Forty-seven percent of voters in North Carolina, where Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama face each other in a May 6 primary, say that the economy is the top national issue in the campaign and 31 percent said it was the top issue for the state, according to a second installment of a Charlotte Observer/WCNC-TV poll conducted March 29 – April 1. Yesterday’s story focused on the honesty and trust issue and found that Clinton had a serious problem with voters when it came to those attributes.

Voters cited concerned about gasoline prices, cost of health insurance, taxes, the housing slowdown and difficulty in finding a new job. While concern about the economy cut across party and demographic lines, Republicans were likely to be more concerned about illegal immigration than Democrats.