John Edwards' former Senate opponent spared no kind words for him.

Former Sen. Lauch Faircloth, who lost a re-election bid to Edwards in 1998, said he had heard that Edwards had admitted to an extramarital affair.

He noted that Edwards previously called the National Enquirer story "tabloid trash."

"He said this newspaper, the Enquirer, he said it was trash," Faircloth said. "Well, if there's anybody ought to know about trash, it's him."

Faircloth also said that Edwards should not be on "Nightline" tonight.

"I just wouldn't want to be on, if I had all this blowing in front of me," he said. "I don't believe I would want to be getting more publicity. He's right to come clean about it, but he doesn't have to announce it from a flagpole."

"He should come clean and then get out of the way," he added.

How would $6 million in outside spending affect the Senate race?

In 1998, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee devoted significant resources to the Senate campaign of John Edwards, who faced incumbent Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth.

The state Democratic Party ran three negative TV ads that year attacking Faircloth that were financed and produced by the DSCC.

One accused Faircloth of voting to cut Medicare. (He actually voted to slow its growth.) Another accused him of missing Senate votes. (He had a 97 percent attendance record, one of the worst in the Senate.) And a third noted he had a spill on his hog farm. (It was pulled after Democratic hog farmers complained.)

Faircloth's campaign complained that the third-party negative ads allowed Edwards to stay above the fray, while their own ads attacking Edwards seemed to backfire. They also argued that they undermined Edwards' refusal to accept PAC money, which still went to the DSCC.

Still, the ads were cited as a key factor in Edwards' win.

And how much did the DSCC spend in North Carolina that year? According to a Nov. 5, 1998, article in the Washington Post: $1.3 million.

In advance of Pat McCrory's announcement today, the Charlotte Observer has a nice recap of the supposed curse of Charlotte mayors who ran for higher office:

Eddie Knox
* 1984: Loses to Rufus Edmisten in the Democratic primary for governor

Harvey Gantt
* 1990: Loses to Jesse Helms in the general election for U.S. Senate
* 1996: Loses to Helms again in the general election for U.S. Senate

Richard Vinroot
* 1996: Loses to Robin Hayes in the Republican primary for governor
* 2000: Loses to Mike Easley in the general election for governor
* 2004: Loses to Patrick Ballantine in the Republican primary for governor

Sue Myrick
* 1992: Loses to Lauch Faircloth in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate

Robert Pittenger is also stressing his endorsements.

In an e-mail announcement today, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor noted the support of some heavy hitters in the GOP.

They are former Gov. Jim Martin, former Lt. Gov. Jim Gardner, former Sen. Lauch Faircloth, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Patrick Ballantine, House Minority Leader Paul Stam and Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger.

BOONE, Iowa—While Democrat John Edwards sticks to his new street fighter stump speech, he's left it to his wife Elizabeth to sell voters on his electability, reaching back to his 1998 Senate victory in North Carolina.

He won in a red state, she tells audiences, and "beat the Jesse Helms machine" in defeating Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth, Jim Morrill reports.

Elizabeth Edwards implicitly criticizes 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, who chose her husband as his running mate. But the campaign, she says, didn't compete in "red" states such as North Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma, not airing a single ad.

Each of those states, she says, has elected a Democratic governor.

"You have no chance to win a football game if you don't show up," she told more than 400 people here. "Every place you give up you give up to Republicans. John won't do that."

SIOUX CITY, Iowa—All across Iowa yesterday, the name of Republican former Senator Lauch Faircloth was butchered.

In introducing John Edwards, Roxanne Conlin, a prominent Des Moines attorney, noted that he was the only Democratic presidential candidate to have won a race in a so-called Red State, Rob Christensen reports.

"He beat Lauch Faircloth—where do they get these names?" Conlin said in Le Mars, Iowa.

In Sioux City, Conlin said Edwards had defeated "Lauch Faircloth—I'm not making that up."

In each case Conlin mispronounced Faircloth's name, pronouncing it as "Launch" as opposed to "Lock." Edwards unseated Faircloth, a Clinton businesssman, in 1998.

Edwards often asserts that he defeated "the Jesse Helms Machine" in beating Faircloth, which is not quite accurate. Faircloth had been recruited to run for the Senate in 1992 by the Helms organization.

But the Helms political organization disbanded in 1996, although Faircloth had the help of several Helms veterans in his 1998 campaign.

Gov. Mike Easley had some notable lunch dates in 2004.

According to the governor's daily schedules from that year, Easley dined with such notables as then Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik and former Sen. Lauch Faircloth.

With one exception, the lunches were held on Wednesdays at the Governor's Mansion. (Easley held a lunch with his top staffers on a Tuesday before the holidays.)

The schedules are for planning purposes only, so some of the lunches may have been canceled. They were obtained by Dome after a public records request.

Still, they show an interesting cross-section of North Carolina's power players in business, government and political advocacy.

After the jump, a complete list of the 2004 lunches.

Hat Tip: Andy Curliss

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Four former secretaries of the state Department of Commerce have endorsed Gov. Mike Easley's alternative incentives plan.

In a letter today to the governor and the legislature, Lauch Faircloth, Jim Broyhill, Norris Tolson and Rick Carlisle write that they think the state should offer broader incentives to help companies invest in North Carolina.

The legislation had been targeted to help the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and other tire companies. But the four former secretaries backed Easley's complaint that it is too narrowly focused.

"We believe that while HB 1761 is addressed to a very real economic development issue, legislation to address this issue should encompass other companies in similar situations while establishing reasonable performance standards," they write.

In closing, they urge Easley and the legislature to "work together to craft alternative legislation."

Full text of the letter after the jump.

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When John Edwards went after New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton last week as part of the evil Washington establishment, it should have had a familiar ring to North Carolinians.

Without mentioning Clinton by name, Edwards warned of "establishment elites" as he began a tour of New Hampshire, Rob Christensen reports.

"The system in Washington is rigged, and I'll say it again, it's rigged and it's rigged by greedy powers," Edwards said at Dartmouth College. "It's rigged by the system to favor the establishment."

Edwards used the same argument against Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth in 1998, when he launched his political career.

Edwards promised in 1998 not to accept contributions from political action committees, and he warned of the pernicious influence of lobbyists who he said lined the halls outside the Senate chambers.

"We're going to decide tomorrow whether we really have a democracy where absolutely every North Carolinian's and every American's voice is heard on the floor of the United States Senate — not just the voice of special-interest PACs, not just the voice of Washington lobbyists," Edwards said the day before the 1998 election.