CQ on NC
From a recently posted piece at CQ Politics:
John McCain should be able to count on 15 electoral votes from North Carolina, where Republican presidential voting strength has been pronounced. In 2004, President Bush carried the state by more than 12 percentage points, even though John Kerry had tapped John Edwards, then rounding out his one term representing North Carolina in the Senate, as his vice presidential running mate. It was the GOP’s ninth win in the past 10 presidential elections in North Carolina, dating to 1968. Georgia’s Jimmy Carter in 1976 was the only Democratic winner over that 40-year period.Despite this, McCain cannot afford to ignore Barack Obama ’s efforts to pull off an upset, in what would be a catastrophic setback for McCain’s hopes nationally. Obama built a statewide organization in advance of his 56 percent to 42 percent Democratic primary win over Clinton on May 6, in which he was boosted by a black constituency that makes up a bit more than a fifth of the state’s population. McCain, who coasted to a 74 percent win in a primary two months after he had clinched the nomination, was in midsummer still coordinating his North Carolina campaign out of a regional office in Tallahassee, Fla.
