After simmering in the shadows of some of the bigger races for the year, the senate race in North Carolina is gaining national attention and Kay Hagan is gaining widespread praise as a candidate, premiering on Chris Cilliza’s tope ten senate races.
9. North Carolina: We’ve been somewhat slow to come around on this race — North Carolina is, after all, a conservative state. State Sen. Kay Hagan (D) ran a solid primary campaign and gets rave reviews from Democratic operatives who aren’t easily impressed. Democrats are also overjoyed with several polls (of varying credibility) that show Hagan running virtually even with Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R). That seems a bit ambitious but with Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) promising to contest the Tarheel State and Hagan preparing to run a well funded and active campaign, this race could get interesting. (Previous ranking: N/A)
To be honest I wound up forgetting about this one after Mike Easley and Brad Miller declined to run, but Elizabeth Dole’s apparent weakness at this point keeps her from gaining ground. The DSCC is swimming in money and can easily help turn this into a top tier race.
“To be honest I wound up forgetting about this one after Mike Easley and Brad Miller declined to run, ”
Jim Hunt has been trying to get Kaye to run for the US Senate for years. She’s a terrific candidate with a great fit for NC. I always expected her to give Dole a run for her money, and was always upset by all the people on these blog sites dismissing her as a second tier candidate. They clearly didn’t know Kaye or North Carolina.
I’ve spoken to plenty of Republicans and Independents who plan to vote for Kaye because they don’t think Dole cares about NC. Kaye is genuine, a terrific campaigner, who learned at the knee of an expert (she’s Lawton Chiles’s niece, in case you don’t know).
She’s been my State Senator for years. I totally support her (including with my wallet – $250 so far and more to come).
I glad to finally see the online world beginning to get it.
One poll had her up +1, and PPP’s poll that had her down 5, was oversampling the gap between the two because a majority, not a purality, of the undecided were Democrats.
she fired her campaign manager today.
http://projects.newsobserver.c…
Thought you’d like to know – the DSCC is co-sponsoring a fund raiser for Kaye June 9 at the home of Ambassador Jeanette Hyde in Raleigh. It features Governor Hunt and Senators McCaskill and Tester. They’re charging $1,000/$5,000/$10,000 for three support levels. For that money you get “discussion and cocktails”, and the two highest levels get an extra 1/2 hour with the guests and the candidate. The money goes to Kaye’s campaign up to the limits, then the rest goes to the DSCC. They’ll also accept contributions in any amounts for those “unable” to attend.
They’ve also created a fund raising committee called North Carolina Senate 2008 authorized jointly by the DSCC and the Hagen Senate Committee. It’s this group that is officially paying for the mailings and the reception.
Of course we knew the DSCC was going to step up in this race, but it’s nice to see the first concrete steps.