The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina has a new leader.

Durham attorney Carlos Mahoney was elected as president of the legal advocacy group's state board, according to a media release issued Tuesday. He replaces Mark Kleinschmidt, whose term as president ended in June, Michael Biesecker reports.

Mahoney, a partner at the Durham law firm Glenn, Mills, Fisher & Mahoney, has been a member of the ACLU board since 2005

A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill's School of Law, Mahoney has served as vice president of the ACLU-NC Legal Foundation for the past two years and has been recognized by the North Carolina Advocates for Justice for his service as chairman of the Civil Rights Section and Hispanic/Latino Legal Issues Division.

Kleinschmidt, the outgoing president, praised Mahoney's selection in a written statement.

"The civil rights community can rest assured that the ACLU-NC has a very bright future with Carlos at the helm,” he said, according to the release.

Mahoney recently helped win freedom for Erick Daniels, a Durham teen who wrongly served seven years in prison on a robbery conviction that a judge found was based on flawed and poor evidence.

The American Civil Liberties Union is politically radioactive in a Republican primary, which is why an ACLU ad has become an issue in the race involving 3rd district Congressman Walter Jones.

The ACLU is running a radio ad encouraging Jones to vote against a bill providing legal protections for telephone companies to help the government conduct warrantless wiretap program, Rob Christensen reports.

The ad asks voters to call Jones to oppose the Bush administration bill: "We need Congressman Jones to stand with Congress."

Jones says he is not interested in anything ACLU has to say. In fact, he notes he has a long history of opposing the ACLU on such issues as Boy Scouts and gay scoutmasters and the right of military chaplains to use the name of Jesus in prayers.

"Their ads are wrong and need to be stopped," Jones said. "While the ACLU is playing politics, the threat of terrorism is very real and must be addressed."

His primary opponent, Joe McLaughlin, claims the ACLU ad is designed to help Jones.

"Obviously all of Walter Jones work on behalf of the 'Blame America First' crowd is paying off as the ultra-left continues to pour money into our district to support their new found friend," McLaughlin said.

At 24, Tom Jensen is probably the youngest pollster in North Carolina.

The lead analyst for Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm in Raleigh, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a dual degree in history and political science in 2006.

Since November, he's written the questions, set up the auto-dialer and poured over the results of polls in North Carolina and other states.

Although his background is in politics, Jensen says he's always been a numbers geek, pouring over the precinct results for campaigns. His senior thesis was a regression analysis comparing black and white candidates in 16 states from 2001 to 2004.

He's assisted in the analysis by Jim Shields, a retired political science professor and former head of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, but otherwise works alone.

That keeps costs down, allowing the firm to charge candidates from $1,500 to $2,500.

"We wanted to show that you don't have to spend a ton of money to get good polling," he told Dome.