Big news out of North Carolina: Attorney General Roy Cooper won’t be running for the Senate, depriving Democrats of one of their top recruits against Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.).
“While I am honored by the encouragement I’ve received, I don’t want to go to Washington and serve as a U.S. Senator at this time,” Cooper said in a statement. “I am committed to public service and I want to serve here in North Carolina rather than in Washington.”
This is a major bummer, no doubt. Most polls had Cooper running neck and neck with Burr, holding him well under 50% in all cases — the best numbers any Democrat have yielded in a hypothetical head-to-head.
Still, Burr, who possesses some pretty tepid approval numbers, is not out of the woods yet. Much like Elizabeth Dole last cycle, he’s still polling under 50% against a variety of lesser-known Democrats — including a 39-34 lead against Democratic congressman Mike McIntyre, who himself is not ruling out a bid for the office. Perhaps Bob Menendez should get on the phone, stat.
UPDATE: Roll Call offers a few more recruitment possibilities:
National Democrats could look to several Democratic Members from North Carolina, including Reps. Bob Etheridge and Mike McIntyre, to run for the seat. State Treasurer Richard Moore, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and state Rep. Grier Martin are also possible targets of Democratic recruitment.
LATER UPDATE: The News & Observer has an even more expansive list of potential candidates. It’s well worth a look.
We can do better statewide than him ideologically and his district may be lost if it’s left open.
you’re up to bat now.
Who was the other guy who was just talking about possibly running? Maybe he’d be a better option so we dont lose that house seat.
The DSCC needs to approach Brad Miller again. Doubt he goes for it thoguh.
Well, at least this one isn’t lost yet. There are plenty of statewide office holders in North Carolina to pick from (interestingly enough, most of them are women). And hell, if none of them want to give it ago, there’s always Grier Martin.
virtually every statewide office. We should be able to find someone.
The Tarheel state will be fine in 2010. We will find a Democrat that can defeat Burr.
In 1986, we recycled an ex-Governor named Terry Sanford (he had last served in office in 1964) and we won the race. John Edwards decided to jump into the race in 1998, and he defeated Faircloth.
Although a lot of big names have said no to jumping into this race, I don’t think it will take a 1st tier candidate to defeat Burr.
BTW, I really don’t want McIntyre to jump into this race. He would be a lot like Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and I think NC can do a lot better than McIntyre for this seat. I also do not think McIntyre would rally the Democrats to vote for him at election time. Although his politics is to the right of Erskine Bowles, I think he would probably come out like Bowles did in 2002 and 2004.
I’m hoping we can get a member of the NC legislature to jump into this race. A moderate progressive could defeat Burr even if they are not well known within the state. Burr is not well known either, which will come to our advantage.
He was State Treasurer and ran in the Gov. primary against Perdue. He lost 56-40% which isn’t too bad and he served as Treasurer from 2001-2009, giving him eight solid years of statewide representation.
He has nothing to lose and on paper sounds like a good candidate.
He says he wants to keep serving in NC so I assume that’s his intention. Don’t believe they have term-limits on AG either.
But not the end of the world. Hagan was about sixth choice. And Sheldon Whitehouse, Jon Tester, Jeff Merkley, and Al Franken weren’t first choice either but still won.
I’m a huge fan of Grier Martin and I’m hoping he runs. His name recognition is the lowest of course of the names mentioned, but he’s charming and charismatic as hell and is an active member of the Armed Forces I believe.
He is similar to Santorum, DeWine, Sununu, Smith, Dole, or Coleman in the previous cycles. A second string Democratic candidate can beat this guy.
If Cooper, a first-tier candidate had run, this would have been a double digit win. With someone else, we’ll win by 3-5%.
All the big name Dems said no to challenging Liddy Dole, either because they didn’t want a tough fight or because they were happy with where they were, and Kay Hagan was way, way down the list of recruitment possibilities. Then, of course, she was a rocking candidate.
Why has no one mentioned the ex-governor? I know he passed last time, but I thought that was because he wanted to take on the weaker Richard Burr rather than 91 Elizabeth Dole.
PPP in March had Burr leading by 4, 42-38. However allocating undecideds by race, the lead becomes 1%.
So all we need is someone who’s at least a little more compelling than a generic D. Grier Martin sounds pretty good to me.
list possible candidates, and:
1)their chances of running
2)their chances of winning?
It looks like McIntyre’s district has a fairly decent republican lean and Etheridge’s is fairly evenly split. What would be our chances of holding either of those seats should one of those reps run for Senate? I’d imagine we have a farily good bench in both districts.
I’m hoping McIntyre jumps in. He’s my type of Democrat.
I know Roy Cooper wants to be governor really bad, but he’s going to be waiting around for a little while. Unless Bev Perdue screws up royally between now and 2012, I don’t see her vulnerable to a primary challenge. Assuming she serves until 2016, Cooper (who will presumably be in his fourth term as state attorney general) will have a shot at the nomination, but it will surely be a contested primary against Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton. He must really love being AG. Lame.
This is a definite letdown, but like everyone else has pointed out, we don’t have a dearth of Democratic elected officials down here in North Carolina. Surely we’ll get someone half decent to defeat Burr and take this cursed Senate seat.
On another note, why has the Senate recruitment for the Republicans been deemed such a success by so many media outlets lately? The Hill and Chris Cilizza act like they’ve hit the jackpot when from my estimation, the only big recruitment success they’ve had is with Charlie Crist. Portman and Roy Blunt aren’t nobodies, but I don’t think they can hold those seats. I don’t think Mike Castle or Mark Kirk will run in their respective races either. It’s just weird.
Far better then anyone else both politically and ideologically. He’s got a perfect profile and I think would make the best Senator. Plus he’s young enough that he could either represent the state for 40 years or maybe have a carer in national politics. Think about it. He’s young, in the military, has one competitive races already, has the ties to run a competitive statewide race, wouldn’t have the conservativeness and establishment problem that other candidates have. If anything he’s a much stronger candidate then Hagan was against IMO a weaker opponent. McIntyre and Shuler would be mediocre candidates who would make poor Senators. It would be hard to get exited about Moore or Dalton also. Marshall would be good but I doubt she has interest.
So Martin seems like the best choice by far to me.