Romney leads in N.C. as Democrat convention convenes

Charlotte - Mitt Romney has taken a 4-point lead over Barack Obama in North Carolina just as the Democrats fire up their Charlotte-based national convention.

According to an Elon University/Charlotte Observer/Raleigh News & Observer survey released Monday, Romney leads by 47 percent to 43 percent for Obama. North Carolina is both a battleground state and host to the Democratic National Convention. Republican Mitt Romney’s lead is barely outside the poll’s 3-point margin of error. The survey was conducted August 25-30, just before and during Republican Convention in Tampa, Florida. The new survey has Romney besting Obama 52%-39% when it comes to which candidate would do a better job on the economy. Romney has a 12-point lead among men, and is tied among women voters. A CNN/Time Magazine/ORC International poll released one week ago had the candidates in a near dead heat in North Carolina. The Tar Heel state favored Romney by a point, 48 to 47 percent in that poll with more men supporting Romney and more women supporting Obama. Mr. Obama lost his edge with women in the new poll while Mr. Romney maintained his lead among men. The Democrats open their convention in Charlotte Monday, and Mr. Obama is under pressure to turn the numbers around in N.C., a state he narrowly won in 2008. Fifteen electoral votes go to the winning candidate in North Carolina. The Elon University/Charlotte Observer/Raleigh News & Observer survey was conducted by telephone, with 1,089 likely voters in North Carolina. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.