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A significant piece of Republican George Holding's campaign biography is his role as a U.S. attorney prosecuting the case against John Edwards. The Raleigh congressional candidate left his role before the case went to trial -- but what does he think about the case given Thursday's verdict?

Holding's not talking. 

His campaign strategist, Carter Wrenn, said Holding wouldn't comment about the case. "I don't think it's quite appropriate," Wrenn said Friday, referring questions to the current federal prosecutors.

But Holding's campaign did defend the cost of the prosecution in the May primary race. His GOP opponent Paul Coble called the Edwards prosecution political.

George Holding’s campaign is saying this evening that its internal polling shows he is leading Paul Coble by more than 12 points in the GOP primary for the 13^th congressional district.

Word comes in the form of a memo sent to supporters, saying a tracking poll was done last night. It adds that Holding has increased his lead in every region in the district. It says he leads among conservatives by more than 15 points.

Update: The campaign says it was a tracking poll of 600 Republican primary voters in the district, and it had a margin of error of 1 to 4 percent.

The super PAC supporting George Holding for Congress is swapping out ads it has been running on television with a more timely one. This one, which will air through election day Tuesday, picks up on the theme of an ad that began airing earlier this week and was paid for by Holding’s campaign committee.

Both ads jump on opponent Paul Coble’s remarks last week that Holding, the former U.S. attorney in Raleigh, went after former Gov. Mike Easley to promote his own political ambitions. The Holding camp saw it as an opportunity to stress Holdings’ tough-on-crime credentials. Both TV ads say Coble’s comment shows he’s worried.

“Desperate men do desperate deeds,” the new ad says.

It is paid for by the American Foundations Committee, a super PAC comprised almost entirely of Holding’s family and friends. By law, it can raise unlimited money to help a candidate but it can’t coordinate with a candidate’s campaign. It can, however, use information that is already in the public sphere, such as Coble’s published remarks.

George Holding's campaign for 13th congressional district has a new TV ad, picking up on strategist Carter Wrenn's comments last week that Paul Coble's campaign was "coming unglued."

Why else would Coble criticize Holding for prosecuting former Sen. John Edwards and investigating former Gov. Mike Easley, the ad asks? "Coble's campaign is falling apart, and it's not pretty," the ad says.

What rattled the Holding campaign were remarks Coble made to an online magazine that covers the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the Edwards prosecution was politically motivated and that there was practically no payoff in the Easley case. Wastes of money and done to advance Holding's political career, Coble suggested.

After months of watching his two opponents in the 13th Congressional District race throw mud at each other, Bill Randall is tossing a few mud balls of his own. In a GOP debate that aired Sunday, George Holding and Paul Coble, on the other hand, toned down their assaults on one another, and showed little difference in the substance of their political beliefs. Read more here.

Other political headlines:

--Think of Business Empire Consulting as the brash newcomer that nominated itself for the job – and won. The 28-month-old Raleigh digital marketing agency beat out 11 competitors for the plum job of designing and hosting a new website for the Democratic National Convention, which is set for Charlotte in September.

--Cheri Young, the wife of former political aide Andrew Young, will resume testifying in John Edwards’ trial Monday and might add new wrinkles to a story that veers between tragedy and farce with each disclosure.

Wake County Commissioner Paul Coble is quoted in an online publication saying there is "no question" the prosecution of John Edwards is political.

Coble's chief opponent for the 13th congressional district Republican nomination, George Holding, was the U.S. Attorney in Raleigh, remaining in office past his expiration date to oversee the Edwards prosecution.

Coble also referred to Holding's investigation of another prominent Democrat, former Gov. Mike Easley in another campaign finance probe. He said the Easley case was a waste of taxpayer money, noting prosecutors "didn't exactly put him away."

The family-funded super PAC supporting George Holding's election to Congress plans on running TV ads constantly between now and the primary election, according to Palmer Sugg, the Raleigh attorney who is one of its founders.

The American Foundations Committee just dropped about $93,000 on this week's ad, according to the latest federal campaign finance report it will be filing.

The Paul Coble campaign kicked off today’s round by sending out a news release titled, “George Holding: Up to His Eyeballs in Debt!”

The debt refers to the nearly $250,000 in debt his campaign committee has incurred. Is he up to his eyeballs? 

Former U.S. Attorney George Holding is out raising Wake County commissioner Paul Coble by a wide margin in their GOP congressional primary.

Holding has raised $716,157, compared to $209,501 for Coble as of March 31, according to Federal Election Commission reports. And that does not include the $366,715 raised by American Foundations, a super Pac formed by supporters of Holding.

Holding has spent $645,112, had $71,045 cash on hand and $248,942 in campaign debts. Coble had spent $198,433, had $11,068 cash on hand and $1,581 in debt.

A third candidate, Bill Randall, the GOP nominee for the 13th district in 2010, had raised $22,126, spent $17,112, had $8,265 cash on hand and $41,822 in debt.

One of the most passionately fought campaigns of this year’s primary season is the slugfest between former federal prosecutor George Holding and Wake County Commissioner Paul Coble, who are vying for a seat in Congress.

The race has produced North Carolina's first super PAC. It ranks No. 9 as the most active super PAC playing in a congressional race in the nation. And like other super PACs in this new world, how The American Foundations Committee is permitted to operate is somewhat controversial and sometimes unclear. Click here to read more, see a list of donors and get a primer on super PAC rules.

To get your political fill, here are more big headlines from this weekend:

--Newt Gingrich tries to keep GOP race alive. In stumping across the state, Gingrich mainly ignored Romney, but stepped up his criticism of Obama, describing him as "a Chicago-machine politician dedicated to Saul Alinsky’s radicalism." Here's a dispatch from his statewide tour, including stops at a tea party rally in Greensboro and Raleigh. He also visited the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.