News-Record.com

Okay, so with the presidential circus, races for governor and U.S. Senate, and everything on down the ballot to sanitary district offices going on, candidates and causes like to try to think up whacky ways to get the attention of us scruff media types.

Case in point: Greensboro lawyer Bob Crumley, a Republican running for Attorney General and this week's winner of the profligate campaign spending award, unseating candidate for governor Fred Smith who buys hushpuppies for his 'cue feasts that he acknowledges he doesn't even eat.

The Crumley campaign mailed along a little box with a mini trashcan and broom and rug and a couple of news releases...well, here, take a look:

And under the rug there is a note on his opponent in the General Election, Democratic incumbent Roy Cooper, and his alleged misdeeds that have been swept under the rug. (See, it's a sight gag!) See:

You can find the substance of his charges here. There's also apparently a news conference on April 3.

There's no primary in this race, so it's going to have some problems breaking through the fog this Spring. And while this is all very cute, I could have done with an e-mail and it's sort of a miracle I'm in the office today to get these anyway. Besides, my cats don't need a trash can or a broom ... it's that whole lack of opposable thumbs thing.

The capper: Crumley sent about 12 of these boxes to my office, at least 10 of which appear to be addressed to folks at the Raleigh and Charlotte papers. So McClatchy guys, come pick up your press releases if you want 'em.

The Obama campaign says that Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle will be in state on the stump for the presidential contender Wednesday. One appearance will be in Raleigh. Unknown at the moment if he's stopping in the Triad.

So, do you have a question for the good governor regarding Obama? Or have you had enough of presidential surrogates?

Update: Here's the official itinerary from the Obama folks:

Wednesday, April 2
GOVERNOR DOYLE VISITS OBAMA RALEIGH HEADQUARTERS
Obama for America Raleigh Headquarters
130 East Morgan Street
Raleigh, NC
1:30 PM

Thursday, April 3

GOVERNOR DOYLE VISITS OBAMA GREENVILLE HEADQUARTERS
Obama for America Greenville Headquarters
414 Evans Street
Greeneville, NC
10:15 AM

GOVERNOR DOYLE VISITS WILBER’S BBQ IN GOLDSBORO
Wilber’s Barbecue
4172 US Highway 70 E
Goldsboro, NC
12:00 PM

GOVERNOR DOYLE VISITS OBAMA WILMINGTON HEADQUARTERS
Obama for America Wilmington Headquarters
511 North 3rd St
Wilmington, NC
2:30 PM

Actors Shawn and Marlon Wayans will tour college campuses throughout the state this coming weekend as part of a get-out-the-youth vote push on behalf of the Obama campaign. UNCG and NCA&T are on the itinerary.

Also part of the youth movement is an ad that is due to start airing this week:

State Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro, a candidate for U.S. Senate, is doing a live blog over at Blue NC. Click here to tune in.

Here was the original thread by which readers originally submitted questions. The crowd over there seems to be a little restive.

Meanwhile, the other leading Democrat in the race, Jim Neal, has been talking up a weekend encounter over at Daily Kos.

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From the live blogging session:

On earmarks, Hagan wrote: "When I’m in the U.S. Senate, I pledge to post the earmarks I obtain for North Carolina on my website. Furthermore, I believe we need to have an open, transparent system that allows sunshine into the process. Advocating on behalf of your district or state is what you’re elected to do; funding a ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ is not. Special interests projects like $13.5 million for the World Toilet Summit has no business in our federal budget."

From the Clinton Campaign press office:

The Clinton campaign today announced President Bill Clinton will return to North Carolina this Friday, April 4, attending events in Pembroke, Laurinburg, and Monroe.

You can find out what the proposed bond would buy for Guilford County's Parks and Recreation Commission in this brochure, which details plans for the money.

The document notes that Guilford voters have voted for $42 million in bonds since 1988. Do you think that the latest round, worth $20.2 million, will get the nod from voters in the referendum on May 6? How about when it's competing with all those other bonds?

Real Clear Politics puts the N.C. Senate race in it's top-10 for competitiveness rankings for the first time. From the post:

10. North Carolina (R-Dole): Republican Elizabeth Dole has not had the easiest first term on record. Her stint as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee was nothing short of disastrous, and though she has fundraised well, some believe she could be vulnerable, especially against a top-tier challenger. Democrats tried to woo Governor Mike Easley and his wife, Mary, but neither were interested. Instead, national strategists hope State Senator Kay Hagan makes it through the primary against investment banker Jim Neal. Hagan has raised good money and could at least keep Dole off the trail on behalf of other Republicans. Still, Hagan faces a serious uphill battle. (Last: Not ranked)

Jack Betts and James Romoser take note of recent voter registration trends. From Romoser's Trail Mix blog:

Just 3 percent of the 9,000-plus voters who registered between March 23 and March 29 were Republicans. (Overall, about 34 percent of North Carolina’s voters are registered as Republicans.) Clearly one would expect an influx of Democratic registrations in advance of the contested presidential primary — and other states have seen that trend - but such a large disparity (62 percent vs. 3 percent) is pretty staggering.

I think it's significant though not surprising. The presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have focused on registering new voters and Obama's has in particular become known for turning out new voters. Frankly, there's nothing on the Republican side of the ticket that is as big of a draw and no one on the state level - Republican or Democrat - who has the kind of resources that the two presidential campaigns have just begun to mobilize.

The question for Dems is whether all those new voters will stick with the party in November, presuming at least some of them are going to see their choice for president fall in the primary.

The questions for Republicans is how to match that kind of voter recruitment and enthusiasm.

Since it's the Democratic presidential hopefuls who have been stopping by to sit a spell, it's the Dems we've been paying the most attention to. Just to remind folks there's a Republican in the race (with his party's nomination in hand, no less) here's the latest "Web Ad" from Sen. John McCain. It's a "Web Ad" because it's too long to stick on television. It also relies on the person watching it to stick with it all the way through to the end; otherwise you kind of miss the point.

From a news release sent by Kay Hagan's folks:

Kay Hagan’s U.S. Senate campaign today announced that it ended the first quarter of 2008 with more than $1 million cash on hand, after having raised $820,000 in the first three months of the year. Kay is running for the U.S. Senate against Elizabeth Dole.

That's enough money to do a little television advertising in the primary is she wants. Will check with the Neal folks on their fundraising success.

Update: The FEC has sent Hagan a love note asking for more information on her last campaign report. (PDF) The federal election regulators were apparently unhappy with the level of detail included on both those who gave Hagan money and how the campaign spent that money.

Update: A Hagan campaign spokeswoman points out that the Clinton and Obama presidential campaigns have had three of these letters a piece over the past 12 months. She said the campaign is working on tracking down the relevant information.

Sen. Hillary Clinton just told reporters two things on a conference call:

• 1- she's going to begin airing ads in the state that will feature her answers to questions asked by ordinary North Carolinians. The website www.ncaskme.com has apparently been set up to take these questions.

• 2- she's agreed to an April 27 debate date, although location and place are still unsettled.Update: Charlotte's Jim Morrill has more on this.

Update: Here's the first in the series of ads:

Okay, this is just getting odd. Here's the latest report on a potential presidential debate in North Carolina from the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have both signed off on a Democratic debate in North Carolina. The question now is when.

Obama had previously agreed to debate his rival on April 19 in North Carolina. On Thursday, the Clinton campaign said she has agreed to a debate April 27, sponsored by CBS.

North Carolina holds its primary on May 6.

The two candidates have agreed to debate in Philadelphia on April 16, a few days before the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.

The contenders have debated 20 times during the presidential campaign. Their last meetings were in Texas on Feb. 21 and Ohio on Feb. 26 ahead of those states' primaries on March 4. Clinton won both contests.

State Democratic Party chairman Jerry Meek said he has yet to get a response from Obama's campaign, which did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

This here is why political reporters are always friends with the local barkeep.

Click here for another look at those fundraising numbers released by Hagan Thursday.

The best quote from the story came from Gary Pearce, a longtime Democratic political consultant, when asked about the significance of Hagan having $1 million: "My reaction to hearing she raised $1 million is that is it's bad news for Jim Neal but probably good news for (Sen. Elizabeth) Liddy Dole," Pearce said. "She's going to need a (heck) of a lot more money — $10 million, $11 million, $12 million — to unseat an incumbent U.S. senator."

Folks are hashingon over the meaning of all this at the Debatables blog. And click here for more from Winston-Salem.

A billboard is going up along West Lee Street to sell county residents on two bonds for Guilford County Schools.

Vote Yes For Kids, the group behind the billboard, will unveil it during a Tuesday press conference at 10 a.m.

The group is one of several interests behind any of several bond referenda on the May 6 Primary Day ballot. Those include $412 million for school construction, $45 million for Eastern Guilford High School, a $115 million jail, $79.5 million for GTCC or $20 million for parks and recreation.

Are you for the school bonds or not? What about the other bonds?

The N.C. State Board of Elections has just updated its Web site.

You can find out who's running ... and how much money they're raising and spending ...

the latest voter registration numbers ...

your own registration status ...

and where you vote.

Meet the candidates for District Court. The League of Women Voters is holding a lunch at noon April 15 at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 607 N. Greene St. The cost is $8, and reservations are due Friday by e-mailing lwvpt@earthlink.net or calling Diane Davis at 587-8027.

Candidates with contested seats in the May 6 primary are invited. Each candidate will have one minute to make an opening and another minute for a closing statement. In between, the audience can submit written questions.

Hear several North Carolina gubernatorial candidates at a luncheon at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 204 Centreport Dr., Greensboro, at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Area chambers of commerce are sponsoring.

Democrats Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore, Republican Pat McCrory, and Libertarian Mike Munger will present their campaign platforms and take questions from attendees.

Candidates will have 20 minutes to present their platforms and take questions. Cost is $15 per person. Space is limited to 200 people and reservations are required by Monday. The Embassy Suites is near I-40 and N.C. 68. Information: 387-8301.

Kids Voting is hosting a "Salute to Democracy" luncheon on April 28. The luncheon will recognize elected officials, candidates and other champions of democracy. The event will be at the Koury Convention Center, 3121 High Point Road, Greensboro, and the cost is $35.

You can meet elected officials beginning at 11:30 a.m., then lunch will follow at noon. Register by April 22. Information: 378-8773.

I talked for about 10 minutes on the phone this afternoon with Sen. Chris Dodd, who was himself a candidate for President this spring. He suspended his campaign this spring and now support Sen. Barack Obama.

Here's the full disclosure bit: Dodd has become a surrogate for the Obama campaign and it was the campaign that approached me about talking to him. But hey: I'll take an interview with a U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate when I can get one and to be fair, Dodd didn't push an agenda on the call and actually answered the questions I asked him. (That, my friends, is not always the case when interviewing politicians.)

Dodd was an interesting guy to talk with and, being chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, is especially knowledgeable about all the doings and misdoings in the financial markets and mortgage industry. We spent a good part of our time talking about how complex some of this stuff is and how hard it will be to sort out.

Which lead me to this question for him: You're supporting Sen. Obama in the presidential chase. But he does not have a really deep banking and/or financial industry resume - he has not even served a full term in the state Senate and does not serve on the Banking or other committees with the oversight responsibility on these industries. Does he have the background to take on this problem were he elected? His reply, transcribed from some poor-quality audio:

"Certainly he does. The background you want in president is to first of all understand the problem needs to be addressed. He certainly gets that. And he needs the gray matter to understand it, and he certainly has that.

"But most importantly, because none of this is going to happen, I don't care how good your ideas are and your position papers are, and even if Barack Obama had spent his entire life becoming knowledgeably about financial institutions and mortgages, if you don't have leadership ability to motivate the country, to motivate people, to sit down and work out things in a way that will resolve issues to the satisfaction of our nation, then none of this is going to happen.

"We don't need to hire a technician. We need to hire a person who can provide that kind of moral leadership, that direction, that inspirational leadership, the ability to attract people who want to be part of the solution who get excited about being invited to that table to make a difference. And those are the qualities.

"Experience is very important, but it shouldn't be judged in isolation. It's your value system, your life experiences, your character, your commitment, your leadership skills - all of these things are much more important than, than - what experiences do you want to have? At this very hour its in housing and financial services, you know, yesterday it was Iraq. Tomorrow it may be Africa or Latin America, then it may be health care.

"We're never going to have anybody in that job who is experienced in all of this. But what they ought to have is the qualities and abilities to know the difference between the people who are coming to the table with an honest commitment to make a difference, who understand a good idea when you've heard it, to not be afraid of people with opposing ideas who come to you with good will and are interested in making a contribution. And I think Barack Obama has that talent and ability.

"I spent a year and a half of my life competing against these people not to mention getting to know them pretty well. And I'm satisfied, and this is not to be against Hillary Clinton. I'm not against anyone, particularly her. I have a lot of respect and admiration for her and she's talented as she can be.

"But I think the moment in history and the individual are coming together in this moment, and Barack Obama is exciting an element in the country that we've not seen in a long time. In our system you need that to get things done and we haven't had it in a long time. So I'm supporting his candidacy - and look, there are people like myself and Ted Kennedy, and others who years of experience. So if he wants to get technicians who know how to do this and who to listen to and so forth, that's what a good president will do. That's what his talent is going to be. That's who you want in that job."

My next question was this: how do the Democrats bring the nomination process to a close in such a way that the party does not hurt the chances for its eventual nominee?

"It going to take some adults in the room over the next few weeks to say, you know, game over, you know, and mean it and make that happen.

"Having said that quickly to you, then how do you do that? You've obviously got to have facts moving in your direction, and they are clearly (moving) Barack Obama's way. What is it, 56-to-32 (percent) among Democrats who believe he has the strongest opportunity to win in November. I know we don't like to talk about winning, but if you don't win you're not going to talk about any of this stuff in January, so you've got to win.

"And you've got to win by not just appealing to your base, but you've got to attract independents and in our case moderate Republicans who are looking for change. One statistic that is not gotten a lot of attention, Mark, is the following: of the 44 contests that have happened, in those contests where Republicans and Independents are allowed to vote in a Democratic caucus or primary, Barack Obama has a million more people that are Independents and Republicans that have voted for him and not voted for his opponent. That's the constituency you better have working for you on November 5 or you're not going to win the election.

"But if you end up going to Denver (the site of this years Democratic presidential nominating convention) in a brawl, with the party highly divided over personalities - it's not like George Wallace and Bobby Kennedy running against each other. We got to get down and drill down into those position papers to find those sub-paragraph three differences."

So, at what point should the adults get together in the room and make some decisions?

"When? ... You and I will know it when we see it. What happens in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, what happens in Indiana. I think taking a good hard look on May 6 is the date I'll be looking at. If Barack wins Pennsylvania, maybe we don't have to look at it any more than April 22. If it's a narrow loss, then obviously what happens in North Carolina will be critical, what happens in Indiana - If the trend lines continue as they have been, then I think its about that time to say let's put a wrap on this one and let's pull people together.

"Candidates always get together. I'm not worried about Hillary Clinton working hard for Barack Obama, or Barack Obama working hard for Hillary Clinton. I'm worried about the legions of people, supporters, people who (gave) financially, people who have committee a year and half - two years of their lives to this, they're much harder to turn around in eight weeks between the end of August and the first week in November.

"I've been around long enough, Mark, to watch this, I've seen what happened. We come out of conventions with all the phony pictures of people holding up each others' hands as a symbol of unity and there isn't an ounce of it in the room, and you try to patch that up and you end up loosing elections.

"So I'm very concerned about it. And I think people who say, 'This is healthy for the party,' and all these things, they don't know what they're talking about. It is to a point, but if you allow this thing to go too far and candidly, this campaign has been run by these cable networks, who are living off this and would love nothing more than to be reporting 24/7 about every nuanced battle between Michigan and Florida and delegates and supporters and fundraisers, what great theater that could be."

Editorial writer Doug Clark has already summarized the editorial board interview with Sen. Katie Dorsett and County Commissioner Bruce Davis. They are both running for the seat now held by Dorsett in the Democratic primary.

I've filed a news story, largely based on that interview, but am not sure when it's going to run. (For those who are curious: election profile stories tend to get bumped around from run-date-to-run-date because they're usually not pegged to a specific event other than the election, which is still a month away.) So I thought I'd share some audio from that interview for those who are really interested in the race and maybe trying to make some decisions on who to support.

This first bit is 13 minutes and 30 seconds long and is the heart of the exchange may end up being central election. In it, Davis says that he's not running against Dorsett but because he's a visionary. He then goes on to slam her record. Dorsett uses her time at the end of the segment to explain why her experience and seniority matters. Click here to listen.

Next up is a clip on education. Davis favors state-funded vouchers for students to attend private schools and lifting the cap on charter schools. Dorsett does not. Click here to listen.

The mental health system and its many failures has been on a lot of front pages as of late. Both candidates were asked what they'd do to fix it. Dorsett differed to a legislative committee working to fix the problem. Davis advocates a return to a system that looks something like the pre-reform model with counties having more of a hand in treatment. Click here to listen.

In this last audio segment, both Dorsett and Davis were asked about ethics reform and the Wright case. Dorsett said some ethics reforms went too far but that the House was correct to expel Wright. Davis said that legislators should be held to the highest ethical standards but said the House acted too quickly. Click here to listen.

Here is Billy Yow's website.

The twice-elected Guilford County Commissioner has a few sentences on his incumbency, a link to donate to his campaign and external links to voting deadlines and the county board of elections.

Yow is running for the District 5 seat in the May 6 primary against Rick Wallace and Lisa Andrews.

From the N.C. Democratic Party:

RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Democratic Party announced today that Raleigh’s RBC Center will be the site for the April 27th Democratic Presidential Debate.

It will be held in partnership with North Carolina State University and CBS News.

CBS will broadcast the 90-minute live debate, beginning at 8 p.m., immediately following 60 Minutes. Katie Couric and Bob Schieffer will moderate.

“North Carolinians are excited about the opportunity to hear from both candidates, right here in our state about the issues that are important to us,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek. “Both candidates have said our May 6 primary is important to them and have agreed to a CBS debate in North Carolina.”

“Their participation in this debate will be the clearest indication of North Carolina’s importance in this process,” Meek said.

The RBC Center is home to the N.C. State University men’s basketball team and the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.

Seating will be limited due to a special set-up for the televised debate. For more information, monitor our website, www.ncdp.org.

The Obama folks say they're not sold on the date. From a campaign spokesperson:

Senator Obama has debated Senator Clinton more than 20 times so far, and our campaign agreed to another debate in North Carolina that was proposed for the third week of April. Unfortunately, the Clinton campaign vetoed that date. We are still determining whether or not the later date works for Senator Obama’s schedule.

I have a hard time figuring that Obama would not rearrange his schedule to take advantage of that kind of air time, but I've been wrong before.

At least one blogger gave us a little flack over Sunday's 10 Plus, a Q&A with George Gilbert, director of Guilford County elections.

So here are a couple questions that didn't make it into the paper. And if you have any more for us or Gilbert, post 'em below.

Also, you can see his testimony before the United States Senate in 2007.

The Associated Press is reporting that U.S. Senate candidate and Greensboro State Sen. Kay Hagan will begin airing television ads on Wednesday.

"The ad is designed to introduce Hagan to the voters," the AP says.

Here's Kay Hagan's first television ad:

It's an upbeat affair, although manages to stay clear of any images that we scruffy media types might call "gauzy," the vogue code-word for sappy.

Looking over the script, there's really only one line where anyone could quibble with the facts: "And she brought change: raising the minimum wage, expanding health care, and strengthening local schools."

Expanding health care and strengthening local schools is a common claim for legislators. Since Hagan was part of the appropriations teams that wrote bills that did make health care coverage more widely available and did things like increase teacher salaries, she can lay claim to those as well as probably any one of 30 members of the General Assembly during the past 10 years.

"Raising the minimum wage" might be dicier and here's why: Within the General Assembly the House was the first chamber to really push for the minimum wage. And within the House, Rep. Alma Adams, who like Hagan is from Greensboro, was the recognized leader of the 2006 effort that was eventually successful.

When the measure crossed to the Senate, the chamber held the measure up as the state budget was negotiated. Essentially the minimum wage increase to $6.15 an hour seemed to be a barter item in the budget negotiations.

Also, when the Senate did finally get around to passing the minimum wage, there was some drama about instituting a "training wage," that would have been lower than the minimum. Hagan was among a number of Senate Commerce Committee members who initially voted for the training wage before reversing themselves under pressure from groups like the NAACP.

So if someone wanted to tug at the loose threads on that claim, they might get somewhere.

The Clinton campaign put out the names of the folks on its "Statewide Leadership Council." This functions more as a list of endorsements, really, letting people know that so-and-so is in Clinton's camp.

From Guilford County, the council includes:

• Linda Carlisle, Community Leader - Greensboro
• Kay Cashion, Vice Chair, Guilford County Commission - Franklin
• Sallie Cone, Community Leader - Greensboro
• John Covington Overfield, Attorney - Greensboro
• Linda Hiatt, Community Leader - Greensboro
• Randall Kaplan, Business Leader - Greensboro
• Julie Lapham, PhD, Non Profit Director - Greensboro
• James F. Morgan, Former State Representative - High Point.
• Peter Reichard, Managing Director, Tryon Capital - Greensboro
• Susan Shore Schwartz, Executive Director, Cemala Foundation - Greensboro

Morgan is a particularly big name in High Point and it's interesting that he's the only High Point name on the list. The city still sends him up to Raleigh on occasion if they're lobbying for something.

Carlisle is a sitting lottery commissioner.

Cashion lives in Greensboro so I'm not real sure why the campaign lists her as coming from "Franklin."

There are no Alamance, Davidson, Randolph or Rockingham county names on the list. Other names of note: Rufus Edmisten, the former attorney general, State Sen. Dan Clodfelter of Charlotte and Hugh McColl, retired chairman of Bank of America.

I just sent this to our online folks:

Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue says has taken down television ads and website material attacking her opponent in the Democratic primary for governor and will refrain from so-called negative campaigning until the May 6 vote.

Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore are the two leading Democrats in the contest and both have aired a series of attack ads over the past two months. Perdue said that numerous complaints from family, friends and supporters prompted her to take the attacks off the air.

"I've been thinking about this for two weeks," Perdue told reporters this morning after showing a new commercial that begins airing today in which she announces her decision to voters.

"It's been hard for me to look some people in the face," she said.

The winner of the May 6 primary will go on to face the winner of the Republican contest and the nominee chosen by the state Libertarian Party.

No response yet from the Moore campaign.

Update: “When a candidate does this it’s because they’re losing,” said Jay Reiff, Moore’s campaign manager. When asked if there were plans to pull Moore’s negative ads, Reiff said, “We’re going to continue to make the case as to why Richard Moore is the best choice for governor.”

Update: Here's Perdue's ad, which she said began airing today at 10 a.m.

North Carolina's Libertarian Party is getting ready to hold their state convention this weekend, April 12 and 13, at the La Quinta Inn, Burlington.

Expected guests include Mike Gravel, a former Alaska Senator who made the early Democratic debates entertaining to watch, and Bob Barr of Georgia.

From a Libertarian Party news release:

Former Democratic Sen. Mike Gravel, who recently defected to the Libertarian Party and is seeking the nomination for president, will attend the State Libertarian Convention this weekend in Burlington.

Sen. Gravel will arrive Friday evening and attend most of the convention session Saturday.

Another defector from the so-called major parties, former Republican Rep. Bob Barr, will also attend the Saturday sessions. Barr recently formed an exploratory committee to gauge support for seeking the Libertarian presidential nod.

The convention will open Saturday morning at 8;30 a.m. in the La Quinta Inn, Burlington.

The primary order of business will be nomination of candidates for Governor, Council of State seats and the General Assembly, especially in the unopposed districts. The party is on the verge of completing its petition drive to regain its spot on the ballot.

Nominations for the gubernatorial candidate will take place Sunday morning. There will also be a Presidential Candidates Forum and Straw Vote.

In addition to nominating candidates, delegates will also consider changes to the LPNC Platform on Saturday, including a proposal to oppose the "Real ID," a scheme for a national ID card.

In addition to Gravel and Barr, three announced presidential candidates also will attend. They are Dr. George Phillies of Massachusetts, a physics professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dr. Mary Ruwart of Texas, a biochemist, nutraceutical company consultant and author of the best-selling "Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression," and Wayne Allyn Root, a TV sports commentator know as "America's Oddsmaker."

The League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad will be hosting a forum for Guilford County judicial candidates Tuesday.

You'll get to hear:

Falls Seat: Robert Enochs, Linda Falls, Angela Foster
Hassell Seat: Avery Crump, Greg Gorham, Robbie Hassell
McSwain Seat: Betty Brown, Lora Cubbage
Sizemore Seat: Randle Jones, Polly Sizemore

The forum will be at 12:15 p.m. in the Haywood Duke Meeting Room at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 605 N. Greene St. near downtown Greensboro.

The program is free, but if you want to partake in lunch, cost is $8. Make reservations by Friday at lwvpt@earthlink.net or call call Diane Davis at 587-8027.

You can find more information at the league's Web site.

A Survey USA Poll once again puts State Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro and Chapel Hill investment advisor Jim Neal in a dead heat.

And once again, that disagrees with the latest polling from PPP, which puts Hagan pretty far ahead.

I'm going to be watching a couple things in the polls going forward. First: are Hagan's ads making a bit of difference. I watch a lot of TV that polls like to advertise on (cheap cable time with wonky shows) and haven't seen one yet. One would expect that if her ads are making a dent, she should be able to break the tie Survey USA is finding.

And I want to see if Neal can widen his lead in the PPP poll over the other three male candidates in the race. He has kind of a problem on election day in that Hagan is the only female name on the ballot. So 1) her name is more district and easier to remember for folks who know "Oh, I like that lady in the race," and 2) she'll pick up people who vote for the woman in any race where they don't know anything else about the candidates. (Yes, that happens.) So Neal has a couple of structural things he needs to over come.

At this point, I'm not sure either poll can tell us very much. Both have large numbers of undecideds and there are tons of new voters registering.

For those following the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate race its front-runners, Kay Hagan of Greensboro and Jim Neal or Chapel Hill:

Has anyone surfed by the DSCC site for North Carolina lately? Not to put too fine a point on it, but they look to loving them some Kay Hagan. Check the news headlines in this screen capture (Click to enlarge):

It's all boosting Hagan and knocking Dole. Neal is relegated to the obligatory we're-not-really-choosing-sides-wink-wink sentence: "Jim Neal, Duskin Lassiter, Howard Staley and Marcus Williams are also vying for the Democratic nomination."

Youch.

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If you're hoping to see a debate-ish looking thing among the candidates, the Orange County Democratic Party Forum on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the UNC School of Social Work Auditorium. Neal's folks say he's coming and Hagan has it on her campaign calendar.

-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-

Hagan has rejected a debate sponsored by WTVD in Durham, sending out this press release:

Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate Campaign Communications Director Colleen Flanagan today released the following statement with regards to the Democratic U.S. Senate debate proposed by Durham television station WTVD. WTVD has decided to only invite candidates who reached a minimum of 10% in their latest WTVD/SurveyUSA poll. In the past week, three separate polls have been released in this race, all three of which have State Senator and U.S. Senate Candidate Kay Hagan in the lead, but show varying results for her primary opponents.

"We have discussed the terms of the debate with WTVD, and while we would
have been happy to debate had all the candidates been invited, we do not
feel comfortable participating in a debate where some of the candidates
were excluded. As others have noted, in North Carolina, we have
primaries, not coronations, and it's inherently unfair for one polling
firm to determine which candidates voters get to hear from."

Neal's camp is all for this debate. My two cents as to what's going on here:

• - Neal wants the opportunity to ask some pointed questions about Hagan and go at it one-on-one. Also, a one-on-one debate would confirm his status as a co-front-runner.

• - Hagan has no interest in conferring co-front-runner status on Neal and, frankly, will probably do just as well not have the debate. (She's gone on air with TV commercials, so she doesn't need the exposure.) Being in a forum with all five candidates would let her put her policy lines out there without getting challenged to much.

• - Hey, it's WTVD's air. If they want to host and broadcast a debate they can set the terms. Frankly, I don't think it's all that unreasonable. See this post for my thoughts on determining front-runners.

Update: The Neal campaign just sent along the following:

Just days after going on the air with paid television ads, Senator Hagan has refused an invitation to debate from WTVD Eyewitness News. Her campaign can spin it any way they want but the truth is Senator Hagan refuses to debate the important issues facing North Carolina and the nation. Senator Hagan wants to buy this election with TV ads and avoid a real discussion. Senator Hagan’s campaign strategy is to raise more money, avoid legitimate debate and blanket the airwaves with television ads. It is the typical Washington politics-as-usual and it amounts to selling our elections to the highest bidder. Senator Hagan’s cynical and disingenuous refusal to debate flies in the face of her claim to be a candidate of change. Political candidates and elected officials are supposed to answer questions from, not dictate terms to, an independent news media. We’ve had enough of the latter from the Bush Administration.

So did you register already? Why?

Want to meet Bev Perdue and ask her about all those negative ads in the Democratic primary for governor? From the campaign:

Dear Friends,

The response to yesterday’s announcement about our positive campaign has been overwhelming. I have heard from hundreds of voters across the state who are excited that I have decided to stop the negative advertising and will be running a positive campaign focused on the issues that matter to North Carolina’s families.

In that spirit, I will hit the road this weekend to meet with voters across North Carolina. Below is a list of the gatherings I will be attending this weekend in Greenville, Lumberton, Raleigh – and now Greensboro! Guilford County Commissioner Kay Cashion has generously opened her home for an afternoon gathering in Greensboro on Sunday. I would be delighted if you could join us.

Our momentum continues to build every day and I look forward to seeing you this weekend.

Info on the Greensboro shindig is as follows:

Greensboro, Sunday 4/13
The home of County Commissioner Kay Cashion
103 N. West Greenway Street, in Greensboro
2:00 until 3:30 pm
Complimentary Refreshments Served
Julie Lapham – (336) 379-1000 or at jlapham@juno.com

This morning we e-mailed questions that one commenter had for George Gilbert, Guilford County's director of elections. This followed a little blog talk that our 10 Plus on Gilbert received after it ran Sunday.

Here's Gilbert's response, from this afternoon:

Clearly your questioner is more interested in being provocative and inflammatory rather than informative. Under the circumstances, I would elect not to dignify his accusations with a response. I will share with you the latest article I have from Computerworld regarding voter confidence in voting systems (see attached).

George

From today's paper: a look at the three Democrats who want to take on Republican Rep. Howard Coble in the 6th Congressional District.

Previously:

• The Democratic primary in the 28th state Senate District.
• The Republican Primary in the 61st state House District.

The Libertarian Party of North Carolina says it has almost gathered enough petitions (about 70,000) to qualify as a political party in the state again. If they do that, and there are no problems and the Board of Elections certifies it, the party will be able to run its slate of candidates in the fall election.

That slate, according to a press release from the party, will include Mike Munger, a Duke University professor, for governor. Mark McMains of Fuquay-Varina was nominated for insurance commissioner.

In the eighth Congressional District, which promises to be a rematch of the 2006 election between Republican incumbent Robin Hayes and Democratic Larry Kissel, the Libertarians have nominated Thomas Hill of Concord. That was a barn burner of an election last time and one would think a Libertarian in the race probably draws from Hayes' constituency and helps Kissel a bit.

Paul Elledge will be offered up as a Guilford County Commissioner at-large candidate. Aside from him, the Libertarians don't appear to have targeted any other local races. You can read the run-down on their candidates here. (No perma-link yet.)

Cross-posted from Inside Scoop.

We're doing a story on the $671.6 million in Guilford County bonds that people will vote on in the May 6 primary.

So as we report this story, what kinds of things would you like to know about the bonds? Do you wonder if this a good time for bonds, considering the economy? Do you think that the schools, parks, jail and college are needed now - no matter what?

What questions and answers would help you make a better choice on the bonds? E-mail us or post a comment below, and we'll try to get to them along the way.

Treasurer Richard Moore's gubernatorial campaign is crying foul on this flier, which is a hit-piece by NCAE - the state educator's group - aimed squarely at Moore.

Perdue said last week she was forgoing all negative campaign tactics and asking her backers to do the same.

A spokeswoman for the Moore campaign likened the tactic to the independent "Swiftboat" ads that supporters of President Bush aimed at Sen. John Kerry during the 2004 election.

To be fair, it does look like a break with the spirit of the no negativity rule.

Update: Sheri Strickland, VP for NCAE, said that the piece went out before Perdue came forward with her wishes for a strictly positive campaign. The group, she said, has scrapped two similarly-themed fliers, she said.

Chapel Hill investment advisor Jim Neal's campaign got a shout out Howie Klein, a writer on HuffingtonPost.com. The post retraces the storyline of Neal as an outsider candidate who is opposed by the Democratic establishment:

Jim Neal is a Blue America-endorsed candidate who wants to take on Senator Dole in North Carolina. Although DSCC head Chuck Schumer claims, rather ingenuously, that he stays neutral in hotly contested primaries, there are at least two big ones this year where he is backing Insider Establishment candidates who give every indication that they will not support core Democratic initiatives.

Klein goes on to compare the U.S. Senate race here to the one in Kentucky.

The News & Record's editorial board held a group interview with the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate today. I sit in on some of these types of interviews on the off chance they make news.

State Sen. Kay Hagan, Chapel Hill investment advisor Jim Neal, lawyer Marcus Williams and trucker Duskin Lassiter showed. Podiatrist Howard Staley was invited but did not come.

There were some pretty sharp differences on display, including in answer to a question on the war in Iraq. Editorial Writer Doug Clark asked how the candidates would deal with a President John McCain administration that wanted to keep troops in Iraq passed when Democrats would want.

Neal said: "I will not vote for any further funding for the war until such time as the administration ... has come to the negotiating table with the Congress." He said those negotiations would include a timetable for withdrawal. The actual withdrawal, he said, should be left to military commanders to manage.

Hagan said: "I would never use the funding of the military as a political tool." Hagan said she would hold hearings and begin managing the federal budget more responsibly.

You can listen to the full exchange among all four candidates by clicking here.

Gov. Mike Easley was kind enough to sit and chat a spell earlier this week. Among other things, I asked him whether he's make a choice in the presidential election - he has not - and what he thought of the back-and-forth in the Democratic primary to replace him. I asked Easley if he has been tempted to step into the battle between Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue and Treasurer Richard Moore.

"I've said some things. It doesn't work. They're going to do what they're going to do, " he said.

Click here to listen to a segment of that chat.

And then there was this question: are you done running for office? Click here for that answer.

More is coming, including a Q+A in the paper this weekend.

So I was in Greensboro Thursday on some other assignments, but it turned out that Hillary Clinton's national campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, was going to drop by the Guilford County Courthouse.

As I was loitering about beside Market Street, the appointed hour for McAuliffe's arrival came and who should wander up the street? Right: a bunch of Barack Obama supporters chanting their hearts out:

Very odd timing.

At any rate, McAuliffe showed up shortly after and stopped to chat with some Clinton supporters who were also gathered outside the courthouse.

During a brief conversation, McAuliffe said that North Carolina was one of several southern states the eventual Democratic nominee would do well to campaign in. He also said that North Carolina could have been in play in 2004, but that then-nominee John Kerry was too slow to respond to the swift-boat accusations.

Click here to listen to some of our conversation.

I also asked if he worried the ongoing Democratic battle would give presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and advantage. As you might expect, the answer to that question was no. "I think all this excitement is good, the key is we've got to come together at the end." Click here for that.

The four leading candidates for governor will debate tonight at The Civitas Institute's annual Conservative Leadership Conference. Word is that this will be the most free-wheeling of the debate opportunities, allowing candidates to directly challenge one another.

From today's paper: A quick and dirty look at the four front-runners.

More from our editorial board's interview with the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate.

Hagan was asked about RF Micro Devices, a local company that has gotten state and local economic incentives but sent 80 jobs to China this week. (They still have close to 2,000 jobs here in North Carolina.)

"Maybe we ought to be lowering the corporate income tax so that more companies would actually come here. That's something on a state level. But on a federal level, I think any trade policy we do going forward, it's got to be fair to the companies here in North Carolina. By that, you've got to have environment protections and labor protections that are enforceable..."

During his segment, Neal talked more broadly about economic policy, and reacted to Hagan's mention of state tax breaks.

"Right now, the old model of cutting taxes and having that basically benefit the common good is not working, it's broken...We have a finite amount of resources in this country..."

Click here to listen to the full exchange on the economy. It's long, about 15 minutes. Hagan is at the beginning and Neal is at the end. Duskin Lassiter and Marcus Williams weigh in between them.

Here's some clips from the editorial interview conducted by Allen Johnson and Doug Clark with District 5 Guilford County commissioner candidates Billy Yow and Rick Wallace. The third candidate, Lisa Andrews, couldn't make it out.

So two answered questions on their support for bonds and a new quarter-cent sales tax, and then got to meaty stuff: fightin' commissioners.

For the uninitiated, Guilford commissioners are known for their open debates that occasionally turn hostile.

These are things that have even been used to campaign.

So when Wallace got first crack at what separates him from Yow, he went straight for what he called professionalism. listen
(1 min 20 sec)

And Yow, with the same question, came with his philosophy on the 11 commissioners, and the tinder box that can create
(48 sec)

The Republican candidates for governor were debating at the Civitas shindig in Greensboro Friday night. After, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole addressed the folks at the Conservative Leadership Conference.

Dole spent a lot of time on immigration, talking up the 287(g) program and her efforts to shoot down the immigration bill that was heading through Congress last year.

Dole, who faces re-election this year, told the audience that this was a "dangerous" election:

"We've got critically important races, from the White House, to the Congressional races, to my own Senate race where they're trying to get a filibuster proof Senate ... which means everything then can go zipping through and we won't be able stop the bad stuff - talk about tax increases and labor issues and all the rest. And of course, the gubernatorial race, and we have outstanding candidates...

"In my view, we always say each cycle is a tough cycle. Well folks, this one is a dangerous cycle. This is dangerous. And we have got to really get out there and do everything in our power to make sure we're able to move forward these great candidates who are running.

Congressman Howard Coble was on hand as well.

This is from an Associated Press breakdown of the remaining primaries in the Democratic nomination process:

With its large population of black voters and well-populated liberal enclaves, Obama is heavily favored to win North Carolina. Recent polling shows him with a double-digit lead over Clinton, and both candidates vying for the state's Democratic gubernatorial nomination have endorsed the Illinois senator.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who also sought the nomination, has declined both candidates' endorsement requests. He's kept a low profile since leaving the race, and it's unlikely he will appear with either candidate leading up to the primary.

Obama has been advertising on television in North Carolina since late March. Clinton went up recently with an unconventional one-minute ad in which she invited North Carolinians to submit questions that she would answer in subsequent ads leading up to the primary. More than 10,000 questions have been submitted so far.

Obama is targeting the state's five major urban areas _ Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Raleigh, the state capital. Clinton is eyeing the more rural regions of the state and military communities such as Fayetteville.

Unaffiliated voters can vote in either party's contest. The state has heavy early voting that began Thursday.

Public opinion surveys have been listing the economy, war in Iraq and gas prices among top issues of concern for voters. But in her speech at the Civitas shindig in Greensboro, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole offered up another:

"Probably the issue I've heard the most about because people I've heard from all agree, is immigration. I have more folks tell me how fed up they are with our immigration system, our laws, and with Washington's failure to secure our boarders and enforce our immigration laws..."

Dole talked up her efforts to shoot down the Congressional immigration compromise last summer, saying that it's "amnesty" provisions made it unacceptable.

The amount of time she spent on the topic made me think I was seeing a preview of her stump speech for the fall campaign.

A final note on her speech. Dole brought up the idea of drilling for oil in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, which at one point was quite the political battle.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, for the life of me, I cannot understand why we cannot get the support that we need - we were almost there at one point - to drill in ANWR in Alaska. Here's this frozen tundra thousands of miles away. It's 2,000 acres out of 19 million acres and the Alaskans want it ... So this is a national security issue and the extreme environmentalists need to understand that, don't they. They need to understand that."

She got big applause off those lines.

Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes took this week's episode of "Sheriff's Beat" to look at what the jail does.

The movie comes from the National Institue of Corrections and has the feel of an educational video. In the intro, it borrows clips from several well-known jail movies: "The Shawshank Redemption," "Cool Hand Luke," "The Silence of the Lambs," and others.

Barnes bookends the video with an introduction and a closing statement.

"We need some additional space as it relates to our Guilford County Jail," Barnes said at the end of the video. And he stops just shy of telling people vote yes for the $115 million jail bond referendum.

So what do you think?

Bond money for schools? It has its detractors but what about when the school is recognized by economic development officials as a major driver in recruiting new industries?

That's the case GTCC officials are making with their $79.5 million bond request. The bond money will fund new parking, land acquisition, building a campus outside Oak Ridge, renovations at the Jamestown campus and a new classroom building at the Aviation Center to train future employees of Honda Jet, TIMCO and Cessna, among others.

The bond would mean the owner of a $200,000 home would pay an average of $24.83 more in property taxes over the next five years, ranging from a low of $9.26 in extra taxes in FY 2008-09 to a high of $33.94 in 2011-12, less in later years.

Here's how our editorial department weighed in. But what do you think? Are these projects worth the investment? Do you believe you'll see the benefit?

-J. Brian Ewing

According to Public Policy Polling, state Sen. Kay Hagan is pulling away from her main rival in the Democratic primary, Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal.

I've written before that I'm troubled by the discrepancy between PPP's numbers and Survey USA's.

However, what's on display here is a trend. While the absolute numbers may or may not be on track, it's clear that Hagan is gaining in name recognition and voter opinion while the other candidates in the race are standing still. This is almost certainly a product of her putting two commercials on the television box.

With 15 days before the election, if Neal is going to make a move, particularly on-air, now is the time.

No debate. This just came through from state Democratic Party HQ:

RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Democratic Party announced today that it will cancel the proposed Democratic Presidential debate on April 27 due to time constraints and logistical issues associated with such a large, national event.

While there was great interest in the debate, there were also growing concerns about what another debate would do to party unity.

The Party would also like to thank North Carolina State University for their hospitality and willingness to host this debate.

Both campaigns have offered North Carolinians additional opportunities to be seen and heard across the state in the coming weeks and months.

In addition, Senators Clinton and Obama have committed to attending our Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Friday, May 2 in Raleigh.

Tickets are still available by signing up online http://www.ncdp.org/.

With the presidential contenders not throwing down in North Carolina, might the Democrats who want to be the state's chief executive get their debate on? Yes, I think. From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The two leading Democratic candidates for governor are ready to debate, but not in the same location.

State Treasurer Richard Moore said Monday that he remains committed to a televised debate at the WRAL television studios on Tuesday in Raleigh. But Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue accepted an invitation to meet in Durham at the WTVD studios.

During a news conference, Moore said Perdue should accept the WRAL invitation because it offers a larger audience. He pointed out that Perdue said a few weeks ago she would debate anytime and anywhere.

Perdue's campaign didn't immediately respond. But late last week it called on Moore to accept the WTVD debate.

Both candidates remain scheduled to participate in a forum Thursday night on public television.

That story was quickly followed by the following release from the Perdue camp:

Bev Perdue today released the following statement regarding debates:

"Richard Moore has said that he would debate anytime, anywhere, but it's become clear that he does not intend to live up to those words.

"While I deeply appreciate WTVD's efforts and generosity, it is clear that for a debate to occur I will have to be the candidate who takes the first step forward.

"North Carolina's families want to know what I will do as Governor to make North Carolina a better place to live, and I look forward to discussing that in a debate tomorrow night at WRAL."

More to come, I think.

For those who are interested, click here with a MS Word file of Guilford County endorsements by the Replacement Ltd. PAC. More about the endorsements can be found here.

The PAC is primarily interested in influencing "the election of local, state and national candidates who will best support and promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens," according to its website. It is headed by principals at Replacements Ltd., a local company that sells china and silver and such.

Some highlights:

They endorse state Sen. Kay Hagan in her U.S. Senate run, but give Chapel Hill investment banker a nod, giving and indication that he's an okay candidate too.

All three Democrats running in the 6th Congressional District, currently held by Republican Howard Coble, get okay-to-vote-for nods, although Jay Ovittore comes away with the endorsement.

Richard Moore is the only candidate for governor to get an endorsement or any other comment from the PAC.

Katie Dorsett gets an endorsement in her bid for re-election.

Democrat Greg Woodard e-mailed us today to say that he's not bowing out of the District 8 race for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners against incumbent Melvin "Skip" Alston.

Woodard, who has been sick, added that he's getting healthier every day, and that over the weekend many people called his home to offer help on his campaign. He has to limit his phone calls to less than three minutes, but welcomes e-mails with questions about his campaign.

From his e-mail:

After all, everyone gets sick. I just got sick at a bad time. I'll be back on my feet in no time and if I win, I'll be well healed long before I am sworn in.

You may want to note, I have 23 yrs. of decorated service in the Military and have been very active in the community, I don't go down that easy.

Here's his blog, which has some more on his health and details of his candidacy.

No matter the outcome of the race, we hope Woodard recovers soon. Primary Day is May 6.

A group of 29 legislators came out to endorse Barack Obama today. Among the locals on the list were Reps. Alma Adams and Pricey Harrison along with Sen. Katie Dorsett.

However, the heavy hitters on the agenda were Rep. Dan Blue, a one-time U.S. Senate candidate and very well respected committee chairman in the House, and Sen. Tony Rand, the Senate majority leader all around power broker in the Senate.

Two points about Rand's speech today: It sounded a little un-Rand-like. Rand is known for his home-spun colloquy that borders on the elegant at times. I asked him if the words were his own. He acknowledged that the campaign had written part of it, which I think is pretty standard operating procedure for these kinds of announcements.

However, after the newser when he was just fielding questions, Rand delivered some very Rand-like lines. The best, by far, came in response to a question about the flag-pin and Rev. Wright controversies and whether they would hurt Obama in Rand's district, which includes Ft. Bragg.

"I think that so shallow. I don't think the people of my district are going to fall for that kind of stuff ... It's what you stand for and where you are. I hope we will focus on jobs, on doing something about the dependence on energy, I hope we'll look at what we can do to resolve the problems of the Middle East and get out of there. If we can do those things, you know, he could walk around naked as far as I'm concerned and it would be fine."

The full list of legislators who endorsed Obama Tuesday is after the jump:

With all the national media declaring Sen. Hillary Clinton the victor in Pennsylvania, a Tar Heel voter may be tempted to ask, so what?

I think the only relevance to those of us voting on May 6 is that the victory ensures the campaign will come to North Carolina. If Clinton had lost, one might have been able to make the case that Barack Obama had more mojo going into the final stages of the campaign and that with a loss among people who were supposed to be her base, Clinton had shown enough weakness that she should bow out.

Well, that ain't happening.

Clinton, her husband the former President and daughter Chelsea will all be in the state over the next week and one can well imagine Obama is going to be back with his top surrogates as well.

North Carolina, with 115 delegates, is the richest prize left on the Democratic Primary calendar. Indiana, which also votes on May 6, is next with 72. Puerto Rico has 55. Puerto Rico will vote June 1, followed by Montana and South Dakota, which close the primary season on June 3.

Treasurer Richard Moore and Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue debated in Raleigh Tuesday night. Although it was held at WRAL and carried on at least one Charlotte TV station, I don't think it was broadcast in the Triad.

Here's my story, summarizing the highlights. After all the back-and-forth over where to debate, who was ducking whom, which station would conduct it, etc... the debate was well worth it, highlighting the differences between the two candidates.

If you've got an hour and want to watch the whole thing, WRAL has video up here.

I wrote a complimentary entry over the weekend about gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory, the Republican mayor of Charlotte.

He has a lot of good ideas.

But the recent wave of crime in his town can't be good for him.

The Charlotte Observer reports on it here via the News & Observer.

Lots of cities, including Greensboro, are having similar problems. But their mayors aren't running for governor.

So the North Carolina GOP has put an ad on the air criticizing Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue and Treasurer Richard Moore for endorsing Barack Obama.

I'm struggling with the tactical reasoning behind that decision. On the one hand, they party gets to ding Obama with the Rev. Wright flap again. And those voting in the Republican primary will probably see an endorsement of Obama as a bad thing.

But:

• * Moore and Perdue endorsed Obama for a reason and it wasn't to appeal to Republican primary voters. I somehow doubt this really hurts either of them right now and might actually help both in that it spreads the word that they've endorsed.
• * The general election is seven months away. Why not save your powder until you have one target to run against? In two weeks, either Perdue or Moore will almost certainly be the nominee and you'll have plenty of time to wail on them.
• * Since the Wright flap has not seemed to slow down Obama much here in the state, is it going to slow down two of his endorsers?

Here's the ad.

My 5-cent snark: If you're going to use Rev. Wright's comments, don't be so freaking squeamish and bleep the word "damn." That's like wearing a dinner jacket to a knife fight: it's overly formal and doesn't disguise your intentions to stick something sharp in your opponent.

I may have more on this later. GOP folks embargoed the ad release and I'm probably going to be a presser on the thing as this entry pops onto the internets.

Update: Linda Daves, chairman of the NC GOP, says the ad will start running Monday during the evening news. When asked if the ad was race baiting, she said: "The accusation of race baiting is one of the oldest used tools to drive a wedge between the people of North Carolina. It's a great way to divert the debate from the actual issues that on the table. So I simply don't buy into that."

N.C. Democratic Party Executive Director Caroline Valand differed in her opinion, calling the ad an example of "the same old southern strategy" and calling on Republican nominees for governor and president to renounce the ad.

"They're buying into old southern race politics," she said.

Update: It seems Sen. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee doesn't much like the ad either. Here's an e-mail sent by his campaign:

Dear Chairman Daves,

From the beginning of this election, I have been committed to running a respectful campaign based upon an honest debate about the great issues confronting America today. I expect all state parties to do so as well. The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats. In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement.

This ad does not live up to the very high standards we should hold ourselves to in this campaign. We need to run a campaign that is worthy of the people we seek to serve. There is no doubt that we will draw sharp contrasts with the Democrats on fundamental issues critical to the future course of our country. But we need not engage in political tactics that only seek to divide the American people.

Once again, it is imperative that you withdraw this offensive advertisement.

John McCain

Even more than usual has been said about the state GOP ad slamming Sen. Obama, Bev Perdue and Richard Moore in connection with the Rev. Wright, especially since our friends in the national media have chosen to weigh in.

Just this morning, I got to listen to NPR's Juan Williams not only mispronounce Linda Daves' name a dozen times (karmic payback for Daves refusing to use proper grammar when talking about the "Democrat" party) but kind of miss the point on the ad itself.

Here's my 5-cent analysis, free to our Internet readers:

• * Whether you think the ad makes tactical sense or not (I don't) or is fair (since when have elections been about fair) it is hugely popular with the Republican base. I've been getting e-mails all morning about the thing from folks who think this is just what the party ought to be doing.

• * Memo to the national media: It's not all about the presidential campaign. Understand that there is a large segment of North Carolina Republicans who believe the worst thing you can say about a state candidate is that they've endorsed Barack Obama. I know, I know, you want it all to be about the presidential race. But Tar Heels have been doing hard-ball election tactics while no one watched for years. We just have a national stage to play on now.

• * There are two and only two rational reasons for launching such an ad: the NC GOP thinks it will get some campaign donations rolling on or they've made a strategic decision that they'd rather have Sen. Clinton at the top of the ticket this fall.

  Since it dings both Moore and Perdue there's no real potential impact in that primary and it's too soon in the election cycle to make an impact in the fall General Election campaign.

  Being a cynic, I think the money explanation is the more rational. (Republicans I talked to do not seem to be of one mind about who it would be easier to run against.) This is getting huge press play, comments on blogs from around the country. This is akin to Vernon Robinson's flame-throwing ads in the 2006 race against Brad Miller: the didn't help him win but they brought in some bucks.

• * The people who ought to be really aggrieved are the down-ticked candidates, like those running for the state House and Senate who might look for some help from their party this fall.

  The party already has a reputations - at least 'round Guilford County - of kind of letting legislative candidates fend for themselves. If they spend their money on stuff like this but let candidates who might be in striking distance of flipping a seat from the Democrats founder for want of money in November, some folks will be rightfully angry.

• * Daves laid out a pretty robust case for winning votes against Perdue and Moore. I'm not saying I agree with everything in the release, just that the arguments are rhetorically strong and I could see them swaying unaffiliated voters and conservative democrats.

  So what does it say that despite being able to point to corruption in government, ineffectiveness in state agencies (yes, division of mental health, we're looking at you) and nearly 130 years of unbroken Democratic control of the levers of power in Raleigh, the Republican party feels the best thing they can put out is an ad linking to candidates for governor to a presidential candidate who is linked to a controversial preacher?

  To me, it smacks of a lack of confidence of your ability to win on the issues.

Jim Neal tells Blue NC there will be a debate in the U.S. Senate race. Will let you know when I get confirmation from the Hagan folks.

Date would be April 29 right here in Greensboro.

Rep. Laura Wiley and her challenger in the Republican primary interviewed with the News & Record's editorial board today.

As it was in this story, funding for the furniture market was an issue during the interview.

Click here to listen to the exchange.

Ragsdale's contention during the interview was that Wiley had voted against state budgets that contained funding for the furniture market.

Wiley voted against budgets in 2005 and 2007 that had market funding.

In 2006, she voted for the budget. That budget, she said, included a major increase in funds for the market to sell itself to potential exhibitors and buyers. It was also a budget when Democratic House leaders - specifically Jim Black - leaned on Wiley and others to vote for the budget.

Out of fairness, the flip-side of the issue Ragsdale is pressing Wiley on is this: If voting against a budget that contains market money means you're not fully for the market, does voting FOR a budget mean you're FOR everything in that budget. For example, if voting against the 2007 budget means you're against the market, does voting for it (or in Ragsdale's case, say you'd vote for it) mean you embrace all its provisions, such as the one that cut the percentage of lottery funding dedicated to education?

I headed down to the Old County Courthouse this morning and did some early voting. Check out the slideshow.

It was really easy. And if you haven't registered, you this is your shot to do that and vote in the primary.

More voting information here.

If you want to vote in the primary, make sure you're registered.

We received a release from the North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting that said some people claiming that they registered at the DMV (which you can do in this state) later discovered that they were not registered to vote.

Fortunately, this is the Early Voting Period and you can still register in time for the May 6 primary.

You have until May 3 to do it, and must register in-person. There are 12 locations in Guilford County to do that.

And for anyone else who registers at the Division of Motor Vehicles while getting a license, be sure that you receive a voter identification card in the mail. That's how you know the local office received your registration, according to Brenda Alexander, registration manager at the Guilford County Board of Elections.

"If you haven't gotten an ID card from us within a few weeks, then I would call and check to make sure that we got the registration or that you are actually registered," Alexander said.

From today's paper: a look at the Democratic primary for governor. Previously: the Republicans.

Here's more on the the tv ad by the GOP. You know the one. It'll begin airing Monday.

The bad news, you're behind in the polls and fundraising in the U.S. Senate race. The good news: you have the money for a heck of a party. Our editorial page has made an endorsement in the race.

Coming this week: Presidential candidates are back in town. Hillary Clinton will be at a fundraiser in Greensboro Monday. and Barack Obama will be in Winston-Salem Tuesday.

Question: What's happening today in Greensboro, requires a $25 minimum contribution to get in, will feature a major party candidate for president yet is on none - and I mean none - of the official schedules the campaign in question is sending to us scruffy media types.

Answer: Hillary Clinton's shindig over at the Carolina Theater.

As far as I can tell, this is Sen. Clinton's only scheduled stop in the Gate City.

Anyone heading to the fundraiser who wants to drop a line on why they're going, what they think of the festivities or who have other Clinton-relate thoughts to get off their chests: mbinker@news-record.com.

The State Board of Elections just sent out this news release, suggesting that someone out there is trying to deter people from voting:

It has come to our attention that automated phone calls (robo calls) are being made to North Carolina households disseminating false information concerning voter registration. One version of the calls states:

“Hello, this is Lamont Williams. In the next few days, you will receive a voter registration packet in the mail. All you need to do is sign it, date it and return your application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return the voter registration form when it arrives. Thank you.”

If anyone has any information as to the origin of these automated calls, we ask that they contact the State Board of Elections at (919) 733-7173 or toll free 1-866-522-4723. If any citizens are uncertain about their voter registration status, they may call their county board of elections or check the State Board of Elections’ website at www.sboe.state.nc.us.

A couple of folks who follow politics from a LGBT perspective have written about the non-endorsement of Human Rights Campaign, a political action committee that advocates on behalf of gay causes and candidates, in the U.S. Senate race between Chapel Hill investment advisor Jim Neal and State Sen. Kay Hagan.

From a Washington Blade writer by way of the Southern Voice website:

Joe Solmonese, HRC president, said the organization would wait until after North Carolina holds its primary May 6 before endorsing Neal or his main primary opponent, veteran state Sen. Kay Hagan.

"She has a good record," he said. "It's a tough race to call in terms of the primary, and so I think, you know, our community down there — sometimes sitting here in Washington, Jim Neal is certainly someone who a lot of people have really been following here in Washington as an openly gay candidate, but our community down in North Carolina is really rather split between him and Kay Hagan. So we’ve got another ... couple of weeks, and we're going to wait and see who the nominee is before we make a decision there."

Click here for the full take.

This prompted HuffPo Blogger Howie Klein to write:

But it was a Senate race they chose to ignore that is the most shocking and disappointing element of their announcement today. North Carolina has two extreme right wing senators, Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, each of whom can always be counted on to do whatever they can to make the lives of gay men and women less palatable and less safe. One, Elizabeth Dole, is up for re-election in November. There are two Democrats in a neck and neck primary battle to take her on, Republican-lite establishment-backed Kay Hagan and grassroots progressive Jim Neal ... Yes, one of the first times that an uncloseted gay man is running for the U.S. Senate -- in a race he can win -- and HRC is... abstaining.

Click here for the full take.

I don't know that the HRC endorsement would have carried a lot of vote in North Carolina, but Neal certainly could have used the fundraising boost.

Sen. Hillary Clinton was in Greensboro Tuesday, as mentioned in this story.

The news bullet of the day was Clinton's push of a gas tax holiday, something new for her campaign. It was something she pitched at an event in Graham, where reporters were invited to the festivities.

Reporters were not invited to the event in Greensboro, which was a fundraiser. Still, we covered the action anyway.

How?

We bought a ticket and walked in.

The campaign made the point to me, before and after the event, that it was closed press.

I have resisted, until now, pointing out the fact that there were 700 people in that venue, 95 percent of who were toting cell phones with cameras and recorders, a bunch with personal cameras and all, I would think, with decent enough memories to relate the event to friends and neighbors. So since everyone invited to the event was potentially a reporter, that "closed press" thing seemed pretty laughable.

The other answer, which I have given to some, is that if the Clinton campaign or any national campaign rolls into the News & Record's home turf - Greensboro, Guilford County, etc... - we're going to cover things aggressively as possible, so the "closed press" designation really isn't going to be a deterrent.

By the way, the speech Clinton gave to the paying crowd and the one she gave to those who just showed up at a fire station in Graham was pretty much the same. The paying customers did get a bag lunch and a comfy seat, though.

Today is Tuesday, so I'm off to see Sen. Barack Obama in Winston-Salem.

When Obama was in Winston-Salem Tuesday he came to talk about gas and ended up talking about a gasbag.

Lorraine has her own unique take here.

I don't know for sure, but you've got to think the N.C. Republican Party has to feel like the rooster that made the sun come up by rolling out this ad before this latest round of controversy started.

The eye of the presidential campaign storm moves out of state for at least two days, with Obama and Clinton heading to campaign in Indiana.

Update: A commenter on this post writes: "This is so transparent. Rev. Wright gets the spotlight he craves and Obama can distance himself from his Achilles Heel. Of course the pro-Obama prepaid media machine is praising this move as the best thing ever."

Leaving the "pro-Obama media machine" aside, the focus on the Rev. Wright was not the best thing ever. In fact, it was really frustrating.

Here we have one of the three people who could potentially be the next president in the state and we're having him talk about what someone else said. Rather than getting to hear his thoughts on the Supreme Court's latest voting rights ruling (voter ids are okay, the court said. Expect this to be a topic in NC soon) or immigration problems that are peculiar to North Carolina, we got treated to more of the freak show that is Rev. Wright.

Is Wright a legit campaign issue? Sure. But listening to Obama say 50 different ways that he deplored the reverend's comments wasn't a good use of anyone's time.

The folks at the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition want you to vote for the sales tax. They've been circulating an ad on behalf of the tax, which is on the May 6 ballot (click to enlarge):

The politics at play here is pretty simple: the legislature gave counties the authority to enact a sales tax or a property tax increase to take care of some expenses related to Medicaid, schools and what not. It's an either/or proposition. So doing the sales tax avoids the property tax, and the builders, developers and Realtors who make up TREBIC hate them some property tax.

Remember those robo-calls that seemed designed to suppress voter turnout? As Facing South reports, they're from a nonprofit that supposedly wants more people to vote. From their post:

Facing South has confirmed the source of the calls, and the mastermind is Women's Voices Women Vote, a D.C.-based nonprofit which aims to boost voting among "unmarried women voters."

What's more, Facing South has learned that the firestorm Women's Voices has ignited in North Carolina isn't the group's first brush with controversy. Women's Voices' questionable tactics have spawned thousands of voter complaints in at least 11 states and brought harsh condemnation from some election officials for their secrecy, misleading nature and likely violations of election law.

There are two options here.

The first one: WVWV is truly trying to increase voter turnout and just has bad timing and/or is painfully ignorant of the state's voter laws.

Or: WVWV is trying to help a specific candidate or candidates by suppressing turnout in certain communities.

Facing South seems to think it's the latter:

For such a sophisticated and well-funded operation, which counts among its ranks some of the country's most seasoned political operatives, such missteps are peculiar, as is the surprise expressed by Women's Voices staff after each controversy.

[snip]

Now Women's Voices is plunging North Carolina into the same confusion. State officials tell Facing South they are still receiving calls from frustrated and confused voters, wondering why "Lamont Williams" is offering to send them a "voter registration packet" after the deadline for mail-in registration for the primaries has passed.

In correspondence with North Carolina election officials, Women's Voices founder and President Page Gardner merely said that the disruptive timing was an "unfortunate coincidence" -- a strange alibi for a group with their level of resources and sophistication.

There are other questions about Women's Voices' outreach efforts. Although the group purports to be targeting "unmarried women," their calls and mailings don't fit the profile. Kevin Farmer in Durham, who first recorded the call, is a white male. Many of the recipients are African-American; Rev. Nelson Johnson, who is a married, male and African-American, reported that his house was called four times by the mysterious "Lamont Williams."

And as Farmer asks, "Why are they using a guy for the calls if the target audience is single women?"

Some have also questioned the ties between Women's Voices operatives and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton.

So there's an election going on - have you heard?

While we scruffy media types here at Decision 2008 have been running to provide you with coverage, there's been so much going on that there's no way for us to get to every rally, forum, whistle stop and fundraiser.

So that's where you can play a role.

Did you put your camera phone to good use at a campaign event? Do you have some video lying about that you'd like to share with the world? Did your local commissioner candidate give a rip-roaring good speech that you got on tape? Was the baby that Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama kissed YOUR baby? Or do you have a blog post that you think is particularly descriptive of a recent political scene?

Send them our way. E-mail us links, photos, videos, audio clips or whatever to mbinker@news-record.com or gwitt@news-record.com. We'll post them right here on Decision 2008. And we'll take submissions right up through Election Day.

Some guidelines:

• * Please send us your real name and where you live (Greensboro, High Point, etc...) so we know where stuff is coming from and can properly credit it. If you don't want your name used, let us know that in the e-mail. By sending us something, you're giving us permission to use it on the blog, elsewhere online or in the paper.
• * We're mostly looking for events from the past two weeks or stuff that you shoot over the next six days. Snaps from February just aren't as keen.
• * Any race with a Guilford County or Rockingham County connection is fair game, from the President on down. That includes school board races, bond campaigns, etc...
• * We're looking for local content, so that post you just love by the organic farmer outside of Eugene, Oregon isn't going to help us out.
• * Yes, we'll take stuff from campaigns but see our next and last guideline.
• * Just because you send us something doesn't mean we have to post it. We will likely reject something if it's vulgar, blatantly false or of such poor quality it makes our ears bleed when we process it.
• * We may crop and edit to get something down to listenable and/or downloadable size.

That's it. Again, zip us an e-mail (mbinker@news-record.com and/or gwitt@news-record.com). We're not tech gurus but we might be able to help out if you have a small issue. We'd love to give everyone who contributes a t-shirt our something, but our bosses are, um, cost conscious. So you'll have to settle for the psychic reward of helping to better inform your neighbors about the upcoming primary.