Secretary of State Elaine Marshall has assembled a veteran team of political consultants to help her in her bid for the U.S. Senate.

Her pollster is Celinda Lake of Washington, who has worked for candidates ranging from former President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Harvey Gantt's 1996 Senate campaign, Rob Christensen reports. Lake, who is regarded as expert in framing in issues for women, also worked for Marshall's unsuccessful 2002 Senate campaign.

Her media consultant is Doc Sweitzer of Philadelphia, whose clients have included Al Gore' 1988 presidential campaign and New Jersey Governor Jim Florio's race. He has extensive experience in working for North Carolina Democrats including state Treasurer Richard Moore and Congressmen Robin Britt, Bill Hefner, Martin Lancaster, Brad Miller and Steve Neal.

Marshall's general consultant is Thomas Mills of Chapel Hill, who has worked for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, for Congressman Larry Kissell and Eva Clayton and Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy among other candidates.

Marshall is one of two Democrats who have announced for the seat held by Republican Sen. Richard Burr. Lawyer Kenneth Lewis has also announced his candidacy.

Tim Kaine is coming to North Carolina.

The Virginia governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee will be the guest speaker at the N.C. Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.

Gov. Beverly Perdue and other state officials will also be at the event.

Tickets to the annual fundraiser, one of two major events held by the party, go on sale today at the party's Web site.

The event will be held at the Durham Marriott on May 2.

Kaine was in North Carolina last June for a training session at the Hunt Institute.

Previous speakers include Al Gore, Barack Obama and Sen. Evan Bayh.

Did straight-ticket voting cost Bill Clinton North Carolina?

An Oct. 25, 2004 story in the Charlotte Observer cited a study that found that enough North Carolinians failed to vote for president in 1992 to potentially sway the vote:

A few thousand lost votes here or there usually don't make a difference in the final outcome of the presidential race in North Carolina: In 2000, for example, George Bush beat Al Gore by 13 percentage points.

But in a close election, confusion could have dramatic results. In 1992, the first President George Bush won North Carolina by a tiny margin, capturing 43.3 percent of the vote, compared with 42.7 percent for Bill Clinton. A Duke University study of ballot design in that election found that about 1 percent of North Carolinians had mistakenly failed to vote for president.

Both parties have reminded their volunteers to make sure potential voters know how to cast ballots for president.

"It may not seem like much, but even 1 percent of the vote can make a difference," said James Hamilton, a Duke University public policy professor and a co-author of the study.

Chris Kromm says Barack Obama can win North Carolina.

In an interview in Harper's Magazine, the head of the Institute for Southern Studies argues that Demographic changes and turnout could hand the state to the Democratic candidate:

He could definitely pull it off and his chances are growing. If he wins, it will be for a number of factors, starting with the economy. Unemployment could hit 8 percent here and two key sectors of the economy, manufacturing and finance, have been devastated. That’s been critical in terms of Obama winning support from unaffiliated white voters and conservative Democrats who often vote for Republicans. Second, Obama has really mobilized the core Democratic base of African-Americans and urban voters, far more than Al Gore or John Kerry did. And third, core Republican voters here are just not exited about McCain. A lot of Christian conservatives don’t identify with him. The situation is really ripe for Obama to take the state.

He adds that economic problems in the mountains could depress the traditional Republican strength there.

Gov. Mike Easley argued Barack Obama can win North Carolina on NPR Wednesday.

In an interview on All Things Considered, Easley said he sees the race as a toss-up right now but thinks by election day Obama will take it because of concerns over the economy.

Easley, who famously kept his distance from Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry in his previous re-election campaigns and endorsed Hillary Clinton in the primaries, said he would not have the same concerns this year about Obama.

"Barack Obama's message is one that I would be very comfortable running with," he said. "I'd be out there arm and arm with him if I was running this year, whereas with the previous two elections I was keeping a little distance with the national ticket."

He said Republican John McCain was taking the state for granted until recently, while Obama has done well in urban, suburban and rural areas. 

Easley also repeated two anecdotes he's been pushing recently about a pickup truck with a gun rack and an Obama sticker and his barber's theory on "the reverse Bradley effect."

"Barbers are a great source that you can get a $25,000 poll for fifteen bucks — and that includes a tip," he said. "Oh yeah, you get the haircut too."

Is Pat McCrory the only gubernatorial candidate to call in President Bush?

In late July, Bush attended a high-dollar fundraiser at the home of a Raleigh developer to benefit McCrory's campaign, though the two did not appear in public together.

Still, Bloomberg News reported on Sept. 21 that McCrory was the odd man out: 

Of 11 governor's races this year, the president has campaigned just with the North Carolina Republican nominee, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, and he has appeared with only a handful of hopefuls for 435 U.S. House seats.

For candidates this year, being photographed with Mr. Bush gives ammunition to opponents seeking to shackle Republicans to the White House.

"They simply don't want to be seen with him," said Tad Devine, a strategist in presidential campaigns for Mr. Gore and Sen. John F. Kerry.

It's not quite accurate to say that McCrory and Bush campaigned together, however, since that implies they were on the stump or at a rally. 

A new ad from Democrat Beverly Perdue attacks McCrory for his ties to Bush.

"McCrory is the only candidate for governor in the country who Bush is campaigning for," the ad says.

Two top Democratic candidates have moved closer to Barack Obama.

Gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue and Senate candidate Kay Hagan both attended an Obama rally in Charlotte Sunday, getting a brief shoutout before he spoke.

Hagan also recently introduced Michelle Obama at an event in Greensboro last week. 

Traditionally, North Carolina Democrats have gone out of their way to avoid their party's presidential nominee, with Republican candidate Richard Vinroot famously offering $500 for a snapshot of Mike Easley with Al Gore in 2000. 

Perdue got her own picture taken with Obama during the primary and included it on a mailer sent to black voters, while Hagan has echoed many themes of Obama in her Senate run.

Still, the two did not join Obama on the stage at Sunday's event.

Previously: North Carolina is one of only 11 states that hold gubernatorial and presidential elections in the same year. 

MSNBC's editors say North Carolina will be a bellwether.

On the First Read blog, they note that Barack Obama's campaign is "determined" to put the state in play with a combination of non-native white voters and a surge in black turnout. Still, they raise questions about the strategy:

But keep this in mind, North Carolina was the only targeted Southern state in '92 that the all-Southern Clinton-Gore ticket failed to carry. Yet there are a lot of new voters in the state since then. Of all the new Obama targets, North Carolina is the one that will tell us whether there is such thing as a new Obama Democratic coalition.

They also note that state Sen. Kay Hagan appears "surprisingly strong" in her race against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole despite not being a "first tier" candidate.

"Elizabeth Dole will have a real fight on her hands and once again, Democrats appears favored to own the governor's mansion," they said.