joe Hackney:
Very Favorable – 2%
Somewhat Favorable – 6%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 1%
Very Unfavorable – 2%
No Opinion – 21%
Not Aware – 67%

Opinion of Paul Stam:
Very Favorable – 2%
Somewhat Favorable – 4%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 2%
Very Unfavorable – 1%
No Opinion – 16%
Not Aware – 75%

Kinda sad that less than 1 in 5 North Carolina voters know who the arguably most powerful person in the state is.  Basnight has been Senate President for 9 terms now and yet 63% of voters have no clue who he is.

88% of voters are unaware of have no opinion of the Speaker of the House.

Does this mean that people just don't pay attention to state government, or does this mean that people are unaware of state government because the media is failing in its job to cover it?

I think it's some of both.

Full release and crosstabs here.