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Will former NC Speaker of the House Dan Blue once again mount a vigorous campaign against Democratic rival Erskine Bowles for the U.S. Senate? After months of speculation, the answer will come the week of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Blue told The Carolinian exclusively Tuesday night. ''I think that's an appropriate time to announce my decision,'' Blue said, noting the significance of the state and federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. ''I am closer to a [final] decision.'' What that ''final decision'' is Blue won’t publicly reveal now, but there's no question the Bowles camp is...

<p>RALEIGH, N.C. — Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles (search) announced Thursday that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards (search).</p> <p>Bowles, a Democrat, said if elected he would focus on trying to right the economy.</p>

Bowles to run for U.S. Senate To enter race to fill Edwards' seat Charlotte investment banker Erskine Bowles plans to announce his entry into the U.S. Senate race Thursday, The Observer has learned. Bowles, a former White House Chief of Staff, is poised to join the race for the seat now held by fellow Democrat John Edwards. Edwards said this month he would not seek re-election and concentrate instead on his run for the presidency. Bowles ran in 2002 but lost to Republican Elizabeth Dole. It's unclear whether he'll have a primary challenge. Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem...

Tuesday, September 9, 2003 7:08AM EDT Blue-Bowles contest looms Edwards' Senate seat up for grabs By ROB CHRISTENSEN, Staff Writer With Sen. John Edwards not seeking re-election, North Carolina's Senate Democratic primary next year could, in the immortal words of Yankee great Yogi Berra, be deja vu all over again. Two big-name Democrats, who battled for 11 months during last year's Senate race -- former state House Speaker Dan Blue of Raleigh and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles of Charlotte -- are considering a rematch No other major Democratic names have surfaced as potential candidates for the...

Burr bid receives a boost As Democrats wait to see whether U.S. Sen. John Edwards will seek his Senate seat in addition to his run for the White House, Republican Richard Burr's Senate campaign is gaining steam. In fact, two fund-raisers who helped Democrat Erskine Bowles in last year's Senate race have now agreed to aid Burr's campaign. On Monday, James Hance, Bank of America's chief financial officer, co-hosted a fund-raiser for Burr's campaign. And this weekend, R.V. Owens, a restaurant owner on the Outer Banks, will host one as well. While the two influential figures are joining forces with...

Filed at 3:56 p.m. ET Clinton administration veterans grabbed New Mexico's governorship and an Illinois House seat, but four others went down to defeat, closing out an election year that once saw about a dozen Clinton alumni bidding for elective office. In New Mexico, former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson overwhelmingly defeated Republican John Sanchez and will become the state's first Hispanic governor in two decades. In Illinois, former Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel won the 5th District seat in Chicago vacated by Rod Blagojevich, who was elected governor. There, though, the Clinton aides' victories on Tuesday came to a halt. Perhaps...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — State polls showing that more than half a dozen Senate seats were still within either party's grasp prompted Republicans and Democrats today to intensify their feverish campaigns for control of the chamber. Seeking to influence the truly undecided voters — and to make sure those who have made up their minds go to the polls — both parties marshaled volunteers to ring doorbells and hand out leaflets. They also paraded big-name politicians and star-quality supporters before the cameras and drowned out commercials for consumer goods with advertisements extolling their candidates and assailing their opponents. Politicians and...

In a published manifesto last month, former Clinton chief of staff and current U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles firmly declared, "Companies must go beyond the law to adapt best governance practices without waiting to be told to do so." If only he had lived up to that standard when he was in the private sector.In a year when "corporate accountability" has taken on unusual importance, Bowles has tried to convince North Carolina voters that not only could he crack down on the WorldComs and Enrons of the world, but that Bowles is a paragon of corporate virtue. His track...

Erskine Bowles, State Democrat Party Forced to Pull "Misleading" Ad; "Admitted Liar" Scott Falmlen Up to Old Tricks Deceiving Seniors (Raleigh) - Erskine Bowles and the North Carolina Democrat Party launched the first negative attack ad of the U.S. Senate general election on Tuesday but were forced to pull the ad later in the day after the Charlotte Observer complained that it was "misleading." "Erskine Bowles is lying about Elizabeth Dole and, given the fact that Scott Falmlen was involved, it's not surprising," said Bill Cobey, Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. "Scott Falmlen has lied to seniors in...

Bowles trailing in Senate race by 14 points, poll director says Republican Elizabeth Dole holds a 14 percentage-point lead over Democrat Erskine Bowles in the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jesse Helms, according to a statewide poll released yesterday. Dole had the support of 49 percent of likely voters, and Bowles was supported by 35 percent, Libertarian Sean Haugh by 1 percent, and 15 percent were undecided, according to the poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. With just 12 percent of voters holding negative views of her, Dole is so popular that it...

NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY 1506 Hillsborough St. • Raleigh, North Carolina 27605 Tele. (919) 828-6423 • Fax. (919) 899-3815 •www.NCGOP.orgFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 13th, 2002 Erskine Bowles' New Trade Ad At Odds with His Clinton Record, Family Business; Uses Family Textile Money to Flip-Flop on Trade with China, Fast Track, and NAFTA (Raleigh) - Adding insult to injury for the thousands of textile workers his family business put out of work, Erskine Bowles has launched a misleading new television ad in which he delivers a complete flip-flop of his support under the Clinton Administration for "fast track" trade authority,...

Erskine Bowles likes to say that he is not a politician--which might seem strange considering that he's running to replace Jesse Helms as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. But watching Bowles campaign at a nursing home outside of Greensboro one recent summer morning, it was easy to understand his oft-repeated disclaimer. Several dozen seniors were gathered in the facility's dreary dining room, more than a couple of them nodding off despite the breakfast cleanup loudly taking place in the adjoining kitchen. It was not an auspicious setting for a campaign stop, and as the event's starting time drew near...

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is based on a piece in the September 16, 2002, issue of National Review. In what state attorney general Richard Blumenthal described as a "virtually unprecedented" move, the state of Connecticut sued investment firm Forstmann Little for losing more than $100 million in pension funds of state workers. Suing over disappeared dough is nothing new, but this lawsuit has two highly unusual aspects.First, the suit put the fear of God into general partners (GPs) at investments shops everywhere because seven Forstmann Little GPs were separately named as individual defendants — putting them personally on the hook...

NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY 1506 Hillsborough St. • Raleigh, North Carolina 27605 Tele. (919) 828-6423 • Fax. (919) 899-3815 • www.NCGOP.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 19th, 2002 NCGOP Chairman Wishes Bill Clinton "Happy Birthday" and Expresses Concern That Clinton's Old Buddy Erskine Bowles Seems to Have Lost Touch With Bill and Hillary Two round-trip airline tickets await Bill and Hillary so that they may catch up with Erskine and Crandall Bowles (Raleigh) - Today Bill Clinton turns 56 and yet his old buddy Erskine Bowles seems to have forgotten and lost touch with his old boss. The North Carolina Republican...

July 11, 2002 N.C. Sen. Hopeful Defends Biz Ties ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH, N.C.- Ever since he entered the race for Senate last year, Democrat Erskine Bowles has boldly promoted his business experience. Now his opponents, seeing political advantage in the scandals rocking corporate America, are trying to turn his Wall Street past against him. Democrats and Republicans alike are taking shots at Bowles for his membership on the board of directors at pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., which has come under scrutiny for accounting practices that inflated revenue. Bowles' opponents also are trying to tie him to the failed investments...

Raleigh) – In today’s Charlotte Observer, Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles answers a series of questions sent in by readers, and in the process makes a statement so unbelievable one would think it came from Bowles’ former boss Bill Clinton. Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles doesn’t want voters to know about his personal involvement in making risky investment decisions after being hired to “operate” the investment firm Forstmann Little – which led to the loss of $1.5 billion “almost overnight” for investors and even millions of a state’s pension fund which is now suing the firm. (New York...

Bowles, Dole draw riches from afar By ROB CHRISTENSEN AND DAVID RAYNOR, Staff Writers Republican Elizabeth Dole has raised more money in just one state, Texas, than her six GOP primary opponents have raised combined. And the money Democrat Erskine Bowles has scooped up from just one source -- Wall Street -- makes him the leading fund-raiser among the nine Democratic candidates. The connections that Dole and Bowles each have to the powerful and wealthy -- Texas oil barons, Wall Street financiers, lobbyists of Washington's K Street, and the monied set of Palm Beach -- have helped them to dominate...

Albright endorses Bowles'Erskine is the feminist in this campaign,' says ex-Cabinet official By IRWIN SPEIZER, Staff WriterGREENSBORO - Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright campaigned for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles on Thursday, hoping her endorsement would give him a boost with female voters. Albright told a cheering rally in Greensboro that Bowles stands out from the crowded field of primary contenders for his commitment to women's issues. "I definitely can vouch for the fact that Erskine is the feminist in this campaign," said Albright at a evening rally at the Koury Convention Center sponsored by the Women for...

<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Erskine Bowles served as White House chief of staff under former President Bill Clinton. But the Democratic front-runner in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race makes no mention of his former boss in campaign ads.</p> <p>"I’m running on my own experience in this campaign," Bowles said. "I don’t think the people of North Carolina are going to vote for someone based on who their connections are with — although I have great connections in Washington."</p>