News-Record.com

The Elon University Poll released a set of data on President Bush and his job approval rating Monday. (News release // Raw data.)

The over-arching theme was that Bush still struggles in job approval, largely because of the Iraq issue.

A couple of questions lower down in the data set caught my attention. They basically asked if respondents would oppose or favor setting timetables for withdrawal from Iraq.

As a group, poll respondents answered that they would favor timetables, well over 60 percent in each case.

This question interested me for a few reasons. First, it's become quite the issue in the presidential race, particularly on the Democratic side. Also, it has been a notion that President Bush has pushed back hard against.

So I got to wondering was whether there was a strong partisan difference the aggregate data didn't reflect. Did Democrats overwhelmingly support a timetable and Republicans overwhelmingly oppose one?

Well, Hunter Bacot, who runs the poll was nice enough to cross-tab this question out for me. You can see that raw cross tab by clicking here.

As I suspected, there were some differences between Republicans and Democrats, especially when you look at the withdrawal by 2008 question. Still, 44 percent of Republicans said they would support or strongly support setting a timetable for with drawl by 2008.

But look at the 2009 question: 56 percent of Republicans in the survey said they would support or strongly support setting a timetable for with drawl by 2009.

What does this tell us? A few things, I think:

• * Republicans, particularly the rank and file, are not in lock step on the Iraq issue. Not all are following the President's line and many are willing to entertain the idea of a timetable even if the commander in chief is not.
• * While Republicans want to give things a bit longer to work, their patience is not infinite. While a majority don't think a 2008 timetable is a good idea, a majority think a plan to get out by 2009 is.
• * With 75 percent or more of Democrats favoring a timetable for withdrawal, whoever the Dems find to run against Sen. Elizabeth Dole next year should be talking about Iraq early in often, not only in the primary but also the general election.

Sometimes in politics, a bunch of people stand around and wait for someone to say the blazingly obvious. Monday night in New Bern was one of those nights.

Lt. Gov. Beverly, pardon me, Bev Perdue announced she was running for governor in 2008.

Click here to listen to say that and other things. It's about a 13 minute MP3 file.

This was the view from toward the back of the room when Perdue came on stage (Click to enlarge.):

Others, like the Charlotte paper's Mark Johnson, have offered up a more detailed view of the evening.

For the moment, I'll only offer up a few observations:

• * Over at the Tavern, my friend Laura Leslie suggested that Perdue might be running away from her history as a teacher, perhaps under pressure from some whispering from Richard Moore's campaign. Third item in Sunday's post.

  She didn't seem to be running from her teaching background Monday night.

  "As someone who has worked as a public school teacher," Perdue said in the second paragraph of her speech. "and chaired the Senate's education committee, I'm prepared to continue moving our public schools forward."

  Perdue spent more than half her speech talking about education.

• * "Because in order to compete in the 21st century, North Carolina must have the best educated workforce in the world," Perdue said.

  This sounds like a line cribbed directly from sitting Gov. Mike Easley, as did her call to guarantee that "money will not be a roadblock to getting a college degree or gaining the skills they need to compete in the 21st century."

  Easley road that dual theme of education and competing in the new world economy to re-election in 2004 and it sounds like Perdue is ready to ride the same horse.

• * Moore has already rolled out a healthcare proposal. Although she didn't give details, Perdue used part of her opening speech to engage the same territory.

  "...but I believe the best way, the very best way, to cover all of North Carolina's kids is to make health care affordable for all of North Carolina's families."

  If the battle between Moore and Perdue evolves beyond credentials and personality, healthcare could be a serious policy battleground in the primary.

Ambiance-wise, there were at least a couple hundred folks (probably more) jamming the room. Most were local to New Bern and most were in full voice cheering for Perdue. 'Cue was served, eastern style due to the location. A few members of the General Assembly were on hand, including Rep. William Wainwright, who delivered the evenings invocation, and Sen. Bill Purcell, who mingled with the crowd. All in all, your typical campaign kick off, although probably exactly what Perdue's campaign staff was hoping for.

The latest Elon University Poll is out. Click here for the raw data.

This one looks like it tackled many of the issues that we scruffy media types were reporting on during the legislative session. Some quick-hit impressions:

• * When asked in a vacuum whether they would support a real estate transfer tax being put in place in their county, respondents opposed or strongly opposed the idea to the tune of 70 percent.

  But when the question was modified to ask how they might feel if the revenue was dedicated for education, opposition dwindles and there are more support/strongly support responses than oppose/strongly oppose.

  This is a fairly classic effect in polling. Nobody likes taxes and if you poll them without context, nobody will say they randomly want to raise them. But if you ask whether local governments should raise taxes for a specific purpose, that tends to turn people around.

  I have a feeling that we've just seen a preview of this spring's referenda fights if larger counties decided to put the transfer tax on the ballot.

• * Support for statewide and local laws that curb smoking remains strong, despite many respondents saying they'd wish business owners would take the reigns on the issue rather than government.

  You'll recall an effort to ban smoking in all public places failed in the General Assembly this year. However, a lot of smaller bites at the apple (banning smoking in nursing homes and allowing for bans on college campuses for example) passed.

  These poll results would seem to suggest, as did similar polls taken in the spring, that tar heels by and large would be fine with the General Assembly enacting a smoking ban. However, while tobacco may no longer be king here, there are still a few powerful knights of the realm that defend the industry.

• * It was no surprise that 68.4 percent of respondents said immigration was a "very important" issue in North Carolina. Anyone who hit the campaign trail with any sort of candidate in 2006 heard about it. I would caution that in other surveys when folks are asked to rank immigration against other issues like the economy or the war in Iraq it did not fare as well.

  I don't know whether I should be surprised by them, but the immigration numbers that jumped out at me on this poll were when people were asked if "immigration of Hispanics or Latinos to NC in recent years has been [bad or good] for NC..."

  More than half of those responding said "bad," versus only 21 percent "good."

  That kind of response is why the GOP in particular tried to use immigration as wedge issue in 2006. That plan back-fired here and elsewhere, in large part because Republicans weren't even in the same book much less the same page with each other when it came to fixing immigration problems.

  However, with the issue polling this viscerally, I'd be surprised not to see it raised in the 2008 campaigns, particularly the statewide races for governor and U.S. Senate.

• * When asked about Stem Cells, something over half of respondents said they favored stem cell research and public funding for stem cell research. On both questions, pollsters got about 10 percent "don't knows," which tells me there are quite a few people who haven't made up their mind on the topic. Die-hard opposition to stem cell research ran about 30 percent in the poll, which I think is what I'd expect given voter registration and religious-affiliation trends in this state.

You know what's great about getting a new blog template every other month?

You know where to check for things that are going awry. I know of two formatting issues: bullet points aren't rendering right (hence the use of dopey asterisks in the last two posts) and something bad has gone on with the monthly archives. Our web jockeys have been alerted and are working on the problem.

Update:Archives problem fixed.

From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A Chapel Hill investment banker plans to seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Elizabeth Dole.

A spokeswoman for Jim Neal says he plans to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission late Thursday to get his campaign started.

Neal is the first announced candidate to seek the party's nomination. Two members of the state General Assembly also are considering whether to run but have not announced their intentions.

Many Democrats consider Dole vulnerable for re-election next year because of her support for the war in Iraq and a poor showing by Republicans when she led the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 2006 elections.

But several high-profile candidates - including Gov. Mike Easley, Attorney General Roy Cooper and U.S. Rep. Brad Miller - have declined to get in the race.

Winston-Salem Journal Columnist Paul O'Connor used his column to give a shout out to various bits of the blogsphere over the weekend, including to yours truly. From his column:

But the Raleigh reporter for the N&R writes the first blog I read regularly. I don't know where he gets the time to write for both their print and Web versions.

As evidence by my scanty posting lately, I don't.

There have been a couple of work-related things that have kept me away from the blog as of late, one of which might actually show up in the paper later this fall if I close my eyes and wish really hard upon a star. And with the Legion of Dome posting every thing that comes across the transom, I'm looking to do fewer but more off-the-beaten-track sorts of posts here, at least until the honorable saunter back into town.

By the way, if you missed it from this weekend, I had a short story on the confusion in one slice of the Medicaid program.

I just talked to Sen. Kay Hagan about her potential run again U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

"You'll be getting a press release from me this afternoon saying that I'm not going to run," she said. "I've studied it extremely hard. But I really think that right now, I can do more for the citizens of Guilford County and North Carolina where I am."

Where she is, by the way, is one of the top leaders in the N.C. Senate.

Update: Click here for the press release in question.

And over at the Dome, Wake County Rep. Grier Martin says he's still thinking things over but will decide this week.

Is it possible the jump in Medicaid spending, and its consequences for the federal budget, might have something to do with efforts to make it harder for mental health agencies to tap Medicaid funds?

Sen. Larry Shaw, is a Democrat from Cumberland County who serves in the North Carolina Senate. But folks up in Washington, D.C. report that he was making the rounds up there last week.

The word was, Shaw was shopping his ideas on how to get the United States out of Iraq to members of Congress and the U.S. State Department. He confirmed that Monday afternoon.

My first question to him was how it fell into the purview of a state senator to shop a plan involving international diplomacy, the military and such.

"As you well know, this whole Iraq issue has got the country in a quagmire. We're hurting because of this. We're hurting in so many way. Our military is broken down ... We couldn't fight another war for 90 days if our lives depended on it. So it involves all of us.

The administration, he said, had been given a "blank check" by Congress to wage a war that doesn't seem to be getting better.

"Shouldn't I be concerned about this? Should we all be concerned about this to some degree" he asked.

Shaw has put his ideas to paper and describes it as an exit strategy. A source up in D.C. sends the following along:

• *A letter from Shaw to the State Department outlining his thoughts.
• * A shorter letter to Sens. Dole and Burr.
• * This is a letter to Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice.

From some of the traffic, it looks like Shaw pitched himself as a potential "Middle East Special Envoy." It also looks like at least Congressman's office refused to recommend him for that post.

When I asked Shaw to outline his plan, he said it would involve getting the countries of the OIC, Organization of the Islamic Conference to join as "coalition partners" with the United States. The group is made up of 57 countries whose stated aim is to " pool their resources together, combine their efforts and speak with one voice to safeguard the interest and ensure the progress and well-being of their peoples and those of other Muslims in the world over."

Shaw said that the U.S. should " train them, equip them, to give them everything our guys got," so that they could take a leading role in securing Iraq. When I asked if the OIC might take over for the United States, Shaw said no.

"I wouldn't say take over," he said. "I would say be a coalition partner. They're not in a position to take over anything. But they can work to be our partner and help us out of this."

Shaw said he traveled to D.C. as a private citizen, not as a state Senator nor as a board member of Council on American-Islamic Relations. (He's a CAIR board member.)

Since he's not from the Triad, local readers may not know Shaw, a Fayetteville (that's in Cumberland County) Democrat, has served six terms in the Senate and one in the House. He is one of the few Muslim elected officials serving in the state or federal legislatures.

Over at The Tavern and The Soup, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's teaching experience, or lack thereof, has been a subject of some conversation.

As background: Richard Moore's campaign manager last month circulated three versions of Perdue's resume along with this note:

As you compile bio information on the candidates, attached are Bev Perdue's curricula vitae from 2000, 1995, and 1991. Of particular interest in the 1991 version are two time periods Perdue said she taught school - from 1969 to 1973 in Kentucky, Georgia and Florida; and from 1978-1982, presumably in North Carolina (though no location is indicated).

The suggestion here, of course, is that Perdue was on one resume or the other over-playing her teaching experience and that she is now backing off. You can look for yourself, at least at what Reiff circulated:

• *2000
• *1995
• *1991
• *And for good measure, Perdue does say she's a "former teacher" in her online bio.

So I was due for an interview with the lady herself over at Perdue's campaign HQ this afternoon. While waiting for her to show up, I asked campaign spokesman David Kochman if he could straighten things out.

Kochman said that Moore's campaign may have gotten its mitts on old drafts of Perdue's resume or other non-polished versions. He said that Perdue was by no means disowning her teaching experience and would provide the right years and times so y'all can compare and contrast for yourselves. They are, according to Kochman:

• * 1970-71 Auburn Elementary, Winder, GA Kindergarten
• * 1971-73 Highlands Jr. High, Jacksonville, FL 9th grade
• * 1973-74 Vanguard High, Ocala, FL 12th grade

That jibes in the most part in terms of jobs, but seems to be a year off with what's on the 1991 resume. But Kochman said the 1991 could be an uncorrected draft or simply in error.

At any rate, those dates and teaching positions are what the Perdue campaign is putting out. And it's pretty clear she's not back off having been a teacher.

As reported earlier today, state Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, says she won't challenge U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The other sitting member of the legislature publicly pondering a run is Rep. Grier Martin, a second-term member of the House from Wake County.

Martin told me that he WANTS to make a decision by the end of the week but that might not happen.

"I'm off to Fort Bragg for a month's vacation," Martin said of his pending service on active duty. Martin is a JAG officer in the army reserve.

Martin said that he would like to have a decision made before heading out, but that he wouldn't rush things.

"There isn't any arbitrary timeline," he said.

The primary concern in his mind, Martin said, was how a run for the Senate (and a potential victory) would affect his family. Until that question is resolved, he's not going to jump in or out.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a sit-down with Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue, who is one of two candidates running as Democrats for governor.

Earlier this year, I interviewed her opponent, Richard Moore. Click here for that post.

As with Moore, I'm going to roll out some audio from the interview. Also, I hope to turn out a Q+A story for the newsprint edition sometime in the next few weeks.

Until I get to doing that, here's a preview:

Perdue is serving her second term as Lt. Governor and has had the opportunity to break a tie in the Senate only once, but it was a doozy. Perdue's vote essentially created the state lottery.

Today, the lottery is not performing up to expectations and has already helped send a couple folks to jail.

So, in hindsight, does she regret her vote?

Perdue started her answer talking about education, but eventually got to, "...I've never regretted it at all." She pledged to watch how the lottery funds are used and make sure they didn't supplant tax dollars.

"The more money that we have to insure that every child in this state has a chance to be somebody is good money," she continued later.

Click here to listen to the full take. (Approximately 3 minutes.)

Happy Municipal Primary Day!

I'll be hanging out at the Election '07 Blog down in Greensboro later today. Be good.

Left turn, left turn, what now?

Getting a hepatitis shot is standard procedure for travelers to parts of Africa and Asia, but some congressional aides were instructed to get immunized before going to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord and the racetrack in Talladega, Ala.

Click here for the full story.

State Rep. Grier Martin just phoned to say he will NOT challenge U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole next year.

"I just could not find a way to make service in the Senate work for my family," Martin said. Senators spend weekdays in D.C. and weekends on the road meeting with constituents.

"I left for Afghanistan when my daughter was six days old and I'm still making up for lost time there," he said.

For those keeping score at home, Sen. Kay Hagan has also said 'no' to a potential run. Others to look at, and then turn down, their chance to take on Dole include Congressman Brad Miller and Gov. Mike Easley.

So far, Chapel Hill businessman Jim Neal is the only candidate to jump into the race. He is a political first-timer and a lot of Democrats I know say they don't know enough about him to say whether he'd made a good candidate.

An alert reader who wishes to remain nameless pointed me to this item:

Former Rep. Steve Wood, formerly of High Point, is running for the Tobaccoville village council. Yes, the Steve Wood who was close enough to the Speaker Black scandal to be called to testify but not so close as to face prosecution himself. From this story in the Winston-Salem Journal:

Wood, 59, a singer, songwriter, minister and actor, is a newcomer to Tobaccoville government, but served for 16 years as a member of the N.C. House of Representatives.

Wood said he is running for a council seat because he and his family have a history with the village.

"I played Little League and Pony League baseball here as a kid, and the heritage of this community, with its strong family ties, vigorous work ethic, and vibrant faith culture, is a tradition and small-town culture I want to help maintain," he said.

Wood said he plans to support keeping property taxes low, oppose changes to the village charter that would force annexation and work to maintain and establish good relationships with neighboring towns and communities.

This is not Steve Wood's first run for municipal office since serving in the state legislature. In 2005, he ran against High Point Mayor Becky Smothers. Smothers took 72 percent of the vote in that election.

Those in the Raleigh orbit will remember that Wood, a Republican, was one of two GOP legislators for whom former Democratic Speaker Jim Black gathered some campaign donations following the 2002 election. Wood never got those checks. The other legislator, Republican Mike Decker, did. But four years later, Decker said he ended up having an attack of guilt and helped prosecutors to bring down the former Speaker.

According to his testimony before the State Board of Elections in 2006, Wood said that he and Black discussed some sort of power-sharing arrangement following the 2002 election but it never came to fruition.

From a story I wrote during that hearing:

Wood, who served eight terms off and on from the mid-1980s until 2005, was called to testify.

"Were you aware that there was any fund-raising activity or efforts going on on your behalf by Speaker Black or any individuals associated with him in January 2003?" Leake asked.

"No sir, I did not," Wood said.

"Did you have any idea that same (fund-raising activity) had occurred prior to being contacted by our staff and myself in recent weeks," Leake asked.

"No sir, I did not," Wood said.

Wood said he had talked with Black after the November 2002 election in an effort to craft a cooperative agreement to run the closely divided House. He said those talks broke off when Decker made his switch. But Wood said Black never made an offer of a fund-raising support if he would switch parties.

After his testimony, Wood pointed out to a group of reporters that he voted against the power-sharing arrangement between Black and Morgan in 2003. Other than that, he only offered that he had come to answer the board's questions and had done so.

When pressed outside the hearing room as to why Black might have thought he was a potential ally, Wood repeated that he had answered the board's questions. He was then ushered into an elevator by someone who described himself as a "family friend" and advised Wood to say nothing more.

Wood and Black do have a history.

In 1999, Wood angered his fellow Republicans by backing Black for speaker. Black won the post, the first of a record-tying four-term run. That year, Wood was appointed to several powerful committees, including the House Rules Committee.

In 2000, Republicans recruited John Blust of Guilford County, then a former state senator, to run against Wood in the hotly contested primary.

Wood's campaign finance reports show he was an inconsistent fund-raiser, in some years gathering no money for his election bids.

But as the primary campaign heated up, Wood did receive several larger-than-typical donations, including $1,450 from chiropractors and their association's political action committee. Among those chiropractors who gave in 2001, was Willen, who testified Wednesday that he did not know Wood or even know if he lived in Wood's district.

Blust went on to win that election, but not before facing Wood a second time. The High Point legislator switched his party affiliation to the Reform Party and ran against Blust in the general election.

One would imagine there is much less potential for intrigue on the Tobaccoville Town Council.

Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican, sent along an e-mail yesterday wondering who had started a blog in his name.

In Blust's own words, it seems innocuous so far, linking to fairly positive coverage of Blust such as editorial writer Doug Clark's recent video interview with the lawmaker.

Still, Blust said, it seemed odd that someone had started an homage to him without letting him know.

(As an added bonus for the Greensboro blogsphere, another link on the page is to Marcus Kindley's new blog. Kindley, who authored the colorful but now-defunct "Chairman's Corner" when he was head of the Guilford County GOP is now running something called North Carolinian's for Legal Immigration.)

I was off yesterday (lured to the state fair by the siren's song of a giant turkey leg and my four-year-old's passion for things that spin around really fast) so Doug took the lead on ferreting out from whence the new blog came.

The creator outed herself in the comments on Doug's post,

Hi, this is Ms. Franky S. Lee, speaking, creator of the www.representativejohnmblust.blogspot.com . I had not had a chance to announce to Rep. Blust or to Marcus Kindley, yet. Marcus has been on business in Arizona about a week and just returned. Both Rep. Blust and Kindley are aware now, and both had a positive reaction.

Ms. Lee says she is from Martin County.

Update: Blust e-mailed back this morning to confirm that he though the intent of the new blog was friendly but said he still thought the name should be changed so it wouldn't look like he was the proprietor.

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano or semi-annual migration of New Yorkers to central North Carolina to stare a furniture, certain events just mark a changing of the season. One such mark in the Almanac of modern life was announced today:

RALEIGH - N.C. State Health Director Dr. Leah Devlin today said that the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health has confirmed the State's first case of flu this season. The disease was diagnosed in a 12-year-old Buncombe County boy.

Update: So, the DHHS sent out a correction this afternoon, saying they needed to clean up a few "details" in the original release. You kids at home, see if you can play editor and spot the changes!

RALEIGH - N.C. State Health Director Dr. Leah Devlin today said that the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health has confirmed the state's first case of flu this season. The disease was diagnosed in a 43-year-old Buncombe County woman.

Click here for the full release and please pass the Vitamin C. (Release updated.)

Coble and a note of discord

You can say a lot of things about Rep. Howard Coble. Every time I write about him I get at least a few phone calls or e-mails from folks who don't like his politics and, well, that's America.

But at 76-years-old, Coble pretty much has taken to speaking his mind about the situation at hand, which makes him fun to write about. Case in point, Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting on the headline-grabbing case down in Jena, La.

One of those speaking was slated to be the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was a little more than fashionably late.

"If I were compiling a group of witnesses to encourage the diminishing of racial disharmony, I don't know that Mr. Sharpton would have made my cut," Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) advised Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).

As if on cue, Sharpton, in a three-piece suit, walked in a few minutes later and, to the tune of hundreds of camera-shutter clicks, took his seat. Conyers asked if he wished to make a belated opening statement, and Sharpton certainly did.

Click here for the full sketch from the Post.

A source who gets invites on the cocktail circuit sends along notice that Senator and Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama will be in Raleigh on Nov. 1. The shindig is to be held at the home of Mary Laurie and Joe Cece. It looks like $500 gets you in with the rabble, $2,300 more up close.

Obama's campaign already lists a "Countdown to Change" event in Durham on the same say, but this shindig in Raleigh looks like it's more for the high rollers.

I imagine some folks would spin this as Obama getting all up in former N.C. Sen. John Edwards' face, being that the Triangle is home turf for the 2004 VP candidate. But I suspect that Obama has just learned the lesson that George Bush and a cavalcade of other pols have over the years: there's money in them-there-suburban-mcmansions - yes, even in the Tar Heel state.

Republicans aspiring to run for governor in 2008 will be debating at High Point University this Saturday at 2 p.m.

Democrats aspiring for governor in 2008 will be debating at the Koury Convention Center on Nov. 6. The debate is 10 a.m. to noon at the N.C. School Boards Association conference, so I'm not sure if it's open to the public or not.

At any rate, it's nice to see Guilford County getting some love from the would-be chief executives.

From my story on the debate among Republicans running for governor in 2008:

Each of the three Republicans running for governor in 2008 used their first debate to show off the characters they had chosen for themselves out of central casting.

Click here for the full story.

There was no Fred Thompson in the crew, but you could see the persona each of the three men wanted to portray.

This was a fine first debate. Each of the three established their style. Each gave broad outlines of their thinking of issues. Each got a chance to pitch their political brand to influential Republicans.

However, I can imagine voters wanting more details on specific items. Now that we know the policy outline, let's here how they'll make that happen. Hopefully, they'll get that in upcoming debates.

Time permitting, I'll turn out some audio from the debate this evening. Until then, if you are looking for a different take on the debate, you can check out coverage from:

• *The Charlotte Observer.
• *The Winston-Salem Journal.
• *The High Point Enterprise.
• *News 14. (They'll broadcast the debate at 11 a.m.)
• *Dome live-blogged the thing.

I should note that High Point University did a good job hosting the debate and that the venue was just about the perfect size for the 150-to-175 folks who showed up.

Update: News 14 has put the whole debate up at this link, and if you want to watch the hour-plus that's the place to head.

I captured some audio, but the feed was apparently a bit hot to my recorder, so there's a little distortion. However, if you're up for it and don't want to sit through the whole thing, here are some cuts of interest:

• *To listen to the three candidates introduce themselves, click here.
• *The three candidates were asked about their plans for health care policy. To listen to their answers, click here.
• *And for what may have been the most interesting exchange of the night, click here for their responses to a question on affirmative action.

And for those of you wondering who was asking the questions, that voice you hear is John Hood of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative organization based in Raleigh.

So over the weekend, the folks over at Blue NC did an online Q & A this weekend with Jim Neal, the Chapel Hill investment banker and Democrat who plans to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole next year.

During that Q & A, Neal was asked if he was gay, and he confirmed that he was.

Dome noted the exchange this morning.

Now, just a minute ago, AP moved a news alert on the matter:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - A spokesman for Jim Neal, the Democrat who plans to challenge Sen. Elizabeth Dole, has confirmed that Neal is gay.

The thing about AP news alerts is they're usually about things that the wire service think will change and dictate coverage plans, and as the name implies, they're usually matters of some urgency.

Now, I may be sleepy after working Saturday and Sunday, but is this really a "release the hounds" moment? I don't know that Neal being gay was a huge secret. Someone mentioned it to me on on municipal primary night.

I'm otherwise engaged today, but Neal is scheduled to drop my offices for an interview on Tuesday. I guess we'll have 24 hours of news cycle to reflect on when he does.

I'll put it to you in the mean time: in this day and age, does it matter here in North Carolina whether a candidate for office is gay?

The only real good yardstick I have to measure is the General Assembly's behavior on the topic. Republicans there seem to think the issue of gay marriage specifically and the more general social topic of homosexuality plays to their favor and have done their best to push bills like a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Legislative Democrats have simply refused to take up the issue or confront it in a meaningful way, relying on Speaker Hackney to big-foot the a gay marriage bill into oblivion this year. Obviously, there's some political calculus being tallied on both sides and one wonders how that translates into the Senate race.

Apart from this issue, what else would you ask Neal if you had the chance?

I saw Rep. Howard Coble at the GOP gubernatorial debate this weekend.

Cordial as always, Coble looked like he came fresh from a fight with a angry badger. When I asked his spokesman, Ed McDonald about it over e-mail, he said, "Actually, it was a wolverine!"

Then he pointed me to this story in "The Hill" newspaper (fourth headline down):

Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) was diagnosed with skin cancer in the late 1990s and has had several growths surgically removed from his forehead over the years. But he now treats himself with a topical solution that burns the skin cells and turns the outer skin on his face a blistery red.

"It's painful and not real good-looking," said Coble spokesman Ed McDonald, explaining that his boss has recently begun another treatment on himself. Coble undergoes these treatments three to four times annually. "The doctors swear he'll look like Robert Redford. That's his joke."

Aw, geeze, I feel bad about the badger thing now.

In case you didn't hear, Gov. Easley was in Greensboro Monday to announce Skybus was opening it's new "focus city" - what some folks might call a hub - at PTIA.

Former Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr, a Republican candidate for governor, doesn't think much of the deal. From a news release:

On Monday, October 22, Governor Easley announced a $3.98 million JDIG award to Skybus Airlines to increase its presence at Piedmont Triad International Airport. Founded in 2004, Skybus is known for offering fares as low as $10. Justice Orr had the following recommendations:

"I could name any number of other areas where North Carolina could benefit from an investment of $3.98 million. Instead, Governor Easley and the Economic Investment Committee have decided it's better for the state to invest in the risky discount airline market. If Governor Easley and the Economic Investment Committee were determined to support Skybus, they could have instead purchased thousands of tickets on Skybus flights to be given to government workers, service men and women, military families, or those who could not otherwise afford to travel by air. Instead the state has provided cash payments to be used according to the liking of Skybus executives. At least then, North Carolina citizens could have gained some direct benefit from the deal."

"Customers will either be excited about the service Skybus provides or they won't. It is not up to the State of North Carolina to interfere. Again, this incentive represents our continued flawed approach to economic development. Instead of wasting state funds to subsidize every day business decisions, we need to focus our investments on improving business conditions and encouraging growth statewide for the betterment of all North Carolina citizens."

In case you don't get the drift, Orr has made reforming North Carolina's corporate incentives system a focus of his campaign.

The Washington Post has a story today on Joe Trippi's influence on the Edwards campaign. The article rightly notes that Edwards is beginning to sound a lot like Dean did in the 2004 campaign.

Trippi, of course, managed that campaign.

Others say Elizabeth Edwards sees this race as more a cause than a campaign, a belief that makes her and Trippi -- an unapologetic believer in the power of liberal ideals and the overthrow of "transactional politics" -- ideological soulmates.

It's that message -- a fiery, some say angry, populism -- that has drawn attention to John Edwards of late.

One Democratic consultant who has worked with Trippi said the common thread in the majority of the presidential campaigns with which Trippi has been involved is an outrage with the way Washington operates.

I don't know that it would have been a huge surprise to see Edwards turn his campaign more to the Dean model, with or without Trippi's influence.

Edwards had already been hiring elements of Dean's old team and adopting moves from the Dean playbook before Trippi signed on.

Whether the model will work in 2008 has yet to be seen. As the Post itself has noted, the approach has had trouble getting traction.

U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal stopped by my office today and chatted for more than an hour about life, campaigning and living in the news cycle of the past 36 hours or so. He is running, in case you haven't heard, for the Democratic nomination to take on incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole.

We covered a lot of ground and I'll be writing a Q&A from the interview for this coming Sunday's paper. In the mean time, here are a first few raw cuts of audio for your listening pleasure:

• * Neal is a Greensboro native and I asked him what he recalled about growing up in the city. He talked at length and this is a six-minute cut of that answer. Around the 3:45 mark he talks about standing in two different lines for the Sunday matinee at the movie theater, something that seems to have been formative for him.

• * The sub-prime mortgage lending crisis will likely still be on the minds of Washington by 2009 should Neal get elected. Click here to listen to us talk about what Congress should be doing on the matter.

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• * Much has been written about Neal being an openly gay candidate. Since it seems to be all the rage this news cycle, click here to listen to the 13 minutes we talked about this and related items. At the end of the take, there is one question he wouldn't answer. The other voice you hear toward the beginning of that clip is Neal's campaign manager, Thomas Mills.

• * Now the really controversial question: eastern or western 'cue? You've got to like a candidate who is willing to laugh at your dumb questions. Although he hedged on the styles, he did take a stand on the critter: "Barbecue is pork not beef."

More to come.

Over at Talking About Politics, Gary Pearce says Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan is mulling over jumping back in the U.S. Senate contest:

Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, had looked at running earlier. She pulled back because Senator Charles Schumer from New York, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was intent on recruiting Grier Martin. Martin eventually opted out. Now Hagan is reconsidering. She's being wooed by North Carolina Democrats - and by Schumer. The garrulous New Yorker's first task was to eat crow with Hagan.

Full post here.

Hagan would be lining up to take on Jim Neal in the primary before challenging incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole.

Hagan represents Greensboro. Neal is from Greensboro. Throw in Bob Crumley running for AG, Troxler running to keep his seat as Ag Commissioner, and this would make the Gate City pretty darned relevant in the 2008 statewide elections.

Continuing from yesterday's post, here's more audio from my interview with U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal.

• * Despite growing up in Greensboro, Neal has lived outside the state for more than 25 years of his adult live, returning in 2006. I asked him if, given that absence, he was someone who understood North Carolina's issues and could represent the state in the Senate. This was his answer.

• * Sen. Dole has been a close ally of the Bush administration. I asked Neal about that and this was his answer.

• * A reader-submitted question: Which member of the U.S. Senate would you want to model your career after? In other words, which Senator do you admire and why? Neal explains why his pick is LBJ.

More to come.

Update: Dome reports on a poll that shows Neal behind Dole by 15 points or so. That's about where Sen. Hagan has been and, quite frankly, where anyone who is not a statewide figure is going to start. Basically, that poll shows there are 32 percent of the people in this state who will vote against Dole no matter what. The real question is whether any of the 47 percent in Dole's camp would defect should the right opponent come along?

Update: More audio clips.

• * A former investment banker with an MBA from the University of Chicago, Neal is running as a fairly progressive or liberal candidate. He explains how one became the other.
• * Neal on Iraq.
• * Neal said he believed government had a role in ensuring everyone has health insurance, but doesn't offer a specific plan. Click to hear more on the topic.

There was a time when a guy could go get the wisdom teeth yanked out of his head and sleep for a good two days without all political hell breaking loose.

This is, apparently, not that time.

The frequent and persistent - occasionally oddly sourced - reports that state Sen. Kay Hagan is running for U.S. Senate despite an earlier decision has everyone in a tizzy.

I've also gotten at least one phone call and a couple of e-mails this morning from folks I would consider well connected saying that it's an iron-clad lock she's going to run.

So here's the deal: a great many people in the Democratic back channel at both the state and federal level expect Hagan to run. That would set up a primary against Jim Neal, who announced he was running about a month ago.

I still have this funny compulsion to confirm it with the lady herself before declaring it iron-clad fact, and I'll let you know as soon as I do.

For those of you arriving here from our 10-Plus article (click here to read that) on Senate candidate Jim Neal - a Democrat planning to run against incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole - in today's paper, here are some links:

• * My first set of audio from the interview.
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