On Election Day, the projections are looking more and more like a Democratic sweep in North Carolina. I had thought Republican Pat McCrory, the Charlotte mayor, might shock the Democratic establishment by defeating good ol' gal Bev Perdue. McCrory was running against the Democratic establishment in Raleigh, and he had plenty of ammunition — a congressman, a Council of State member, a speaker of the state House and others in the Democratic power base had all been sentenced to prison. And there was a strong impression of sleaze, if not outright corruption, in Raleigh. But McCrory, after first surging into a lead in the early polls, ran out of steam just as Perdue's ads (some of them paid for by the Democratic Party and interest groups) began pounding McCrory on some specious or contrived issues. In the state's U.S. Senate race, Republican Elizabeth Dole realized too late that she was in a tough race and should have spent the past five years paying more attention to North Carolina. Democrat Kay Hagan, hand-picked by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, looks like a near shoo-in as Dole's campaign never really got off the ground and never had any energy.
The interesting detail in North Carolina might be whether Barack Obama, who has worked hard to organize this traditionally GOP presidential state, will pull N.C. into the Democratic column. Obama will make it interesting, but I'm still thinking he'll fall just short.
Poll workers this morning were going to extremes to make sure every voter knew that the presidential race is separate from all others, and you have to cast a separate vote for president even if you're voting a straight-party ticket. Each voter was handed a slip of paper explaining this process, and signs re-emphasized the matter. This anomaly goes back to 1968, when Democrats in the legislature worried that the Democratic presidential nominee would drag down state candidates (which was almost certainly the case). But recent studies have shown that a small percentage of voters still haven't figured this out. About 3 percent of N.C. voters have failed to vote for president. Furthermore, this year it looks like Obama might actually boost the Democratic candidates down the ballot.
So is it time for the Democrats who run the state to rescind their 1968 rule separating the presidential race from the rest of the ballot? Pending today's outcome, Democrats (who will assuredly still control the General Assembly) might want to reconsider this rule.
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