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Democratic candidates hope to use SCHIP to their advantage.

First out the gate was state Treasurer Richard Moore, who announced a health-care plan in late September that put him at odds with President Bush over expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Then came Jim Neal, the Chapel Hill investment banker who's running for the Democratic nomination for Senate. When he kicked off his campaign in early October, he said it was in part because of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's vote against SCHIP.

In recent days, Larry Kissell's campaign has slammed U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes for voting against SCHIP and lieutenant governor candidate Dan Besse participated in a rally Wednesday for SCHIP.

They're not the only ones, though. The state Republican Party also sent out a news release attacking U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, who twice voted against SCHIP, for switching sides on the veto override.

And Republican Congressional candidate Carl Mumpower praised Bush's veto.

How much did Jim Neal raise for Erskine Bowles?

The Chapel Hill investment banker, who is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, says he doesn't remember offhand.

But he says it was a "big-ticket event" that drew between 50 and 75 people to his apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to support Bowles' 2004 bid for U.S. Senate.

Neal co-hosted the cocktail and hors d'oeuvres event with Jay Alix, found of a Michigan firm that specializes in corporate turnarounds.

The guest speaker was retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who had by then dropped out of the presidential race. Neal had raised money for Clark and donated to his campaign.

Neal said he didn't know Bowles personally, though as a teen-ager he volunteered for his father Skipper Bowles' unsuccessful 1972 gubernatorial campaign.

"He was a hell of a guy," he said. "Everybody loved Skipper."

Update: The fundraiser was held on June 28, 2004. Tickets cost $1,000 to $4,000, and the event raised about $100,000 overall.

Jim Neal

On Sept. 1 of that year, the Chapel Hill investment banker gave $300 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which handles races for the U.S. House of Representatives.

He said he gave the money in order to get on the group's mailing list.

"I want to stay in touch with what they're doing," said Neal, a lifelong Democrat. "I get all the blast e-mails from the Republican Party now, though they'll probably cut me off the list now."

He said he may have given to the National Republican Senatorial Committee as well.

The donation is a trickle compared to the $9,000 that Neal has given directly to Democrats, including U.S. Sen. John Kerry and Wesley Clark's presidential campaigns, Erskine Bowles' Senate campaign, and U.S. Rep. Brad Miller's campaigns.

He's also given $5,000 to Keeping America's Promise, a political action committee working to elect Democrats at the national level.

After the jump, a full list of his donations.

State Rep. Grier Martin said this afternoon that he has decided not to run against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.

Martin, a Raleigh Democrat, said he thought Dole was vulnerable, but that family considerations made the race problematic, reports Rob Christensen.

“I came to the conclusion a long time ago that Senator Dole was vulnerable,” Martin said. "After that, the sole decision was whether I could make service in the Senate work for my family. I did a lot of research.”

But Martin, a major in the Army Reserve, left for service in Afghanistan when his daughter was six days old.

“I missed he first six months of her life and I’m still trying to make up for lost time,” he said. “I could not make it work."

Martin the lastest in a long line of Democrats have declined to challenge Dole, a Salisbury Republican. The only announced candidate is Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill investment banker.

Correction: An earlier version of this post listed the wrong branch of the military. 

A Triad columnist says timing is everything.

Winston-Salem Journal columnist Scott Sexton wrote Thursday that Democrats have not yet come up with a candidate to take on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

Try as they might, though, the Democrats are struggling to find a candidate with enough money and name recognition to take on Dole.

He mentions Gov. Mike Easley, Attorney General Roy Cooper, U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, former state Sen. Ted Kaplan and state Sen. Kay Hagan, who have all turned down a run.

Oddly, he doesn't mention Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill investment banker who announced he would run a week ago, or state Rep. Grier Martin, who may decide today.

As they say, timing is everything. 

State Sen. Kay Hagan is not running for U.S. Senate.

Since last week, it's been rumored that the Greensboro Democrat had decided against challenging U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.

She confirmed it this morning with Greensboro News & Record reporter Mark Binker.

"I've studied it extremely hard," she told Binker. "But I really think that right now, I can do more for the citizens of Guilford County and North Carolina where I am."

In a press release from Hagan, Senate President Marc Basnight said that the state legislature is fortunate she's chosen to remain in Raleigh.

"The U.S. Senate's loss is the North Carolina Senate's gain," he said. 

Previously: Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal is running; state Rep. Grier Martin to decide this week.

State Rep. Grier Martin hopes to decide this week.

The Raleigh Democrat has been considering since June whether to run for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

"I'd like to sort it out this week," he said.

Next week, Martin, who is a major in the Army Reserves, will begin a month's training at Fort Bragg. A two-term legislator and attorney, he served in Afghanistan in 2002-2003, Rob Christensen reports.

"I'm convinced that the race is winnable and its winnable by me,” Martin said. "All, I'm looking at now is the effect it would have on my family."

State Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro has also been looking at the race.

Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill investment banker and former Democratic fund raiser, has announced he will run.

* Investment banker Jim Neal says he's willing to spend his own money on his race to defeat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole; cites John Edwards' 1998 win. (AP)

* House Speaker Joe Hackney tells the Rocky Mount Kiwanis Club that the budget process has improved. "There's very little pork in the budget," he says. (RMT)

* The National Federation of Independent Business praises U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler for leading the fight against a 5-cent increase in the federal gas tax. (Blue Ridge Now)

* South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case now on a dispute over the Catawba River's water. Roy Cooper has no comment. (AP)

Jim Neal says he has an uphill battle for Senate.

With no name recognition and a nationally recognized incumbent in U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, the Chapel Hill investment banker says he'll have to spend the next year introducing himself to North Carolina voters.

He's going to start at this weekend's Vance-Aycock Dinner, where his campaign will host a hospitality suite. He's also got a Web site up and running.

Neal also plans to take the year off from work, as he did in 2004, when he worked as a fundraiser for the campaigns of Erskine Bowles, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and U.S. Sen. John Kerry.

He hopes to tap into that network of national donors to offset Dole's campaign war chest. He noted that former Gov. Jim Hunt also got out-of-state money when he ran against U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

"I'm a fighter," he said. "I'm running this race to win."

James W. Neal Jr. is a relative unknown to most voters.

The Chapel Hill investment banker may announce this weekend that he'll run for the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.

Neal, 50, is chairman and CEO of The Agema Group, a specialized financial advisory firm based in Research Triangle Park. He earned a bachelor of science in business administration from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1978, and a master of business administration from the University of Chicago in 1983.

In 2002, he was appointed to the Board of Governors of The New School in New York City.

In 2004, Neal raised money for retired Gen. Wesley Clark in the Democratic presidential primary. When Clark dropped out, he joined the John Kerry campaign.

He also donated $1,000 to U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, in 2006. Miller had previously considered, then rejected, running against Dole next year.

Neal has been registered to vote in Chapel Hill since June 30 of last year, and he voted here in the November elections.

An excerpt of a news article about his fundraising after the jump.