Presidency Aside, North Carolina Senate Race Drawing Notice

As Election Day 2008 draws nearer, the fight for North Carolina's 15 electoral votes intensifies daily. The North Carolina vote is important not only to in the race between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, but the state senatorial vote may also well determine whether Democrats will have the necessary 60 votes to overcome any filibuster in the U.S. senate.

With Democratic nominee for president now having a slight lead in statewide polls, North Carolinians are now favoring the Democratic candidate for the senate seat now held by Elizabeth Dole. Kay Hagan, a relatively little-known state senator from Greensboro is challenging the better-known incumbent for the U.S. senate seat formerly held by Jesse Helms and John Edwards.

Hagan is riding the wave of anti-Bush sentiment, which exists in the state as it does across the nation. As with other Democrats running for office this year, Hagan has tied Dole to "the same old Bush policies of the past eight years."

This message is working.

The Wilmington Star reports that the DNC has pumped more funding into North Carolina senate race than any other state in the nation, reporting that since November 2007, the DNC has spent in excess of $4 million on this senate race compared to $1.7 million by the RNC.

At a recent McCain rally in Wilmington, Dole echoed her own concern, stating that the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, New York Sen. Charles Schumer, was spending nearly $10 million of "New York money" on "negative, ugly, mean-spirited, untruthful ads" against her.

In addition, Democratic voter registrations have increased by 9.7 percent in the state compared with a 2.7 percent increase in Republican registrations. In a battleground state in which registered Democrats already far exceed the number of registered Republicans, this is significant.

Active in voter registration here is facilitated by ACORN, the voter organization gaining noteriety for alleged fraudulent registration. To date, only a few hundred fraudualent registrations have been detected here.

Political ads are reaching sympathetic ears by questioning Dole's representation in the state, pointing out that while born in North Carolina, Dole has live most of her adult life in Kansas or Washington and has little in common and little interest in the people of North Carolina. A recent article in the Winston-Salem Journal pointed out that senator Dole rarely visits the state and spent only 13 days here in all of 2006.

Many potential voters have expressed the same concern, noting that Dole has spent more time in other states, representing the RNC, than here in North Carolina.

Letters to the editor in the Greensboro News-Record often lament that letters and calls expressing concern go unanswered by Dole's office. Many North Carolinians draw a direct comparison between Dole and Edwards, who, once elected, did little to represent the people of the state, focusing instead on efforts at self-promotion.

I spoke with one life-long Republican who said that one year ago, he wrote senator Dole to advise her that her lack of response and her absence in the state was resulting in a growing dissatisfaction with voters and that if she hoped to be re-elected she must become more involved in the state and be more responsive to voters.

He received no response from the senator's office.

Many non-partisan observers believe that the chances are good that Dole may suffer the same fate as Edwards and be rejected by the electorate. If this turns out to be the case, the Democratic Party may well control the 60-seat majority required to control Senate legislation, making North Carolina a key battleground state, not only for the presidential race but for control of the U.S. Senate.