Two Asheville residents are pushing Sarah Palin for 2012.

Republican voters Randy Thomas and Richard Bernier created a Web site — draftpalinforpresident.com — on Friday to encourage the Alaska governor and former Republican vice presidential nominee to run in four years.

"As the 11th governor of Alaska, she has successfully fought the special interests, the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies and the good ol' boys network to reform a system that had bred corruption in her state," they write on the site's home page.

Bernier, a medical equipment salesman, told the Asheville Citizen-Times that they are hoping to get the same kind of "election machine" that helped Barack Obama in place early.

After appearing on CNN and MSNBC today, the site's membership jumped from 50,000 to more than 100,000 from all over the country, while it received about 15,000 pieces of electronic "hate mail," said Thomas.

He said the ultimate goal is to provide Palin with a list of supporters.

"She keeps talking about 'if God opens a door' for her, so we want to go to her and say here's a list with some names on it go for it," he said.

Thomas, who owns a Web hosting service, said he saw Palin speak in Asheville during the campaign and thought she was very approachable.

There is some precedent for this kind of effort. In February of 2007, a blogger named Adam Brickley created the "Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President" Web site.

John McCain had 36 offices in North Carolina.

The Republican presidential candidate had offices in the major cities, such as Greensboro, Asheville and Wilmington.

Though several offices were located around the Charlotte and Raleigh areas, there was only one office within the cities proper.

Unlike Barack Obama's mostly independent offices, pretty much all of the McCain campaign offices were located within a local Republican Party headquarters or in space shared with them.

In addition, another 30 local parties ran phone banks and canvassing operations on their own.

The shared offices were part of the shared financing of McCain's campaign.

"The Republican National Committee was raising a lot of money, while the DNC was not," said N.C. Republican Party spokesman Brent Woodcox. "Particularly after the public campaign financing kicked in, it made more sense for the state parties to set up these offices."

Correction: An office was missing from the list.

After the jump, a complete list.

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Barack Obama's crowds in North Carolina have gotten bigger.

Below are crowd estimates from events held during the primary and general election by the Democratic presidential candidate.

In all, they total 194,050, although presumably some people attended more than one rally.

Before Election Season:

Durham, Nov. 1, 2007: 4,000

Before Primary (57,550):

Fayetteville, March 19: 150
Charlotte, March 19: 2,500
Greensboro, March 26: 2,400
Raleigh, April 17: 2,000
Greenville, April 17: 8,000
Wilmington, April 28: 6,000
Chapel Hill, April 28: 18,000
Winston-Salem, April 29: 2,000
Hickory, April 29: 2,500
Raleigh, May 2: 5,000
Charlotte, May 2: 9,000

On Primary Day:

Raleigh, May 6: 2,000

After Primary (133,000):

Raleigh, June 9: 500
Raleigh, Aug. 19: 2,500
Charlotte, Sept. 21: 20,000
Greensboro, Sept. 27: 20,000
Asheville, Oct. 5: 28,000
Fayetteville, Oct. 19: 10,000
Raleigh, Oct. 29: 25,000
Charlotte, Nov. 3: 25,000

Sarah Palin has drawn big crowds in North Carolina.

Below are crowd estimates from events held during the general election by the Republican vice presidential candidate.

In all, the crowd estimates total about 22,600, though some supporters may have been at more than one event.

Greenville: Palin spoke to a crowd of about 8,000 at East Carolina University on Oct. 7 then watched the second presidential debate with Pat McCrory and Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr.

Elon: Palin spoke to around 2,000 people at Elon University on Oct. 16 then attended a private fundraiser in Greensboro.

Asheville: Palin addressed more than 7,600 people at a rally in the Asheville Civic Center on Oct. 26. Thousands more were turned away.

Raleigh: Palin spoke to more than 5,000 people at the Exposition Center at the State Fairgrounds on Nov. 1. (Note: WRAL estimated the crowd at 10,000. There was no official estimate.)

Related: John McCain's visits to North Carolina.

Sarah Palin will return to North Carolina this weekend.

Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee, is scheduled to speak at a rally Sunday afternoon at the civic center in Asheville.

More details after the jump.

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Barack Obama wants to rock the (early) vote.

The Democratic presidential candidate's campaign will host an "N.C. Rocks for Change" event in Asheville and Chapel Hill.

The Chapel Hill concert will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1, at Graham Terrace, next door to the early voting site at Morehead Planetarium.

It features legendary North Carolina band The dBs, acoustic Superchunk and Mac McCaughan side project Portastatic, Ivan Rosebud, Megafaun, I Was Totally Destroying It, Bowerbirds, Greg Humphreys and Regina Hexaphone. 

The same bands will perform in Asheville. 

No tickets are required, and attendees will be treated to coffee and doughnuts. 

Incidentally, someone with the Obama campaign shares the tastes of N&O music critic David Menconi, who included Megafaun, I Was Totally Destroying It and Bowerbirds on his annual "Great Eight" list of local bands earlier this year.

Charlotte is in the middle of adjusted tax rates among major North Carolina cities.

Because counties adjust property values in different years, the property tax rates for cities and towns are not directly comparable on their own.

But the N.C. Department of Revenue calculates an adjusted (or effective) rate based on how long ago the counties reassessed local properties.

According to a list of adjusted tax rates, Greensboro, Durham and Winston-Salem have higher rates than Charlotte, while Asheville, Raleigh and Wilmington were lower.

Below, the 2006-2007 rates per $100 of valuation, adjusted to account for years since most recent revaluation.

Greensboro: .5911
Durham: .5411
Winston-Salem: .4699
Charlotte: .4300
Asheville: .4192
Raleigh: .3674
Wilmington: .3097

As noted previously, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are more closely integrated than other North Carolina cities and counties.

Charlotte's local property tax rate is in the middle of other major N.C. cities.

According to research by the N.C. Department of Revenue, the Queen City has a lower property tax rate than Greensboro, Durham and Winston-Salem, but higher than Raleigh, Asheville and Wilmington.

Property tax rates can be misleading, however, since local property values can differ substantially. A lower tax rate in a posh suburb, for example, could still lead to a higher bill for most taxpayers than a higher tax rate in a lower-valued neighborhood.

Below, the rates per $100 of valuation.

(A $100,000 home, for example, would pay $635 in Greensboro, for example.) 

Greensboro: .6350
Durham: .6130
Winston-Salem: .4900
Charlotte: .4586
Raleigh: .4350
Asheville: .4200
Wilmington: .3000

Another factor complicating the numbers is that Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are more closely integrated than other North Carolina cities and counties.

The rumors are true — James Taylor will play five free concerts in North Carolina next week on behalf of the Obama campaign.

Times, venues and tickets are still being worked out, David Menconi reports in his On the Beat blog. But the days and cities go like this:

Sunday: Charlotte, Asheville
Monday: Chapel Hill
Tuesday: Raleigh, Wilmington

Word on the street is that the Raleigh show will be noon Tuesday at Moore Square. Further details to come.