Elizabeth Dole's absence from North Carolina has long been fodder for discussion among Democrats.  We're prone to refer to her as a carpetbagger and talk about her 40+ year absence from the state, her voting history in Kansas, her run for president as a Kansan and her residence at the Watergate where she and husband Bob have lived since they were married in 1975.  What we don't talk about is her long history of service in North Carolina because there is no history to speak of.

You would think that after a rushed residency period and her election to the U.S. Senate as a "North Carolinian" in 2002 that Dole would start spending a little more time in this state.  Time she could use to get to know the people and our goals, dreams and hopes for the wonderful state we live in.  Time she could use to gain understanding of the challenges and obstacles we face in North Carolina.  If you honestly thought Dole was going to spend any substantive time here, you're wrong.  Dead wrong.

Is Elizabeth Hanford Dole a qualified registered voter with a permanent residence in North Carolina or is Elizabeth Dole's permanent primary residence at the Watergate in our nation's capital?

The Watergate is much more than the name of a famous hotel where an even more famous burglary took place in the early 70's.

"Watergate is a cooperative apartment complex located in North West Washington, D.C.. The complex includes three apartment buildings (East, West & South), two office buildings, a hotel, and a shopping mall.
"

The Watergate has been described as a "city within a city."   Most apartments are extravagant and have a price tag to match with many two-bedroom units going for well over $2 million.  Winston and Winston Real Estate have several listings at 700 New Hampshire Avenue NW offering virtual tours.   There are even a few listed that are down the hall from some of the Watergate's most famous residents, Bob and Elizabeth Hanford Dole.

The most recent poll is out for North Carolina's 8th Congressional District race and it shows Larry Kissell leading Robin Hayes in a pure unadulterated head-to-head match up.  The poll, conducted by Anzalone Liszt, shows Kissell at 45% and Hayes at 43%.

The North Carolina Democratic Party held its annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner on Friday May 2 at Dorton Arena in Raleigh.  JJ is usually a few hundred Democrats at a semi-formal dinner.  This year party leadership decided to open the dinner up to allow more participation as they anticipated the attendance of our presidential candidates.  While some Democrats joked about the peasants being relegated to the stands, it turned out to be the right thing to do.

Todd has already linked to the video of part of Obama's speech from the JJ dinner.  I thought you'd like to see pictures provided by members of BlueNC - some from the cheap seats and some from the floor.

I wasn't able to attend, but we had live feed at BlueNC and we hosted a fairly active comment section.

According to those who attended, the big money Democrats sitting up front were on their feet for both Clinton and Obama during their speeches, but more pressed forward to hear Obama and remained standing the entire speech.

After Clinton spoke, many of her supporters left.  Some thought that was rude.  It turns out there was a rally across the street for her after her speech.  There were events for Obama supporters as well and since he was speaking last they didn't have to leave early in order to attend.  In a campaign of this magnitude I'm sure organizers were going to have as many functions for Clinton supporters as they could while she was in town.  

The crowd there to support Barack Obama was vocal as they booed Clinton and Governor Mike Easley and chanted for Obama during Hillary Clinton's speech when she mentioned Barack Obama by name.  Some Obama supporters on our site said it was a bit embarrassing, but our state hasn't seen this much excitement around any race in a long time, so I think we're all being a bit more forgiving about things like that.

I'll change subjects a bit because Public Policy Polling just released their new poll minutes ago and Obama is still holding a double digit lead at 10 points over Clinton.  Personally, I live in a Republican controlled county and Obama doesn't have much support here among Democrats.  This county is completely polarized along racial lines and our African American population is relatively small.  The next county over is home to our largest city and as urban as it is, I still speak with more people who support Hillary Clinton and I have fairly progressive roots and a mixed race family. I'm not sure what that means, but for what it's worth I run into more Hillary supporters most days.

More photos below the fold....

Many of you have already seen the race-baiting ad sponsored by the NCGOP that's been floating around the web.

John McCain, fearless leader that he is took a stand against the ad saying it was inappropriate.

The NCGOP showed its respect for John McCain by completely ignoring him and following through with their plans to run the ad.  The head bigot at the NCGOP, Linda Daves, remains completely oblivious to the racist content of the ad.  You can view the MSNBC interview with Linda Daves on Pam's post at BlueNC.

Today, Pam Spaulding, from Pam's House Blend and NCDem Amy, who writes at BlueNC and MoBetterChange visited Elizabeth Dole's office in Raleigh, NC to deliver a letter with over 1200 signatures requesting that Elizabeth Dole do what she can as the top elected GOP official in NC to see that the ad is pulled.  The letter and signatures were collected thanks to Jane Hamsher and the good folks at Firedoglake, Pam's House Blend and BlueNC.

In an earlier post I mentioned this ad and was asked if I thought it would benefit Hillary Clinton.  Initially I wasn't thinking along those lines.  I felt from the beginning, and still do, that the ad will backfire on the NCGOP.   However, it does appear that the ad that looks like the NCGOP's attempt to hurt both leading gubernatorial candidates will wind up hurting Barack Obama.  Is it enough to cost him the state?  I don't know.  What do you think?

Frank Eaton, a documentary filmmaker and campaign worker for candidate for Lt. Governor, Dan Besse, posted a picture of an actual sample ballot that is being handed out in Forsyth County, North Carolina.  The ballot is not marked sample anywhere on its face.  It is actually titled, "official ballot" up top.

Here is the North Carolina statute governing sample ballots:

§ 163-165.2. Sample ballots.
(a) County Board to Produce and Distribute Sample Ballots. - The
county board of elections shall produce sample ballots, in all the
necessary ballot styles of the official ballot, for every election
to be held in the county. The sample ballots shall be given an
appearance that clearly distinguishes them from official ballots.
The county board shall distribute sample ballots to the chief
judge of every precinct in which the election is to be conducted.
The chief judge shall post a sample ballot in the voting place and
may use it for instructional purposes. The county board of
elections may use the sample ballot for other informational
purposes.

(b) Document Resembling an Official Ballot to Contain
Disclaimer. - No person other than a board of elections shall
produce or disseminate a document substantially resembling an
official ballot unless the document contains on its face a
prominent statement that the document was not produced by a board
of elections and is not an official ballot.

Frank says in his post that people were actually trying to hand in the ballots thinking they were real.  

The group handing them out is a mystery.  From Frank:  

And here's a piece of paid literature being distributed at early polling places around Winston-Salem by paid people for a brand new PAC called the Winston-Salem Black Political Action Committee.......

Where did this formerly blank ballot come from? Who is the Winston-Salem Black PAC? Why didn't they file the organizational reports that were due this week?

We don't know who is behind this, but you can bet we'll be pushing until we find out.

Original story is at BlueNC.com
 

We're down to the final days before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.  We have a complete primer on the North Carolina primary process posted at BlueNC.  Blue Indiana has this first in a series posted at this link.
In North Carolina the excitement has spilled over to the down ballot races.  It's the biggest year I can remember in my voting life.  I was 14 the last time North Carolina had a say in who would be the Democratic nominee.  I'm almost 46.  At this rate it may never happen again in my life, so I'm enjoying every minute of it.  I can even get past the negative ads so that I can celebrate the unprecedented voter registration numbers and so that I'm prepared to help the other North Carolina races take advantage of the organization efforts once all eyes are on to the next state.
On to the roundup:

Iowa
   demoinesdem has taken to providing a "McCain Shameful Behavior Roundup" to help us keep track of the myriad reasons not to vote for him

Wisconsin
   Uppity Wisconsin traces the history and legacy of Earth Day and its founder, Sen. Gaylord Nelson

For the first time, in a long time, North Carolina is participating in a presidential primary where our votes actually matter.  The excitement is palpable with unprecedented numbers registering to vote and Republicans switching sides in droves.  Over the next couple of weeks I'll keep you updated as we see things happening on the ground.

My name is Betsy Muse and I've been blogging at BlueNC for over two years.   BlueNC is a very active blogging community.  We recently hosted a Democratic gubernatorial debate online and have hosted live-blog chats with leading candidates running for U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.  This coming Sunday (April 27) we are having our first Blogger Bash and Candidate Forum.  We have 16 candidates and several surrogates lined up to speak to the 80 guests who have reserved tickets.  We have gone from being ignored by most candidates during the 2006 cycle to having candidates or their campaigns calling to schedule live-blog chats.  It might have a little something to do with our successes helping Larry Kissell gain attention in 2006 or with our work supporting Rep. Brad Miller as he faced the rather insane challenge from Vernon Robinson.  Whatever the reason, we're enjoying the attention and are excited that we have an opportunity to translate that attention into increased grassroots activity for Democratic candidates through the fall campaign season.

North Carolina's presidential primary polls show a strong preference for Barack Obama in the popular vote, but we have enough rural congressional districts, that support for Hillary might offset Obama's popularity and still deliver her a good showing in the number of pledged delegates.  We have a post at BlueNC detailing our primary process.  It is much too long to include here and the coding is a bit of a hassle, so please don't mind the link back to Blue.  In the post we have included information on the different congressional districts that might help those following the national trends predict how the vote in the different congressional districts will end up.