The loss was a blow to the national Democratic establishment, which had recruited Cunningham, viewing the more centrist, young Iraq War veteran as a stronger potential opponent for Burr.
Marshall carried the counties in green, Cunningham's are blue; behold the awesome power of the Triad region over state politics!
Charlotte anchors the mountains (via Shelby and Hickory) and Raleigh the entire eastern half the state. I learned that at the GOP convention last year. If you have power in Raleigh you have power in Charlotte because of all the big money connections.
I'm surprised Cal didn't have a better grassroots team, but I guess that is a commentary on his fervor as a candidate.
Posted by: Account Deleted | Jun 23, 2010 at 09:00 AM
Ooo-rah:
http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2010/06/on-elaine-marshall-for-nc-senate-more.html
Posted by: Dr. Mary Johnson | Jun 23, 2010 at 09:18 AM
I think that Cal Cunningham had a better chance at winning in November with his military experience and political outsider status, but after being in politics for 20 years, Elaine Marshall's political machine within the NC Democratic Party could not be defeated.
Without endorsing either candidate, I would be surprised however if Marshall won over Burr in November.
Posted by: Voter | Jun 23, 2010 at 11:19 AM
Just an interesting fact:
Richard Burr has been in DC longer than Elaine Marshall has been Secretary of State.
Posted by: designation | Jun 23, 2010 at 12:25 PM
My interest in this is beating Burr, and, rankly, I don't know if Marshall has a better chance of doing that than Cunningham, or vice versa.
But I do know that Democratic World Headquarters needs to stop thinking the party needs to nominate "centrist" candidates to win. With the opposition moving further and further to the right, a Democatic candidate needs to move so far to his or her right in order to be considered centrist that support from actual live Democrats diminishes. Democrats cannot win unless registered Democrats are enthusiastic about their candidates and go to the polls. Running "centrists", i.e., conservative Democrats, is a recipe for losing. Dmocratic voters just see that as being too wimpy to stand up for who we really are.
Posted by: justcorbly | Jun 23, 2010 at 03:08 PM
Marshall pulled in considerably more votes than Burr in 2004 -- a GOP year when George W. Bush won NC.
I really have to wonder about the skill, or perhaps the motives, of the DSCC when they choose to push for Cunningham over Marshall.
She clearly is the more proven candidate -- with recent polling and an electoral track record to back it up.
I've been left thinking that the DC establishment did not want Marshall, no matter that she had better data backing her up.
All of which makes me want to see her win even more.
Posted by: designation | Jun 23, 2010 at 03:24 PM