NC-8

Today, the WesPAC and Democrats Work communities launched a contest to determine which Congressional District General Wes Clark is going to visit this summer.


This won’t be an ordinary visit. General Clark will travel to one Congressional District where a Democratic challenger is fighting to change the direction of our country to work side-by-side with area Democrats to make a positive impact through community service. We want you to tell us where we should put our values into action.


You can cast your vote here: www.DemocratsWork.org.

From LKSOC (the Larry Kissell School of Original Campaigning) comes the following event, which Under The Dome already calls "the most creative political event of the year".

The Democratic Congressional candidate will host free lead screening of toys from noon to 3 p.m. this Friday in downtown Concord, the hometown of Robin Hayes.

"Not only as a candidate for Congress, but as a parent and school teacher, I'm concerned about dangerous imports and the safety of our children," says Kissell, "I don't believe you have to wait for an election to begin working on behalf of families in the 8th District."

Larry's remarks at the Richmond County Democratic Party Dinner last night in Hamlet. For the record and your pleasure.

As I mentioned on Friday, it seems like a good idea to make sure BlueNC is a fair and balanced forum for all comers. That's why I've invited John Autry to join us tonight. He'll be here with us starting around 6 pm for about an hour.

John is a native North Carolinian, born and raised here. He served in the Navy between 1972 and 1976. John has a good, solid website that does a far better job than I can in explaining who he is and what he stands for. Please check it out. His positions on various issues can be found here..

Knowing that many of you have strong feelings about the NC-8 contest, I hope you'll keep your questions respectful and focused on the thing that matters most: defeating Flipper Hayes.

On the heels of all the primary drama around the US Senate race, I thought it would be productive to put some energy into making sure BlueNC is a fair and balanced forum for all comers. I've extended an invitation to Kay Hagan to join us here, and I've also invited John Autry to do the same. John, who is running for Congress in the 8th District, has graciously accepted my offer. He'll be here with us on Sunday (28th) at 6 pm for about an hour. I hope you'll be able to join us.

John Autry is a native North Carolinian, born and raised here. He served in the Navy between 1972 and 1976 (same as me!). John has a good, solid website that does a far better job than I can in explaining who he is and what he stands for. Please check it out. His positions on various issues can be found here..

I've never understood exactly what Robin Hayes does in Congress to earn the $165,000 we pay him each year. For example, back in December, when the Party of Greed was still in the majority, he totally bombed on getting money for Kannapolis road improvements.

Kannapolis officials were expecting $1 million from the federal government for road improvements on Dale Earnhardt Boulevard and N.C. 3, but that earmark was not passed by the U.S. House before the end of the session in December, according to Congressman Robin Hayes' office.

Via the increasingly Ex Files:

This post on Scoop about the similarities between Larry Kissell's loss in NC-8 and Christine Jennings' challenged loss in FL-13 popped up via Crooks & Liars:

While Jennings makes a very strong case for a voided election and new vote in Florida, the case becomes virtually unassailable when reviewing results from North Carolina. At the same time, the North Carolina 8th results, reviewed in the context of the election contest analysis of Florida’s 13th, makes it abundantly clear that the loser, Kissell, should have won in almost any scenario other than voting machine malfunction.

Thursday Chris Bowers at MyDD posted on a study by Harvard University's Elaine Kamarck indicating early success for Howard Dean's Fifty State Strategy. The study focused on "39 congressional districts where Dean had made an investment in organizing" (as opposed to states where the organizers worked at the state party headquarters for all U.S. House candidates). The North Carolina Democratic Party now has three organizers.

...those congressional districts where the DNC had paid organizers on the ground for over a year more than doubled the Democratic vote over what would have happened due to forces outside the control of the Party, such as the war in Iraq and the unpopularity of a Republican President.

I stopped subscribing to the News and Observer because of their lame editorial pages, but I still read the paper online every day. They have a good and well-connected political reporting staff and that's where I get much of my visibility into the circus of North Carolina politics.

Throughout the past election cycle, I was surprised how little attention Congressional races outside the Triangle got. There was precious little reporting on NC-8 and NC-11, and Roger Sharpe was all but invisible in his quest to unseat the feral Foxx. So much for being the statewide newspaper of record.

Today Rob Christensen finally digs in on the story behind the story of the lack of national party support for the Kissell Effect. The report is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it should have been written a month ago. Anybody who was even remotely paying attention understood the intense drama going on between Larry's campaign and the big boys in DC. And second, it ends with what may very well be the most asinine thing Rob Christensen has ever written.

Reposting of Screwy's locked up entry . . .

I thought we could use a separate thread for the NC-08 nail biter. RANT got front-paged at dKos for his diary, so go leave a comment there as well.

Donate here to help Larry with legal costs.

The State Board of Elections page is here.

At 3:46 pm it was Robin Hayes - 60,855 & Larry Kissell 60,453.