A straw poll recommended Rep. Dan Blue move to the Senate.
About 50 people at a forum sponsored by the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association Saturday cast an unofficial vote on who should fill former Sen. Vernon Malone's seat.
The candidates were Blue, Bernard Allen Jr., former educator Carol Dalenko Bennett, Pfizer lobbyist Marlowe Foster, Wake school board member Rosa Gill, media consultant J. Mills Holloway, former DMV director Alexander Killens and St. Augustine's College provost Kim Luckes.
RWCA president Dan Coleman said that Blue won the straw poll by a significant margin, followed by Holloway.
The group's political action committee will meet tonight to take a formal vote. The result will then be forwarded to the Wake County Democratic Party, which will make a final nomination for Gov. Beverly Perdue.
"The Wake County Democratic Party is not necessarily beholden to that endorsement," said Coleman.
Results of the straw poll after the jump.
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Voters were allowed to choose their top two candidates:
Allen: 7 first choices, 5 second
Bennett: 1 first choice, zero second
Blue: 39 first choices, 24 second
Foster: 6 first choices, 5 second
Gill: 7 first choices, 9 second
Holloway: 11 first choices, 27 second
Killens: 6 first choices, 10 second
Luckes: 5 first choices, 10 second
One write-in
SOURCE: Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association




Re: Blue
With all due respect, Mr. Paine: Blue lost that speaker's contest by 2 votes to Jim Black. And you still want to talk about true character? I'm sure that in hindsight a few of those Democrats following Black wish they'd followed Blue instead.