Marshall Adame has endorsed Barack Obama.

The Democratic candidate for the Third Congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Walter Jones wrote in a post on The Daily Kos and BlueNC that he is backing Obama.

"Senator Obama, to me, represents a kind of renaissance in politics where trust, truth and fidelity to principle will once again grow and bloom in our White House in Washington DC," he writes. 

Adame faces Morehead City meteorologist Craig Weber in the primary. 

Marshall Adame has brought up impeachment.

In a post on BlueNC and the Daily Kos, the Democratic Congressional candidate raises a series of rhetorical questions about U.S. policy on Iraq, the Guantanamo prison, torture, rendition and secret prisons overseas, asking "Where was the outrage?"

When we all learned about the Secret prisons, where we took people to be tortured and that our President and Vice President had approved them; Why was our President not impeached? (bold his)

Later in the post, he says the GOP has failed to "put America First!"

"The Republican Party has betrayed all Americans regardless of party affiliation," he writes.

The ramped-up rhetoric and the mention of impeachment come as Adame faces a Democratic primary challenge from Morehead City meteorologist Craig Weber.

The winner of that primary will face Republican Rep. Walter Jones or former Onslow County commissioner Joe McLaughlin.

Is there a BlueNC primary?

The progressive group blog has become a major stopping point for Democratic candidates in North Carolina's primary this year.

So far, Senate candidate Jim Neal; lieutenant governor candidates Pat Smathers and Dan Besse; Congressional candidates Larry Kissell, Marshall Adame, Jay Ovittore, Roy Carter, John Autry; and state House candidate Ed Ridpath, along with Elizabeth Edwards have live-blogged on the site.

State auditor candidate Beth Wood, labor commissioner Robin Anderson and Congressional candidate Ross Overby are also slated, while gubernatorial candidates Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue have scheduled an online debate on the site.

Even Senate candidate Kay Hagan, who has taken some abuse on the site, has said she will live-blog.

"I think it's absolutely as important to engage as many voters as you can," said Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan. "Certainly there's a lot of voters who read that blog."

The live-blogs are a new, and much looser format for candidates. Anonymous users can post questions, but the candidates are also free to ignore them. They can answer as much or as little as they want, ask staff or Google for help and link to outside sources.

Several Democratic candidates are targeting Blackwater.

Congressional candidate Marshall Adame, U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal and U.S. Rep. David Price have attacked the Moyock-based security contractor, the Virginian-Pilot reports.

Adame, a diplomat who spent in Iraq, called them "guns for hire."

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, introduced legislation requiring more oversight of contractors after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in September.

And Neal, who is running against state Sen. Kay Hagan for the Democratic nomination, responded "Hell, no," when asked whether the U.S. military should "outsource warfare."

Company founder Erik Prince has donated at least $113,000 to Republican candidates since 1995, including $1,750 to Adame's opponent, incumbent Rep. Walter Jones.

He has not donated to any Democrats.

Update: Blackwater Current blogger Joe Neff says including Prince's family members, the total number of donations is over a quarter million, all to Republicans. One exception: A stealth donation to the Green Party.

North Carolina's campaign season opened at noon with the national debate over the war in Iraq echoing in Tar Heel congressional races.

Two Republican congressional candidates, Joe McLaughlin of Jacksonville and Will Breazeale of Elizabethtown, filed for election against incumbents who they say should be turned out of office for not being sufficiently supportive of the U.S. military effort in Iraq, Rob Christensen reports.

Dozens of candidates lined up in the State Board of Elections for the filling period that opened at noon. They included Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge, Republican Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, and Beth Wood, a former CPA in the state auditor's office, who wants to run against her hold boss Les Merritt.

Ronnie Anlsey, a Raleigh attorney, filed as a Democratic candidate for agriculture commissioner.

More after the jump.

   Comments (3)

Marshall Adame should be the sort of Congressional candidate Blackwater would get behind.

He's a retired Marine. He's worked in Iraq for the State Department and for The Sandi Group Intl., a military contractor. Both his sons have served with the Army in Iraq. But he spoke his mind online:

I have interacted with many mercenary groups, including Blackwater. There is no place in the American force structure, or in American culture for mercenaries. They are guns for hire; No more, no less. The primary motivation is money. In most cases it does not matter who's money. Private Security Organizations as extensive as Blackwater, for example, should not be allowed to operate in war zones as augments of the United States of America. Private Armies represent the very things we depise as a people. Servants to the highest bidder with true allegiance to no-one.

This generated nastygrams from Blackwater supporters, including an e-mail from Blackwater VP Bill Matthews, who asked for people to help "run this goof out of Dodge."

After the jump, the text of the e-mail. Warning: Strong language.

Crossposted from Joe Neff's Blackwater Current blog.

   Comments (12)

* State Rep. Melanie Wade Goodwin expecting; says she is first female legislator in North Carolina to be expecting a child in office. (Wayne's World)

* Democratic Congressional candidate Marshall Adame endorses John Edwards for president on his blog, cites opposition to Iraq war. (Daily Kos)

* Gov. Mike Easley's holiday tradition: Taking his son to the Dollar Store to buy as many cheap gifts as he can find for Mary. Meantime, she knits unattractive socks for him. (WUNC)

* John Edwards has the most pronounced populist message for a major presidential candidate since Harry Truman, Georgetown University historian says. (N&O)

Jim Neal has started a diary on the Daily Kos.

The Democratic senatorial candidate second post blames the "out-of-touch, inside-the-Beltway impotency of the Bush Administration" for economic problems.

"For the past 6 years, their single-minded focus on fighting the war on terror has left our economic security in the hands of special interest forces and the market economy," he writes.

He calls for investing in alternative energy, creating universal health care, expanding microloan programs and investing in college education.

Neal is not the only North Carolina Democrat on Markos Moulitsas Zúniga's progressive blog site. U.S. Rep. Brad Miller and Congressional candidate Marshall Adame also have diaries.

Marshall Adame is not surprised by Blackwater's troubles.

The military consultant, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, said he had concerns about the Moyock-based security contractor when he was a diplomat in Iraq.

Iraqi authorities announced this week they wanted to revoke the company's license to guard top American officials because of accusations it had killed innocent civilians.

Adame said he was transported by several different companies while serving as an adviser to the Iraqi Minister of the Interior in 2005. He said some were better than others, but Blackwater was the worst.

"They would act with almost total disregard for the safety of Iraqis that they were driving through," he said. "I personally have seen them — without cause — injure scores of Iraqis."

After one trip in which a Blackwater convoy ran several cars off the road, Adame said he filed a written complaint with the U.S. embassy.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Farmville Republican, is facing Republican and Democratic challengers who are veterans, Rob Christensen reports.

Joe McLaughlin, an Onslow County commissioner, last week announced he would challenge Jones in the GOP primary. McLaughlin has been a critic of Jones' opposition to continued U.S. military involvement in Iraq. McLaughlin, a financial planner, is a retired major in the 82nd Airborne.

On the Democratic side, Marshall Adame, a former defense department contractor from Jacksonville, is campaigning against Jones. Adame is a retired Marine who served three years in Iraq as part of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Two of his sons served in Iraq.

Adame said Jones’ opposition to the war does not make him acceptable to Democrats. Adame told one Democratic group that Jones had supported Bush 86 percent of the time.