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Democratic candidate Walter Dalton raised $1.4 million in the third quarter, far less than his Republican rival's $5 million.
He started the general election with $714,000 in the bank after a primary race depleted his coffers. All together, Dalton's total receipts this election cycle -- $3.9 million -- don't even match Pat McCrory's final three and a half months. McCrory's total this election: $11.6 million.
Former Gov. Jim Hunt authored an opinion piece in today's News & Observer that shines an optimitic light on North Carolina's future and endorses President Barack Obama as the one who can help make it happen.
Hunt describes campaigning this year and hearing stories that "give me hope that our future will be bright."
In politics, this is known as the ground game. It is the most old-fashioned part of politics – identifying your supporters and making sure they get to the polls.
It was Obama’s superior ground game that enabled the Illinois senator to squeak by Republican Sen. John McCain in North Carolina by 14,000 votes in 2008. And if the president is going to have a chance to carry the state again next Tuesday against Romney he will have to depend heavily on the get-out-the vote effort. Take a look inside the Democrat and Republican operations.
More political headlines:
--Can Pat McCrory break Charlotte's 92-year curse?
--The heated contest for state school superintendent had another log thrown on the fire with an email from Republican John Tedesco to his supporters that includes claims against incumbent Democrat June Atkinson that she said are false.
Sunday voting is a relatively recent electoral phenomenon that is increasingly embraced by African American churches, organizing get-out-the-vote caravans dubbed “Souls to the Polls.” Sunday voting also is increasingly targeted by critics in this state and elsewhere who want to see the practice banned.
Full story here. And read about how churchgoers are a key constituency this election.
More political headlines below.
Americans for Prosperity is spending $130,000 to send a half million mailers touting Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory just days before the election.
The two fliers (see pdf links below) hit two issues that aren't being discussed much on the campaign trail: medical malpractice and public financing of campaigns.
UPDATED: The conservative Civitias Institute sponsored a poll last week that found the presidential race in North Carolina essentially tied.
The survey of likely voters released Friday gave Republican Mitt Romney 48 percent and President Barack Obama 47 percent, a one-point lead within the four-point margin of error. The Civitas poll echoes a more recent one released Thursday from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, which showed the race knotted at 48 percent.
The poll was conducted by National Resarch Inc. from Oct. 20-21 and reached 600 likely voters.
Two more newspaper editorial board endorsements split their picks between Democrat Walter Dalton and Republican Pat McCrory.
The opinion shop at The Daily Advance in Elizabeth City endorsed Dalton. He will better stand up for rural parts of the state and serve as a veto threat to what is likely to be another Republican-controlled legislature," the newspaper's editorial board wrote.
Gov. Bev Perdue isn't wasting time preparing for her exit. Her office sent a memo to her two potential successors -- Democrat Walter Dalton and Republican Pat McCrory -- this week saying she is beginning to prepare for the transition of power.
The governor directed her cabinet agencies to prepare a memo that outlines the agency structure, staff, budgets, programs and serves and boards and commissions. The deadline: Nov. 7 -- the day after the election.
"My goal is to assist the governor-elect in a smooth and orderly transition to better serve the people of North Carolina," she wrote.
Duke Energy’s most recent move to delay filing a rate case with the N.C. Utilities Commission will avoid the Charlotte utility having two complex cases before the commission simultaneously. But some advocacy groups say Duke may be buying time for the state’s new governor to alter the makeup of the commission.
Republican Pat McCrory has emerged as the gubernatorial front-runner. McCrory is a former mayor of Charlotte and also a 29-year veteran employee of Duke Energy, who could fill three of the seven spots and a chairman with 8 months of this election. Full story here.
More political headlines below.
The News & Observer's editorial board endorsed Democrat Walter Dalton for governor in today's newspaper. It's a reversal from four years ago when the newspaper's opinion writers picked Republican Pat McCrory.
"Of these two candidates for the governorship, we think Dalton has more of what it takes to lead North Carolina in the right direction, toward more opportunity and prosperity for all of its people," the board wrote.
