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Republican volunteers were scarce at voting sites today.
At four polling places in Raleigh today, reporters saw nobody from the Republican party or any Republican candidates greeting voters outside the voting stations. Clusters of Obama volunteers worked the crowds, handing voters cheat sheets of all the Democratic candidates.
President Barack Obama's campaign in North Carolina is looking for 2,869 more volunteers on Election Day. Yes, exactly 2,869 (though they'll probably take more if they can get it).
The number is the subject of an "urgent" email message from Obama campaign field director Jeremy Bird to Obama supporters Monday. It says "shifts available all day."
UPDATED: Former President Bill Clinton will attend a get-out-the vote rally Sunday in Raleigh -- a day later than initially planned.
The Obama campaign announced on Friday morning that Clinton would visit Saturday but hours later the campaign changed the date citing scheduling conflicts. No other details about a time or location were disclosed.
Clinton is being brought in to both give a boost to President Obama and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton.
It's official: President Barack Obama will not return to North Carolina, as his campaign suggested he would do after canceling his stadium speech at the Democratic convention.
NBC News reported the president's final campaign schedule before Tuesday's election Thursday morning. "Thursday: Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado. Friday: Ohio. Saturday: Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Virginia. Sunday: New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Colorado Monday: Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa."
No North Carolina. Obama hasn't visited the state since the Democratic convention, a major sign that the campaign isn't as invested in North Carolina as other states.
The Obama campaign is airing a radio advertisement featuring former Secretary of State Colin Powell's endorsement of the president.
The minute-long commercial is a clip from an interview Powell gave CBS News in which the former general lays out Barack Obama's accomplishments. Listen here.
Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough bet Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod he would grow a mustache if the president wins North Carolina or Florida.
The on-air boast was designed to match a bet Axelrod made moments earlier, promising to "shave off my mustache of 40 years if we lose" Pennsylvania, Michigan or Minnesota. (Starts at 5 minutes into video.)
"Alright!" Axelrod said in taking Scarborough's bet. "After the election you guys aren't going to have that much to talk about so people can tune in everyday to watch your mustache grow."
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.
First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to return to North Carolina early next week to campaign for her husband.
Michelle Obama will appear at a campaign event in the Triangle but campaign officials did not provide any other details about the visit. It's her second trip to the state in a month. In late September, Michelle Obama attended a rally at N.C. Central University.
But the presence of the first lady -- and not President Barack Obama -- will only fuel speculation that he may not return before Election Day.
In a memo this morning, President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is touting absentee voting and registration numbers in North Carolina and six other battlegrounds.
It says:
-- Republicans are leading in absentee ballot requests, but not by as much as in 2008. This year they lead by 34,000. Four years ago it was 39,000.
-- Democratic registrations have outpaced Republicans by more than 29,000 in the last three months.
Gov. Bev Perdue and officials with Lockheed Martin made a stop Wednesday in Charlotte to tout the economic benefits of the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, which is set to become the armed forces’ new workhorse warplane.
At the Carolinas Aviation Museum at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Wednesday, Perdue said the program also is under threat from the automatic “sequestration” cuts to defense spending, which are set to kick in if lawmakers can’t reach a compromise to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff next year. Read full story here.
More political headlines below
