Yeah, Burr has pretty much been annointed and is just waiting a while for an initial announcement. I wonder if he'll try to announce in such a way as to show up John Edwards -- Burr announces he'll run against Edwards, then Edwards announces two days later that he's running for president, and it looks like he's running away. Gore's no-go probably means that Edwards will be in the race through Feb '03 and will have to pick one race or the other to let the NC D's have an alternate candidate ready.
While the D's do have all the statewide offices except Commissioner of Labor (& of course Dole), they just lost the house and lost 7 seats in the senate, and only held onto that by less than 4,000 votes.
Last night on NC Spin, former Democrat speaker Dan Blue, who lost the primary to Bowles, 'didn't rule out', as they say, a run for Edwards seat if goes for the presidency. He's a good candidate, a moderate with liberal appeal. The NC Spin folks talked about the guv and senate races but didn't mention Walter Jones -- I emailed the show and asked them why.
Any mention of former Gov. Jim Hunt for the Senate seat? He reminds me of Breaux and Miller -- a popular conservative with high name recognition and broad appeal. Blue would be a decent candidate, but Burr is more experienced and would be the favorite.
Who did the network mention as possible GOV candidates?