About
Trail Mix, the campaign blog of the Winston-Salem Journal, is a conversation about North Carolina's elections in 2008. Come here for news and analysis on the U.S. Senate race, the governor's race and all the other statewide races. We'll also follow John Edwards as he makes his second run for the White House.
Trail Mix is written by James Romoser, the Journal's Raleigh reporter. Got a tip? E-mail me at .
Barack Obama won the Forsyth County Democratic straw poll today, beating Hillary Clinton by a vote of 96 to 31, the Journal‘s Sherry Youngquist reports.
In the straw poll in the governor’s race, Beverly Perdue beat Richard Moore, 79 to 47.
The informal straw polls were taken at the Forsyth County Democratic Party’s annual county convention. Jerry Meek, the state Democratic chairman, cautions that voters should not read too much into straw polls, saying that they are done mainly as a party-building activity.
Congressman Mel Watt, who endorsed Obama this week, attended the county convention and said that the most important thing is for Democrats to be united in November.
Update Sunday 4:45 p.m.: In addition to the presidential and gubernatorial straw polls, the Democrats also took votes in two other races. Kay Hagan won the straw poll for U.S. Senate, and Dan Besse won the poll for lieutenant governor. Full results here.
From today’s print edition: Full coverage of Hillary Clinton’s public chat with Maya Angelou, as well as the new TV ads that Clinton filmed while she was in Winston-Salem
Hillary Clinton turned a Washington Park bungalow into the backdrop for the filming of a series of campaign ads this afternoon, the Journal‘s Michelle Johnson reports.
The ads are aimed specifically at North Carolina voters ahead of the May 6 primary.
The commercial campaign will feature about 12 North Carolinians who had submitted questions to Clinton’s Web site, www.ncaskeme.com, to be part of the ads, some of which could be run in the state as soon as next week.
The participants were chosen “for a variety of reasons,” said Carly Lindauer, the campaign’s communications director for North Carolina, but their questions revolve around issues that have come up frequently with North Carolina voters, such as health care, gas prices, the economy and veteran’s issues.
She said she wasn’t sure how many ads would be produced from the taping session or exactly what they would look like. Clinton taped the ads this afternoon before appearing at Wake Forest University with Maya Angelou.
The owners of the house, Debra Taylor and Amy Wingrave, are ardent supporters of Clinton’s presidential bid.
They were volunteering at the local Clinton headquarters Tuesday night when a call came in: Does anyone have a house we can use for a campaign ad while Hillary Clinton is in town? Yes, they said. Does it have a porch? Yes. (A recently renovated porch, in fact, something Taylor and Wingrave are very proud of.) Better still perhaps that Washington Park is a funky, friendly mix of people who live in big houses and small houses, old houses and new houses, owner-occupied houses and rentals.
Lindauer said that the house and the neighborhood were chosen because they convey a sense of place.
“When you’re in any state, it’s nice to look like you’re in that state,” she said.
Taylor said she supports Clinton in part because “she has an opinion and can back it up,” and because she was the first presidential candidate to come out with a plan to rebuild New Orleans. Both Taylor and Wingrave grew up in New Orleans.
They were asked to keep Clinton’s visit to the neighborhood a secret, but it’s hard not to notice Secret Service agents, a phalanx of shiny SUVs and a pack of police motorcycles on a street that’s just one block long and in a neighborhood where news travels fast on foot.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Clinton came out of the house and settled into her seat on a picnic table in the back yard. By then, a group of neighbors had gathered across the street to watch.
A woman drove by in a Honda adorned with Jim Neal and Barack Obama stickers, rolled down the window and called out “All the Democrats are here to party!”
Others wandered down the street with their dogs and children, cell phones and digital cameras in hand. On a warm Carolina spring day, presidential politics was a beautiful side show in beautiful Washington Park.
Pictured above: Clinton shakes hands with some of the people chosen to ask her questions for the ads.
Hillary Clinton appeared with the poet Maya Angelou at Wake Forest University this evening for a meandering conversation about diversity, equality and a little policy, too.
“I know that Senator Clinton is a long-distance runner,” Angelou said. “And however the odds may go and the polls may show – from today, to tonight, to tomorrow morning – I know she’s in it for the long run. I am honored to say I am with her for the long run.”
Clinton called Angelou “a grace note in our lives” and fondly recalled reading her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
In front of about 2,000 people at Wait Chapel, the two spoke about overcoming bigotry of all kinds and bringing the country together in the years ahead.
“We are so much more alike than we are different,” Clinton said. “We have allowed those relatively minor differences among us to defy and divide us, and one of the challenges of the 21st century is to affirm our common humanity.”
Angelou and Clinton also touched on Clinton’s proposals to make college more affordable and to discourage companies from moving jobs overseas. And Clinton spoke of her work during her husband’s administration trying to unite Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland
After her conversation with Angelou, Clinton took three questions from the audience. The crowd was audibly stunned by the first question.
“I love you, Hillary. I always have, I always will,” said a woman in the first row after, drawing approving cheers. But then she brought up the most taboo of all taboos at Clinton campaign events.
“I felt so sorry for you when Bill had his affair,” the woman said. “I think the best way to overcome it is to become president.” She then quickly asked a question about who Clinton would choose as her vice-presidential running mate.
As the audience murmured in shock, Clinton said shortly that it is too early to speculate about a running mate. She did not address the subject of Monica Lewinsky.
From today’s print edition: In Winston-Salem, students supporting Barack Obama opened the early-voting period by marching to the county elections office, while in Lexington, Terry McAuliffe, the national campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton, helped organize Clinton’s early-voting strategy. That story here.
And at a Raleigh rally, Obama reacted to the Tuesday night debate in Philadelphia and suggested that another debate in North Carolina may not happen. That story here.
Yes — at least for a moment yesterday during Obama’s rally at the state fairgrounds.
Obama was discussing how he reacts to criticisms from Hillary Clinton that he considers meaningless distractions. “You just gotta kind of let it --” Obama said, then brushed his shoulder, as if to remove some dirt or lint. “That’s what you gotta do.”
It’s a gesture that was made iconic by the hip-hop mega-star Jay-Z — an artist that Obama has previously acknowledged having on his iPod.
Above, watch as Obama does the impression with near-perfect delivery. “It’s one of those things that makes Obama’s connection to younger voters so culturally solid,” writes Politico’s Ben Smith.
RALEIGH — Barack Obama criticized what he called “slash and burn” politics in a speech today in Raleigh, saying that both Hillary Clinton and Republicans want to distract voters away from real issues.
He also declined to commit to a debate against Clinton in North Carolina before the state’s May 6 primary.
“We’re trying to figure out what our schedule looks like, but I’ll be honest with you, we’ve now had 21” debates, Obama said in response to an audience member’s question. He added, “We’re just trying to figure out what’s the best way for me to reach as many constituents as possible in North Carolina.”
Last night, Obama and Clinton debated in Philadelphia, and Obama was frequently put on the defensive over issues like his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his recent remarks about the bitterness of small-town Americans, and his connection to a member of a radical group that carried out bombings in the 1960s.
Obama called last night’s debate “the rollout of the Republican campaign in November.” “It happened just a little bit early,” he said.
“I understand that, because that’s the textbook Washington game,” Obama said. “That’s how our politics has been taught to be played. That’s the lesson that she learned when the Republicans were doing the same thing to her back in the 1990s.”
He said he is running for president to change the nature of politics in Washington.
Obama spoke this afternoon in front of about 2,000 people at the Kerr Scott building at the North Carolina state fairgrounds. He is scheduled to hold a rally in Greenville later today.
Starting today, North Carolinians can cast their ballots in the Democratic or Republican primary at early-voting sites across the state.
Thanks to a new state law, people who are not registered to vote can also register at early-voting sites — and then immediately cast a ballot.
Early voting is available from today, April 17, until May 3. The primary is on May 6.
More information on early voting in Forsyth County is available here, and a full list of Forsyth’s early-voting sites, and the dates they are open, is available here (PDF). Voters in other counties should check with their local board of elections.
Both the Obama and Clinton campaigns are launching intense efforts to take advantage of the early-voting period, especially the new provision that allows people to register during early voting. Previously, North Carolina law required people to register at least three weeks before an election.
In North Carolina, Democrats and Republicans must vote in their own party’s primary, but unaffiliated voters can choose which primary they want to vote in. Seventeen-year-olds may also vote in the primary if they will turn 18 by Nov. 4, the date of the 2008 general election.
From today’s print edition: More on the endorsements of Barack Obama by Congressmen Mel Watt and David Price, plus a preview of the campaigns’ early-voting strategies.
Also, the two Democrats vying for the chance to run against Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx debated at Wake Forest University last night. As the Journal‘s Bertrand Gutierrez reports, Roy Carter and Diane Hamby agreed on most issues and spent much of the debate criticizing Foxx. Carter tried to portray himself as the presumptive nominee for the 5th Congressional District seat, while Hamby highlighted her experience in county government.
U.S. Congressmen Mel Watt and David Price have endorsed Barack Obama.
“Barack Obama is the candidate of positive change, transformational change, that will revitalize America at home and in the world. Barack Obama will work for every American every day,” Watt said on a conference call with reporters this afternoon. Watt represents North Carolina’s 12th congressional district, which includes part of Winston-Salem.
Price said that he believes Obama can win North Carolina in the general election. “He’s committed to competing and winning in our state of North Carolina,” said Price, who represents North Carolina’s 4th congressional district. “I believe we can turn North Carolina blue in November.”
The announcement is a boon for Obama. Other than John Edwards and Mike Easley, Watt and Price were probably the most influential Democratic superdelegates in North Carolina whose endorsements had been up for grabs between Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Watt and Price, like other Democratic congressmen from North Carolina, had previously endorsed Edwards when he was still in the race.
Among North Carolina’s 21 Democratic superdelegates, six have now endorsed Obama and one has endorsed Clinton.
