Poll Watch: Movement for Perdue and Hagan

In this week’s Democratic tracking poll from Public Policy Polling, Barack Obama maintains his lead in North Carolina, while Beverly Perdue and Kay Hagan each get a bump.

Obama leads Hillary Clinton 54 to 34 — almost identical to last week’s numbers — despite the weekend controversy over Obama’s remarks about “bitter” small-town Americans. (But Dean Debnam, the president of PPP, notes in a press release that many of the likely voters surveyed over the weekend may not have heard of the controversy yet.)

Meanwhile, in the race for the nomination for U.S. Senate, Kay Hagan launched ahead of Jim Neal, leading him 28 to 7. There’s one reason: the TV ad she recently started airing. About a third of voters surveyed reported having seen Hagan’s ad, and among those voters, she had a 48 to 6 advantage over Neal. But undecideds still dominate the Senate race: 58 percent say they are undecided.

In the race for the nomination for governor, Beverly Perdue appears to have received a bounce from her pledge to drop her negative ads. She leads Richard Moore 41 to 31. PPP’s Tom Jensen writes that the big question for Perdue is whether she can sustain her momentum in the midst of continued attacks from Moore. (And as it happens, Moore just released a new negative ad against Perdue, Under the Dome reports.)

Full results of the PPP tracking poll here (PDF).