North Carolina Governor Easley leads Ballantine 51% to 35%

[Tarheelhombre]

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/9393974.htm?ERIGHTS=-7242297472346755363charlotte::[e-mail]&KRD_RM=8ooowrtxwwxtqoorqxqooooooo|Mark|Y

RALEIGH, N.C. - Gov. Mike Easley holds a commanding lead over Republican challenger Patrick Ballantine, according to a statewide poll of likely voters.

If the election were held today, 51 percent of likely voters surveyed this week would vote for Easley, while 35 percent would choose Ballantine, the poll found.

Fourteen percent of those surveyed were undecided, according to the poll, conducted by the Maryland-based polling firm Research 2000 for The News & Observer of Raleigh, WRAL-TV in Raleigh and WUNC radio in Chapel Hill.

The statewide poll is one of the first on the governor's race since second-place GOP primary finisher Richard Vinroot withdrew, handing Ballantine the nomination.

The telephone poll, which surveyed 600 likely voters statewide Sunday through Wednesday, has a margin of sampling error of no more than plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The poll shows that 55 percent of likely voters rate Easley's performance as excellent or good. It also gives the governor 84 percent name recognition, compared to Ballantine's 57 percent.

[oasis]

1. Rethuglicans are going the way of the dinosaur.

[dolstein]

2. Believe me, the race will tighten as election day approaches

While Easley will probably win, I doubt it will be in a landslide. I just wonder whether Easley is going to campaign around the state with John Edwards.

[DaveinMD]

3. that race will tighten

I bet Easley wins with about 53 percent. He's just above 50, so that's decent. The rest of his lead is a function of name id and the lack of name id by his opponent.

[wildeyed]

4. So far Easley has been

keeping his distance from Edwards. NC is a conservative place, I guess maybe he feels that it is better for him to maintain some distance from the national ticket.

[King of New Orleans]

5. Vinroot did Easley a favor

by dropping out of the runoff. Ballantine lost alot of free media that he would have gotten by running and winning the runoff (which Ballantine probably would have, since Vinroot had already lost to Easley once)

[Lex]

6. Ballantine reminds me of Jeb Bush.

Yuck.

[WI_DEM]

7. North Carolina could be Deep Blue in November

It is conceivable that Easley and Bowles will win convincingly and that their coattails could bring Kerry/Edwards over the victory line and 15 crucial electoral votes which would almost gurantee sending George W. Bush back to Crawford.