RALEIGH, N.C.- Gov. Beverly Perdue is returning to North Carolina after a nearly two-week trade and cultural mission to China and Japan.

Perdue’s office has said she would arrive in the state Tuesday night after leaving from Shanghai. The trip also included visits to Tokyo and Beijing and focused largely on building relationships with two of the state’s top four trading partners.

The governor told reporters last week by phone she saw her first overseas trade trip as one focused on building a long-term relationship with Chinese firms and expand already fruitful ties in Japan.

Perdue leaves behind a contingent of about 20 North Carolina residents – including several legislators – visiting China on a separate trip paid by outside groups. They will return this weekend.

RALEIGH, N.C. – A new poll released today by the Civitas Institute that shows nearly three-fourths of voters disapprove of Gov. Bev Perdue’s journey to Japan and China.

Perdue returns from her trade mission today.

The live caller poll of 600 likely 2010 voters were asked if they approved or disapproved of Gov. Perdue spending $80,000 to go on a trade mission to Japan and China.

A majority of voters,71.8 percent of them, said they disapproved of Perdue’s trip. Only 20.7 percent of voters approved and 7.5 percent said they were unsure.

“While Perdue said this trip was about recruiting jobs, all the polled voters see is another wasteful expenditure of their tax dollars,” said Civitas Institute Executive Director Francis De Luca. “Perdue will need to show some tangible results of the trip in order for the public to think it was worthwhile.”

The trip was disliked even by a majority of Perdue’s supporters; with 53.8 percent of them who said they had a favorable opinion of the Governor also said they disapproved of the spending of money on the trade mission.

“When your own base of supporters think it was a bad idea, it’s pretty clear that her trip was not well received,” added De Luca.

Full results of the poll will be revealed at the Civitas Institute’s monthly poll luncheon on Thursday, Oct. 29 at the Clarion Hotel in downtown Raleigh.

Full text of question: Now I am going to read you a list of issues affecting North Carolina, would you please tell me if you approve or disapprove of each of the following?

“Governor Bev Perdue spending $80,000 to go on a trade mission to Japan and China?”
APPROVE – 20.7%
Strongly Approve – 9.2%
Somewhat Approve – 11.5%
DISAPPROVE – 71.8%
Somewhat Disapprove – 13.8%
Strongly Disapprove – 58.0%
DON’T KNOW – 7.5%

This poll of 600 likely general election voters in North Carolina was conducted October 20-21, 2009 by McLaughlin and Associates of Alexandria, Virginia. All interviews were conducted via telephone by professional interviewers. Interview selection was random within predetermined geographic units. These units were structured to correlate with actual voter distributions in a statewide general election. The poll of 600 likely general election voters has an accuracy of +/- 4.0% at a 95% confidence interval.