Has the gas tax played out?

The gas tax is the perfect foil for a candidate.

Gas is pretty much a necessity, especially in road-centric North Carolina. It's one of the few commodities whose prices you see in foot-high numbers when buying. And few voters seek a direct link between the gas tax and the roads and other things it pays for.

So it's not surprising that reducing gas taxes has been a political staple for decades. 

In 1982, U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms filibustered against a federal gas-tax hike backed by President Reagan. In his landmark 1984 race against Jim Hunt, Helms hammered the governor for having proposed raising the state gas tax.

But recent attempts to use the gas tax for political advantage have fallen flat.

Two years ago, Salisbury attorney Bill Graham spent $2.3 million of his own money to lead an advocacy group calling for capping the state's gas tax. The legislature capped the tax, but Graham was never able to parlay the crusade into a credible campaign for governor.

At the same time, Hillary Clinton (pace John McCain) hammered on the idea of a federal "gas-tax holiday" while campaigning in North Carolina and Indiana.

Her rival, Barack Obama, fought back, arguing the proposal was a "gimmick" and holding it up as an example of "typical of how Washington works."

Has the gas tax played out? Probably not. High gas prices remain a concern for consumers and no tax is ever really all that popular. But the recent elections indicate that it's not enough of a campaign issue to win an election on its own.