Brogan Survey:
North Carolinians
Think Drought Response Not Strong Enough

Statewide Survey Shows 7 out of 10 Want More Done

Raleigh, NC- The latest statewide survey released today by Brogan & Partners Convergence Marketing found that most North Carolinians are serious about drought conditions, with 71% of respondents saying more needs to be done to relieve conditions. The 600-person random-digit dial telephone survey also found that 75% of respondents said they have personally cut back on water use.

When asked about the severity of the drought, 85% of North Carolinians classified it as serious or extremely serious. Just over 12% classified the drought risk as somewhat or very exaggerated.

"On an issue like this, government leaders have to balance between reacting strongly enough and not alienating their constituents. On this issue, however, the sentiment in favor of dealing with this issue head-on was surprisingly strong," said Jim Tobin, partner at Brogan & Partners. "What's even more interesting is that you can watch the percentage of people who feel this is serious rise as you move east to west. This correlates perfectly with the severity of the drought, which is worse in the west than in the east."

Respondents over age 65 were significantly more likely to consider the drought extremely serious, at 57.0%, than those 18 to 24 years old, at 24.5%. The percentage of people who felt more needed to be done to address the drought was above 70% in every region except the Coastal region, where only 57.1% felt more needed to be done.

When asked, "Have you and your family personally cut back on water usage to alleviate potential water shortages in your community," 78.7% of females and 71.3% of males said they have. The Charlotte region and the Southern region were most likely to say they've cut consumption, at 81.5% and 82.1% respectively.

"With Raleigh moving recently to further tighten water use and Charlotte considering action, it seems like the people of North Carolina, particularly the people west of around I-95, are telling the leadership to do what they need to do," Tobin said.

The Brogan Survey is a 600-sample, random digit dial North Carolina general population survey, stratified by geography, ethnicity and gender. The live telephone survey was conducted from August 20 - 23, 2007 and has margin of error of +/- 4.0% with a confidence level of 95%. Questions in The Brogan Survey were not commissioned by any candidate, organization or company. The survey was conducted by Brogan & Partners research affiliate The Glengariff Group, Inc., of Chicago.

For more details about the Brogan survey, a breakdown of regions, complete results and additional information about respondents, please visit the survey site at www.brogansurvey.com.

Brogan & Partners Convergence Marketing, established in 1984, specializes in advertising, behavior-based audience targeting, public relations, digital and diversity marketing. The firm has offices in suburban Detroit and Raleigh, service offices in Washington D.C. and Florida and an affiliate in Chicago.