Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, will appear Sunday on North Carolina Bookwatch to discuss her best-selling book "Resilience."

The show will air on UNC-TV at 5 p.m.

When it came out last spring, Edwards' book garnered considerable national attention because it dealt with her reaction to her husband having an extramartial affair.

But much of the book deals with her continuing battle with cancer.

Elizabeth Edwards will be interviewed by the show's host, D.G. Martin.

John Edwards' political career was launched when he defeated Martin capture the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1998.

Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham of Lexington, who recently returned from duty in Iraq, is considering challenging Republican Sen. Richard Burr next year.

Cunningham, a 35-year old attorney, has been traveling around the state during the past two months speaking to Democratic groups, Rob Christensen reports.

"I'm having conversations with friends and fellow Democrats," Cunningham said. "North Carolina has a lot of needs right now. We have rising unemployment and a couple of wars. We need someone in Washington who is energetic and who offers compelling leadership."

The favorite of party leaders was Attorney General Roy Cooper, who announced Friday that he would not run.

Cunningham, a captain in the Army reserves and a paratrooper, returned from Baghdad in December after spending a year proscuting contractor abuse in Iraq. In 2005, he also served a year at Fort Bragg.

At age 27, he was elected to serve one term in the state Senate in 2000. But he did not seek re-election after he was thrown into a heavily Republican district.

His wife, Elizabeth, was deputy campaign manager for D.G. Martin's unsuccessful bid for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in 1998.   

Cunningham was president of the UNC student body and later earned an advanced degree from the London School of Economics. He is a litigator with Kilpatrick Stockton in Winston-Salem.

D.G. Martin has a few reasons why Roy Cooper may not run.

The retired university administrator, who ran in the Democratic Senate primary in 1998, outlined a few of the obvious reasons the attorney general would run for Senate in a column today: A strong profile, a fighting chance and ambition.

But he also gave a few reasons Cooper might decide against it:

Cooper likes his current work as Attorney General. He is in charge of his office and its considerable resources. He knows that U.S. Senators, for all their prestige and influence, have a hard time getting big things done. Terry Sanford, for instance, found his Senate service to be a frustrating experience for a "man of action."

He also noted that Cooper would have to spend a lot of time fundraising and would have to spent time away from his three daughters.

"The prospect of leaving them for substantial times while he goes back and forth to Washington could clinch a decision not to run," he writes.

Martin's son, Grier, was recruited to run for U.S. Senate in 2007, but decided against it becaues of family issues.

Did Republicans Jim Holshouser and Jim Martin become governor because of Democratic infighting?

That's the argument made by D.G. Martin in a column in the Chatham Journal Weekly. He says that splits between Democrats in the 1972 and 1984 primaries led to acrimony in the general elections, allowing the Republican candidates to win.

In '72, the split was between Lt. Gov. Pat Taylor and Skipper Bowles. Though Bowles won, Taylor backers were disinclined to vote for him, Martin argues.

In '84, former Charlotte Mayor Eddie Knox bitterly fought Attorney General Rufus Edmisten. Though Edmisten won, Knox and some of his supporters did not back the winner, Martin says.

Martin makes the case that the same could happen because of the fierce battle between Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore for the Democratic nomination.

A couple quibbles: 1) The analysis is a bit blue-centric. Democrats lost, but Republicans also won. 2) In both cases, Martin's own history suggests the key test was after the primary, when Bowles failed to reach out and Knox refused to endorse. 3) With four candidates, the GOP may also split.

Hat Tip: Tom Jensen

Jeff Taylor says Pat McCrory needs a big conservative idea.

In a post on The Meck Deck, the conservative blogger argues the Charlotte mayor is different from former Republican Gov. Jim Martin, who ran as an "unabashed conservative."

As we tried to explain, McCrory must find something to run as a conservative on. He will no doubt be perceived as socially liberal — because he is from Charlotte. Fine. He can overcome that, perhaps turn it into an asset. But not with a wish-washy set of bromides on the side.

Taylor was responding to a recent piece by UNC-TV host D.G. Martin that argued the Charlotte mayors curse is bogus.

D.G. Martin says the Charlotte mayors curse is bogus.

In a column in the Southern Pines Pilot, the UNC-TV host and former Congressional candidate writes that the losses of former mayors Richard Vinroot, Eddie Knox, Sue Myrick and Harvey Gantt in statewide bids were not because of their job titles.

"All of the above contests were decided by many factors more important than the pluses or minuses of having served as a Charlotte mayor," he writes.

He also points to former Republican Gov. Jim Martin, whose political base was Charlotte, even if his address was Lake Norman.

Therefore, Martin argues, current Mayor Pat McCrory could still have a shot if he decides to run for the Republican nomination for governor.

Hat Tip: Mark Binker