HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Candidate filing for the 2009 Municipal Elections and the Chapel Hill/Carrboro School Board will begin at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, July 6 and end at noon on Friday, July 17 at the Orange County Board of Elections office located at 110 East King Street in Hillsborough.

Filing forms, along with the proper filing fee, must be received by the Board of Elections office before the filing deadline of 12:00 noon on July 17th, 2009.  Notices of candidacy which are mailed must be received by the Board of Elections office before the filing deadline regardless of the time they were deposited in the mail.  Only persons who are registered to vote in the municipality shall be permitted to file notice of candidacy for election to municipal office and shall file with the county Board of Elections in which they reside.

For more information contact the Orange County Board of Elections at 919-245-2350 or visit http://www.co.orange.nc.us/elect/.

RALEIGH, N.C. – A senior adviser to a U.S. congressman from North Carolina will leave to become executive director of the state Democratic Party.

Party chairman David Young announced Tuesday Andrew Whalen will lead the party’s day-to-day operations and develop plans for the 2009 and 2010 election cycle.

Whalen was deputy manager for Rep. Heath Shuler’s winning 2006 campaign over GOP Rep. Charles Taylor and became Shuler’s communications director and adviser on Capitol Hill. Whalen replaces Caroline Valand, who now works for Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton.

Young also announced Payne Lucas Jr. will become director of party affairs and development. He’ll manage the party’s statewide field operations. Lucas was Franklin County’s field director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign last year.

When he runs for re-election next year, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is almost sure to face a strong, well-financed Democratic opponent determined to duplicate Democrats’ success in 2008.

Burr just doesn’t know who it will be.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, the top choice of many Democratic leaders, told supporters yesterday that he will not run for Senate because he wants to remain in North Carolina. Cooper’s decision clears the path for a wide-open field of Democrats who are considering a run against Burr, a one-term senator whom many see as vulnerable.

“North Carolina is a swing state. It’s going to be competitive. You can expect millions of dollars in special-interest money to be spent,” said Paul Shumaker, a political strategist for Burr. “The Democrats did it effectively in 2008, and they’ll try to do it in 2010.”

Indeed, Democrats are feeling invigorated by last year’s success, in which Kay Hagan pulled off an upset of former Sen. Elizabeth Dole. They believe that Burr is just as vulnerable as Dole was, and they hope to unseat him with the same flood of new voters that came out in support of Barack Obama last year.

Burr’s approval rating is just 36 percent, according to a poll taken this month by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm. That’s a dangerously low number for an incumbent, and it’s nine points lower than Dole’s approval rating at the same point in the cycle two years ago. The poll, which surveyed 755 North Carolina voters, was taken from May 8 to May 10 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percent.

“I will tell you that this is a very winnable race,” Morgan Jackson, a strategist for Cooper, said yesterday after Cooper ruled himself out of the race. “It’s not all that different from two years ago.”

The election is still 20 months away, but both sides are laying the groundwork for a tough campaign. In the Dole-Hagan race, the combined spending by both candidates and outside groups was nearly $50 million.

The 2010 race is likely to be in line with that.

Burr, who is from Winston-Salem, has already started mailing cards to Republicans and unaffiliated voters, and he has set up a Web site targeting new voters. Those are clear signs that Burr wants to avoid the mistakes of the Dole campaign, which failed to attract many newly registered voters and got trounced by the Democratic Party’s early-voting drive.

“In 2008, the turnout program for Republicans was a 72-hour turnout program,” Shumaker said. He promised that the Burr campaign “will be doing a lot of things differently.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have already published a Web ad attacking Burr. Their most important task now is to find a candidate to run against him.

Cooper, a likable, politically moderate candidate with strong crime-fighting credentials, was aggressively recruited by party leaders. But he said in an e-mail to supporters that he wants to continue his public service
in North Carolina rather than move to Washington.

Another heavily recruited candidate, U.S. Congressman Heath Shuler, D-11th, also said recently that he will not run for Burr’s seat – though he may reconsider now that Cooper has dropped out.

If Cooper and Shuler both stay out of the race, a Democratic primary is likely.

The only person who has publicly expressed interest so far is Kenneth Lewis, a lawyer who lives in Chapel Hill and was a fundraiser for Obama last year.

Cal Cunningham, a former state senator from Lexington, is also seriously considering a run. He is an Army reservist who recently returned from Iraq, and he has been making the rounds at various Democratic functions across the state. He works as a lawyer in Winston-Salem for the law firm Kilpatrick Stockton.

“I’m getting a lot of encouragement,” Cunningham said yesterday.

Behind the scenes, the list of other names being floated as potential candidates is long. It includes other North Carolina congressmen, current and former state legislators, elected officials in the state’s executive branch – and even Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards.

The situation is reminiscent of the prelude to the Dole race, when many high-profile Democrats, including then-Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue, were urged to run against Dole but declined.

Finally, an initially reluctant Kay Hagan, who had little statewide name recognition, was persuaded to enter the race.

She ended up beating Dole by nine points.

“The lesson from Kay Hagan is: Step up to bat,” said Gary Pearce, a veteran Democratic consultant. “Kay Hagan stepped up to what people thought was an unlikely race. And she’s a U.S. senator.”

The Breakdown: Who might run against Burr?
Attorney General Roy Cooper’s decision not to challenge U.S. Sen. Richard Burr clears the way for a long list of other Democrats who are rumored to have some interest in running. Here are 10 of the top names being mentioned:
• Cal Cunningham, former state senator. Cunningham, a captain in the Army reserves who recently returned from Iraq, is young (just 35) but politically connected. He has been increasing his visibility lately by traveling the state and speaking at Democratic functions. He lives in Lexington and works as a lawyer in Winston-Salem.
• Walter Dalton, lieutenant governor. Dalton is a moderate Democrat and a good campaigner. After serving in the N.C. Senate, he was elected last year to be lieutenant governor, a job with high visibility but little real power.
• Bob Etheridge, U.S. congressman for the 2nd District. Etheridge is a popular congressman and former state schools superintendent. But he may be unwilling to give up his influential new assignment on the House Ways and Means Committee.
• Kenneth Lewis, a lawyer and Democratic fundraiser. Lewis publicly expressed interest earlier this year in running against Burr. He has worked on previous Senate campaigns and Barack Obama’s campaign in North Carolina.
• Elaine Marshall, North Carolina’s secretary of state. Marshall ran for U.S. Senate in 2002, losing in a Democratic primary. She is popular among women voters, a group in which Burr has polled well.
• Grier Martin, state representative from Wake County. Martin was recruited in 2008 to run against Elizabeth Dole, but he declined. Like Cunningham, he is an Army reservist, and some Democrats believe his military credentials would make him a strong candidate.
• Charles Meeker, mayor of Raleigh. Meeker is said to have ambitions for higher office, and he is popular in Raleigh, the state’s second-largest city.
• Brad Miller, U.S. congressman for the 13th District. Miller, like Martin, was heavily courted in 2008 to run against Dole. Like Martin, he declined to run and may be kicking himself.
• Richard Moore, former state treasurer. Moore lost the Democratic nomination for governor last year in a tough primary against Bev Perdue. He may not want to risk another loss, but he is ambitious and charismatic.
• Heath Shuler, U.S. congressman for the 11th District. Along with Cooper, Shuler was considered a top choice among party leaders to challenge Burr, but Shuler said recently he is not planning on running. With Cooper out, Shuler could reconsider.

Over the past decade, North Carolina has steadily become a leader in publicly financed elections. Public financing pays for some judicial and Council of State campaigns and now legislation before the state Senate would add some municipal campaigns to that list.

The House has approved a bill that will allow municipalities with populations of 50,000 or more to create their own public-financing programs for political campaigns. Local option is a very good approach.
Public financing is contentious in many North Carolina communities. Some communities are strongly against it while others want it. With the local option, everyone can be happy. Only those communities that support it will have it.

The House bill came along as Chapel Hill prepares for publicly financed campaigns. Using legislation approved in a previous session, town officials have spent several years working with local organizations and residents to seek the right approach for that community.

When other North Carolina towns consider whether to adopt public financing, they can rely on Chapel Hill’s experience. If problems arise in the Orange County town, other municipalities can adjust. If there are no serious problems, then the rest of the state has what amounts to a beta test of the system.

The restriction against publicly financed elections in towns of less than 50,000 was added in a late amendment. It seems unnecessary. When it comes to self-governance, people in small towns have just as much wisdom as those in big cities. But considering how close the final House vote was – 60 for, 56 against – the amendment was politically necessary. If all goes well with municipalities that adopt public financing, we can only hope that a future legislature will grant the same opportunity to all communities.

Opponents say that public financing forces taxpayers to financially support candidates they oppose. That is a weak argument. The amount of tax revenue involved will be small, and any taxpayer’s individual contribution to the public-financing fund will be miniscule. Taxpayers with this concern will just have to satisfy themselves with the knowledge that the few cents they contribute will go to candidates they support.

For a small investment, North Carolinians will get more open elections with candidates less beholden to special interests. It’s an affordable price to pay. Now the Senate must follow the House lead and keep the positive trend going.

Fallout from anger over AIG’s bonuses is following Sen. Chris Dodd from Washington back home to Connecticut, CNN reports.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina donated $643,000 to state politicians from the 2000 election cycle through 2008, the N&O reports.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has ruled that electoral districts must have a majority of African-Americans or other minorities to be protected by a provision of the Voting Rights Act.
     
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“I think ultimately if you have to name a single reason Elizabeth Dole lost her reelection bid, it’s because she was perceived as not attentive enough to North Carolina,” the PPP says.

Primary Campaign
Highs
–Barack Obama beats front-runner Hillary Clinton in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. His campaign strategy, built around his experience as a community organizer, helps in the crucial first contest of the season. The victory makes him a viable candidate in later states, partly because African-American voters shift support to Obama from Clinton after the Iowa win.
–Obama all but locks up the Democratic nomination after winning the North Carolina primary May 6, but the battle continues until Clinton concedes a month later. Obama officially accepts his party’s nomination in August at a packed football stadium in Denver.

Lows
–Pre-primary polls show Obama leading in New Hampshire, the second key primary contest. An Obama win could have fatally wounded Clinton, but her surprising victory Jan. 8 keeps the primary fight going six more months.
–Controversial comments made by Obama – and his pastor – emerge during the primary season and threaten his candidacy. Obama is caught on tape at a private fundraiser saying that economic hard times had prompted “bitter” people in small towns to “cling to guns or religion.” Obama complains that the comments were taken out of context, but they hurt his campaign in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. And Obama had to denounce sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the longtime pastor of Obama’s church in Chicago. The controversy led Obama to deliver a speech on race relations in March.

General Election
Highs
–Harnessing the power of the Internet like no candidate in history, Barack Obama shatters all previous fundraising records. He turns down public funding and the spending restrictions that came with it, raising nearly $750 million during the campaign. Republican opponent John McCain struggles to keep pace, and Obama vastly outspends McCain on television ads in key swing states in the final month before the election.
–Obama’s strong showing in three televised debates against McCain helps quell concerns about Obama’s readiness to be president in a time of war. His calm, relatively gaffe-free performances help solidify his lead over McCain in the final month. On Nov. 4, Obama becomes the first African-American president, winning 53 percent of the popular vote, and defeating McCain 365 to 173 in the Electoral College.
Lows
–McCain rides a bounce from his selection of Sarah Palin and the Republican National Convention to a lead in the polls in early September. Democrats begin to fret about Obama’s campaign strategy, but his advisers tell supporters not to worry. Positive response to Obama’s proposals to fix the worsening economy – and several missteps by McCain on the issue – in mid-September allow him to retake the lead.
–The campaign takes on an angry and racist tone in the final weeks. Angry individuals at a McCain campaign event call Obama a “terrorist” and an “Arab” and the Secret Service investigates when someone calls out “kill him.” Federal agents break up a plot by white supremacists in Tennessee to assassinate Obama.

Transition
Highs
–Unlike the last Democratic president-elect, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama moves quickly to select his Cabinet and senior White House staff after the election. Among his picks: Eric Holder, who would be the first African-American Attorney General; one-time rival Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State; and a Republican, Illinois Rep. Ray LaHood to head the Transportation Department.
–Obama’s popularity rises in the weeks after the election. At year’s end, 69 percent of Americans tell pollsters they are confident Obama will be a good president, according to Gallup. The high marks contrast with the record-low standing of President George W. Bush, who earned the approval of less than a third of Americans.

Lows
–Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is accused by federal authorities of attempting to profit from the appointment of Obama’s replacement in the Senate. Obama’s transition team produces a report describing contacts with Blagojevich’s office regarding the controversy that absolved the president-elect and his staff of wrongdoing.
–The economic freefall continues, ensuring that Obama will enter office in one of the most challenging times in recent memory. Consumer confidence crashes, unemployment soars, and the domestic auto industry nears collapse as Obama’s economic advisers work with congressional Democrats to prepare a stimulus package.
–Obama’s choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, is forced to withdraw after a grand jury investigation. And his choice of Leon Panetta for CIA director draws skepticism from some Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Inauguration
Highs
–Enthusiasm for President-elect Barack Obama’s swearing-in ceremony is expected to draw a record crowd to Washington, with officials bracing for up to 3 million visitors. Overwhelming demand for the 240,000 tickets prompted organizers to open up the entire National Mall for overflow crowds to watch the ceremony on giant video screens. To spread the festivities beyond Washington, Obama will hold events in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Del., and Baltimore on his way to the inauguration.
–Obama’s inauguration Jan. 20 comes a day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a fitting salute for civil rights veterans who see the election of the first African-American president as part of King’s legacy. On the MLK holiday, Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will participate in “activities dedicated to serving others in communities across the Washington, D.C. area.”

Lows
–Record crowds are expected to create a host of challenges for organizers. Transportation officials worry that the huge number of visitors will overload the Washington-area public transportation system and highway network. Hotel rooms in the area are expensive and nearly impossible to find, forcing some visitors to stay as far away as Pennsylvania. And forecasters expect bitter cold temperatures that could create problems for the very young and elderly spending hours outdoors.
–Obama’s inaugural plans largely escaped controversy. But he faced a backlash from some gay advocates for choosing the popular evangelical pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration.