Virginians overwhelmingly agree they don’t want guns on college campuses or a Mississippi-style “personhood” bill, but they’re divided on uranium mining, a potential economic boom with serious environmental ramifications, a poll released Thursday shows.
Ahead of a legislative session ripe for controversy, Quinnipiac University released a poll breaking down voter sentiment on a handful of issues and state political figures.
The poll found Virginians like protecting gun rights. But with a recent murder-suicide at Virginia Tech reviving memories of the 2007 campus massacre, 75 percent of those polled believe guns should remain banned on college campuses and 62 percent oppose lifting the state’s one-gun-a-month ban.
Some 58 percent are against a proposal from Del. Bob Marshall that would define life as beginning at conception, similar to a measure rejected by Mississippi voters last month. Opponents worry the bill would effectively ban birth control and morning-after pills.
A decision to remove a decades-long moratorium on uranium mining will get sharp scrutiny this legislative session. A study released this week by the National Academy of Sciences highlighted the potential environmental hazards of opening a mine in southwest Virginia.
Lawmakers have wavered on whether to enact new regulations that would allow Virginia Uranium to begin mining, and the public remains evenly divided, with 41 percent favoring it and 41 percent against, according to the Quinnipiac poll. Independents are nearly equally divided, 43 percent against and 42 percent for.
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On the budget, voters slightly prefer budget cuts to tax increases, 48 percent to 42 percent. About 53 percent approve of how Gov. Bob McDonnell has handled the budget compared to 29 percent who disapprove.
Overall, McDonnell remains very popular in the state, with a 57 percent approval rating, although that’s down from 62 percent in October.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., was the most popular state politician polled, drawing a 62 percent approval rating.
In the race for the governorship in 2013, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli had a 47 percent approval rating while Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling polled at 35 percent. It’s a testament to Cuccinelli’s ability to garner statewide attention as he has used the office aggressively to push a conservative agenda, while Bolling works largely behind the scenes.
