Mike Gravel

Choose-Your-Own Adventure Primary

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 06 May 2008 10:24:01 -0400

Dome loved Choose-Your-Own Adventure books as a child.

We like to think of tonight's Democratic primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton along the same lines. Here's our take on the possibilities:

If Clinton wins Indiana and Obama North Carolina:

Nothing changes. Both candidates were expected to win those states, both will claim victory in their own ways, and the national press moves on to West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon. Clinton is still an outside chance for the nomination.

If Clinton wins Indiana and North Carolina:

A game-changer. Clinton argues she is the only candidate who is electable, while some superdelegates begin to worry that the damage from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, etc., is too great. Obama is red-faced before thousands at Reynolds Coliseum.

If Obama wins Indiana and North Carolina:

Less of a game-changer. Obama argues he has won over the elusive blue-collar vote in a state favored for Clinton while hanging on to college students and black voters. Clinton rebuts that Indiana has not gone for a Democrat since 1964 so it doesn't really count.

If Obama wins Indiana and Clinton North Carolina:

Mass confusion. Both campaigns charter last-minute flights to the other state. Dan Rather comes out of retirement to coin a metaphor for the situation involving corn cakes and griddles but no one understands what he's talking about.

If Mike Gravel wins anywhere:

Hysteria. Reporters wander around in a daze. Pollsters jump out second-story windows. Bloggers say they saw it coming all along. Plagues of locusts swarm the earth. A third of Democratic voters turn red. Mike Munger reveals he is the anti-Christ.

Gravel gets it both ways in N.C.

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:31:16 -0400

Mike Gravel gets to have his cake and eat it too in North Carolina.

The former senator will come to Hickory this weekend to attend the N.C. Libertarian Party's convention. He is currently running for the party's nomination for president.

On May 6, he'll also be on the ballot — as a candidate for the Democratic nomination.

Democratic Party spokeswoman Kerra Bolton said there's nothing the party can do about the double-booking.

"We have consulted with the State Board of Elections and it is our understanding that current state law does not give the State Board flexibility to remove Mike Gravel from the ballot at this time," she wrote in an e-mail to Dome.

How the Congressional districts lean

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:01:18 -0500

Congressional districts will play a key role in the presidential primary.

Two thirds of the state's pledged delegates — a trove of 77 — will be distributed to either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton based on the percentage of votes in the state's 13 Congressional districts.

(Mike Gravel and "No Preference" will also be on the ballot, but they are unlikely to pass the 15 percent threshold necessary to affect delegate distribution.)

At Dome's request, Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling took a look at their surveys, using area code as a proxy for Congressional district. Here's where each candidate's ahead, and the district representative:

Clinton: 3rd (Jones), 5th (Foxx), 10th (McHenry), 11th (Shuler)

Obama: 1st (Butterfield), 4th (Price), 6th (Coble), 7th (McIntyre), 8th (Hayes), 9th (Myrick), 12th (Watt), 13th (Miller)

Toss-Up: 2nd (Etheridge)

"Obama does very well in urban areas and more rural areas down east with strong black populations," he writes Dome. "Clinton is strongest with the whiter 3rd District out east and in the western part of the state."

Edwards not on N.C. ballot

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:33:59 -0500

North Carolinians will not get a chance to vote for John Edwards.

State Democratic chairman Jerry Meek excluded the name of Edwards from a list of candidates he submitted Tuesday to the State Board of Elections for the May 6 primary. Democrats included on the ballot are Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. Mike Gravel, Rob Christensen reports.

Meek, who has discretion on who to include on the ballot, said Monday he would decide whether to include Edwards’ name after conferring with the Edwards campaign.

Edwards, an Orange County resident, suspended his campaign for president last week, after losing the first four contests. Some of his supporters, however, have been urging his backers to vote for Edwards anyway in the remaining primaries.

The absence of Edwards name is another indication that Edwards has given up his campaign. It may also suggest that Edwards did not want to be embarrassed in his home state, which carried in a caucus in 2004.

Joe Trippi, who is Edwards key strategist, said Edwards contemplated dropping out of the presidential race before South Carolina primary, to avoid another embarrassing defeat like he suffered in Nevada, when he won only 4 percent, according to The New Republic magazine.

But Edwards decided to stay in after doing well in the Myrtle Beach debate. Edwards won 18 percent in South Carolina, finishing third.

Talking the talk

bkrueger — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:15:04 -0400

John Edwards was overheard discussing with Hillary Clinton Thursday night the need to reduce the number of people participating in the Democratic presidential primary debates — a move that did not sit well with the second-tier candidates.

Fox News Channel microphones picked up a conversation between Edwards and Clinton after an NAACP forum in Detroit on Thursday, reports Rob Christensen.

"We should try to have a more serious and a smaller group," Edwards said.

Clinton agreed: "We've got to cut the number ... they're not serious."

Among those who objected was U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

"Candidates, no matter how important or influential they perceive themselves to be, do not have and should not have the power to determine who is allowed to speak to the American public and who is not," Kucinich said.

Other Democrats attending the forum were former Sen. Mike Gravel, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sens. Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden.