News-Record.com

Yup, it's another blog. Welcome to Decision 2008, the News & Record's campaign blog for the coming year. If it's on the ballot, we'll probably be writing about it here.

Who's we?

Well, right now is me, Mark Binker, state government reporter and author of the Capital Beat blog. I'm kicking things off because many state and federal campaigns began ridiculously early and are already in full swing. Heck, the Iowa Caucuses are less than three weeks away.

Joining in will be our reporters covering elections for everything from High Point City Council, to the county commissioners and school board and judicial elections. I'll let them introduce themselves when they log in.

Oh, and you. Not only are the comment lines always open, but we're open to suggestions, tips, criticisms, etc... Have a short piece of political thought? Depending on what you serve up, we just may post it here.

Need some practice? Click on the comment link below and let me know what you're reading about any state or federal campaign. Who should be on our blog roll? What's the best undiscovered political site out there? Don't want to comment? E-mail me at mbinker@news-record.com.

This headline from the TurboFaith blog caught my attention: "It's 2008-Pray For Elections."

We need to be spending time before God and finding out who we need to support in the 2008 election- I am asking God to raise up 2 Born Again, Holy Ghost filled, Christian men to take the office of President and Vice President and also Born Again, Christian men and women to be elected to the House Of Representatives and Senate! Also the same thing in all local and state level elections!- This country IS the greatest country on earth and I personally want to see it remain that way! If you are a Christian, please join with me in this awesome task. Pray! Seek Gods will and then get to it! Get out and vote!

Click here to read the whole post.

Certainly C.L. Tucker Jr. is not the first person to put forward such a position. Religion and politics have been mixing for a long, long time. Consider Guarino's recent take emerging (or not) differences among evangelical voters:

(Read more after the jump).

Is anyone local to Greensboro planning to watch tonight's debate among the candidates for governor? If so, drop me a line at mark.binker@news-record.com.

According to the clock on my wall, filing closed a few minutes ago. We'll be sorting through the races and bringing you an election snapshot in tomorrow's paper.

In the mean time, which races are you looking forward to? What do you want to know more about? Where's the big battle?

Is it the contest for Kay Hagan's old state senate seat that pits Don Vaughan against Joe Wilson? Are you looking out for the home-town kids involved in statewide races, like Eric Smith of Reidsville going for State Superintendent of Public Instruction?

Drop us a line.

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.