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July 22, 2004 at 16:57:24 PDT Ex-Charlotte Mayor Drops GOP Governor Bid By GARY D. ROBERTSON ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot said Thursday he will not seek a runoff for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, leaving former state Sen. Patrick Ballantine as the nominee to challenge Gov. Mike Easley in November. "I have made a spiritual decision in this case," Vinroot said. "My choice today is not to call for a runoff. I'm going to respect the decision of the voters." Ballantine finished slightly ahead of Vinroot in Tuesday's six-person primary, with each getting about...

RALEIGH,N.C. -- Richard Vinroot announced Thursday afternoon that he will not call for a runoff in the GOP Gubernatorial election, thus handing the Republican nomination to primary winner Patrick Ballantine.

RALEIGH – North Carolina now has a rollicking, revealing, and interesting Republican nomination fight for governor. Of course, the primary is on Tuesday, so the arrival of this compelling campaign might be considered a bit late. On the other hand, here we are in the middle of summer holding what is likely to be a low-turnout primary, so who’s to say anyone would have been paying attention until now? Here’s the latest:

News Home / News   Topics: NC | Nation & World | Crime & Safety | Health & Science | Education | Growth | Q | CorrectionsColumnists: Rogers | Saunders | Sheehan | Sill   Published: Jun 19, 2004Modified: Jun 19, 2004 5:42 AM Vinroot leads among GOP voters, poll findsNumbers indicate Easley still big challenge Vinroot By LYNN BONNER, Staff Writer Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot leads the half-dozen Republicans running for governor, but with the primary a month away he is short of what he needs for an outright victory, a new statewide poll shows. Representatives for...

Raleigh, NC. Today, results were released showing Patrick Ballantine easily winning a recent GOPUSA on-line poll of the 2004 race for Governor. Ballantine received 49.4% of votes in the poll. The results can be viewed seen here. "I'm very proud of the support my campaign has received this early in the race. This shows that the hard work we re putting in by traveling the state and meeting with voters is paying off, and I hope that we'll see this same result in the GOP Primary next May," Ballantine said. In an interesting twist, GOPUSA North Carolina Editor Robynn Rutledge...

<p>RALEIGH, N.C. -- Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot announced Thursday in Raleigh he plans to run for the Republican nomination for governor.</p> <p>Vinroot said he will create more jobs in North Carolina by cutting taxes.</p> <p>He also wants to improve public schools with smaller classes and increasing the pay for teachers.</p>

Fellow Republicans: Thank you for your posts regarding my campaign. I will try to check the forum as often as possible and reply when I can. As you can imagine, I have a very busy schedule with the campaign. I decided to run for Governor because something must be done to address our state's fiscal crisis. If we continue to borrow to spend more than we can afford, we will end up like California. I’m told their deficit is so big that if they fired every state employee (Teachers, Highway Patrol, Prison Guards, etc…) they would still have a deficit!...

Vinroot campaign gets off to a sluggish start Fund raising lags, but poll looks promising MARK JOHNSON Raleigh Bureau RALEIGH - Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot heads into his third campaign for governor with at least a couple of advantages over his competitors for the Republican nomination, but a lot less money. Vinroot raised $16,300 during the first six months of the year and had $24,000 on hand, the least amount of money among the four Republican candidates whose campaign finance reports were filed last week. N.C. Senate Republican leader Patrick Ballantine of Wilmington raised more than 30 times that...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The four Republican candidates for governor in 2004 have begun jockeying for position within their party. On Saturday, state Senate Minority Leader Patrick Ballantine officially announced his candidacy at the state Republican Convention. He joined former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot, Davie County commissioner Dan Barrett and Southern Pines businessman George Little. Each used everything from public opinion polls to video images of exploding fireballs in an effort to show he is the right candidate to oust Democrat Mike Easley. The quartet repeatedly portrayed Easley as "a do-nothing governor" who has presided over a tanking economy, raised taxes,...

Vinroot makes it official: He's running for governor It's 3rd time for former Charlotte mayor JIM MORRILL Staff Writer Former Republican gubernatorial nominee Richard Vinroot made it official Wednesday. He's running again.His announcement came the same day Raleigh attorney Jim Cain took himself out of consideration for the GOP race.Vinroot, a former Charlotte mayor, is his party's fourth gubernatorial candidate. Davie County commissioner Dan Barrett and Southern Pines businessman George Little already have announced. State Senate Minority Leader Patrick Ballantine, who holds a fund-raiser tonight at Myers Park Country Club, plans to announce his candidacy in Charlotte Saturday at the...

Two months before he's expected to file for re-election, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory said he's keeping his options open -- for a 2004 governor's race. If elected to an unprecedented fifth term in November, McCrory would have less than four months to file for a statewide race. But in an interview Tuesday, he declined to rule it out. "I'm going to keep my options open for 2004 right now," he said. "Right now all my concentration is on running for mayor." Filing for this fall's city elections opens July 7. Though widely expected to run, McCrory said only that he's...

RALEIGH -- The "Edwards for President" signs and bumper stickers were a dead giveaway. Not only did Sen. John Edwards bypass the biggest hometown political gathering of the year to campaign Saturday in the early primary state of New Hampshire. But his aides distributed literature touting his presidential efforts, not his re-election campaign. In some ways, the 400 North Carolina Democrats who gathered for the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day fund-raising dinner seemed to begin moving beyond Edwards. The buzz in the hallways and ballrooms of the North Raleigh Hilton was more focused on Democratic Gov. Mike Easley's re-election chances and which...