This Tuesday Senator Richard Burr and the business front group "Americans for Prosperity" are kicking off a campaign against workers' rights.  They are hosting a rally at 10:30 on the Bicentennial Mall across from the North Carolina Legislature.  

The supposed purpose of this effort is to protect the so-called "secret ballot" in union elections.  In reality this is an effort to continue the roadblocks that have been placed in front of workers who wish to unionize by lying about the  Employee Free Choice Act and keeping the ban on collective bargaining.

Because we know that workers deserve a voice, and have earned an equal paying field, the Young Democrats of North Carolina are organizing a  counter-rally to stand up for workers.

Public Policy Polling is out with another poll.  This one is huge, with a lot of results for us to talk about.

But, before I dive into details, check out this quick insert from the Indy Weekly of the Triangle:
 

Our tracking signals indicate that Dole rarely travels to North Carolina, whereas Miller seems to be in perpetual campaign motion there. And Republicans like Dole are out of favor for sticking so close to President Bush, are they not? We thus conclude that Miller would beat Dole like a tympanic skin--a drum, I believe you call it.

Ok, now that I have your attention, to the poll.  This poll (link at bottom) consisted of 800 likely voters pulled from the voter rolls.

First, lets hit on the big and simple numbers.
Bush's approval in North Carolina is 37%, with 59% Disapproval.

This number has been fairly consistent for a while.  If anything this number is worse than it has been in the past.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Miller has stepped up his exploratory effort in recent days as he nears a self-imposed deadline of July 1 to decide whether to take on Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.

Last week, Miller and his wife, Esther Hall, met for more than an hour with New York Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

All of this is from the News and Observer

This was added to in this morning's paper...

In their new ratings of the top 5 most vulnerable Republican Incumbents, CQ Politics has put Dole at #5.  This is a huge surprise, not because I dont think she is this vulnerable, but rather it is a suprise because the national media seems oblivious to polls done here.

The full article is here.

The article is a pretty simple run down of the situation on the ground, but it includes this praise for my candidate of choice, Brad Miller.

The area Miller now represents could make him a particularly potent statewide candidate. The 13th District -- which Miller helped draw as a member of the state legislature when North Carolina gained a House seat after the 2000 census -- splits fairly evenly between the parties, with perhaps a slight Democratic lean. It is anchored by urban areas in Greensboro and Raleigh, which are connected by several rural counties along the Virginia border.

My thoughts on Brad's district, and why it makes him strong state wide is available here.

This post just had more and more to report on.  Sorry for the multiple topics.

As many of you know we have been pushing for a top tier challenger to Elizabeth Dole for US Senate.  Well, it has been a busy week.

Wednesday there was a story on the News & Observer's blog about our website.

Then yesterday we had two big boosts.  The first came, oddly, in the form of a poll about a different potential challenger to Dole.  That poll showed a surprising result, with a generic Democrat leading a generic Republican in the Presidential race in North Carolina 47 to 42.

The second came when I emailed this guy you might have heard of that I worked for for a few weeks in the fall last year.

On national maps North Carolina is often colored red.  We havent voted for a Democrat for the White House since Carter in 1976.  But that might be changing.

In a new poll by Public Policy Polling, when asked who they would vote for in the 2008 Presidential election, 42 percent of voters said a Republican.  But, in a huge surprise, 47 percent of voters said a Democrat.

PPP has been doing a lot of tracking polls lately, and I have a large amount of respect for them and their sister company, On Point Polling.  This poll was done with 606 voters.  The way PPP does their sampling, these were people who will be voting in 2008.

Bumped -- Jonathan... It's good to see the netroots continuing to take such an active role in trying to woo and recruit strong candidates for Senate on down.

In January we started a movement to convince Brad Miller to run against Elizabeth Dole for US Senate.

Since then the movement has grown larger and larger.  We have raised almost 2000 dollars for Rep. Miller, an amount that includes over 50 individual donations.

More importantly, Brad's name has been thrown around the pundit circles, and he has let the newspapers know that he is considering a run.

Elizabeth Dole was seen in 2002 as that kindly southern belle that you could trust no matter what.

She used this image to stroll to the Republican nomination to replace Jesse Helms, and beat Erskine Bowles pretty handily.

However, there was a pretty big problem with this image.  It just isnt true.  In fact, I would say that if asked to give a definition of 'trust.' Elizabeth Dole would be hard pressed to say anything other than,

It's an important issue. There are many other important issues. But I do feel that's for another day