Is Elizabeth Hanford Dole a qualified registered voter with a permanent residence in North Carolina or is Elizabeth Dole's permanent primary residence at the Watergate in our nation's capital?

The Watergate is much more than the name of a famous hotel where an even more famous burglary took place in the early 70's.

"Watergate is a cooperative apartment complex located in North West Washington, D.C.. The complex includes three apartment buildings (East, West & South), two office buildings, a hotel, and a shopping mall.
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The Watergate has been described as a "city within a city."   Most apartments are extravagant and have a price tag to match with many two-bedroom units going for well over $2 million.  Winston and Winston Real Estate have several listings at 700 New Hampshire Avenue NW offering virtual tours.   There are even a few listed that are down the hall from some of the Watergate's most famous residents, Bob and Elizabeth Hanford Dole.

The most recent poll is out for North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District race and it shows Larry Kissell leading Robin Hayes in a pure unadulterated head-to-head match up.  The poll, conducted by Anzalone Liszt, shows Kissell at 45% and Hayes at 43%.

First let me say right from the start that I would love to have seen Larry Kissell bring in $500,000 this quarter.  He brought in a little over $80,000 to put toward 2008 and he brought in almost $30,000 to pay off debt from last cycle's efforts.  Kissell raised over $110,000 and he did not lose ground, he did not go into debt, he's well ahead of where he was this quarter last cycle and his poll numbers are kicking ass.  

Third quarter 2005 Larry Kissell hadn't raised enough to report to the FEC.  If you add the money he's raised toward 2008 and the money raised on the old account for debt reduction, Larry Kissell has raised $309,018.27 which puts him about $309,018.27 ahead of where he was this time last cycle.  As a matter of fact, it wasn't until the October quarterly reported in 2006 that Larry had raised over $300,000 and it was still less than where he stands today.

I'm in North Carolina, so the challengers I'm highlighting are going to be from NC.  Please feel free to add your own challengers in the comments.  Some of these folks might not have a snowball's chance on a warm day of serving in congress, but after the miracle campaign of Larry Kissell last year, I'm not writing anyone off.  Every single challenger who makes the NRCC nervous helps drain their funds that much faster.  Here's my post from BlueNC.

The presidential candidates are busy maxing out their donors and making it hard on all down ticket candidates to raise money in the process.  That's why I'm appealing to you one last time before the end of the quarter to help the challengers in our North Carolina congressional races.    I know the incumbents are having a hard time raising money as well, but they have far more contacts and larger donor bases, so I will leave them out of this particular plea for funds.

 This past Saturday, Ambassador Joe Wilson came to Charlotte, NC to support Larry Kissell in his second bid to unseat Robin Hayes in North Carolina's 8th Congressional District.

I had not had the pleasure of meeting Joe Wilson prior to Saturday's event and was honestly expecting the man to be just a wee bit of a stuffed shirt.  I found instead, a man who is generous, patient and funny.  He did not leave the event until he had met each person who desired an introduction, stood for pictures with all waiting in line and signed every spare scrap of paper, every book and every Creative Loafing shoved in front of him.  That's quite a chore when the total attendance is over 200 people.

There is exciting news coming out of Charlotte for the Kissell campaign.    House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Congressman John Spratt (D-SC)  will be hosting Ambassador Joe Wilson at a fundraising event in Charlotte on September 22, 2007 in support of Larry Kissell's bid to unseat Robin Hayes (NC-08).  Ambassador Wilson is a symbol to many of us of the courage it takes to tell the truth and stand for what is right regardless of the cost.

This evening, the DCCC will hold a fundraiser to help Larry Kissell erase the personal debt he acquired in his bid to help take our congress and our country back in 2006.  His bid last cycle fell short by a mere 329 votes and Larry is working hard to improve his name recognition and to keep his positives high with the voters.  Let's help Larry Kissell retire his personal campaign debt.  If you go here and make a contribution, it will be matched two to one.  Don't miss this opportunity to turn your $50 into $150 for Larry Kissell.  Please note, that the matching will only count toward contributions received at this link.  Contributions made to Kissell's 2008 campaign link will not be matched.

Put a fork in Robin Hayes.  He's done.

On a conference call with supporters and 8th District Dem party officials, Rep, Chris Van Hollen committed DCCC support to Larry Kissell and according to pollster Marc Silverman of Anzalone-Liszt Research:

Hayes is facing an electorate that is as dangerous to his political career as it was in 2006, if not worse.

Got that fork ready?

Who here remembers the 2006 election cycle?  Remember how we did everything humanly possible to get press attention for Larry Kissell?  The campaign worked their hearts out, volunteers worked their hearts out and those of us on the web wrote our poor little fingers to the bone and all the corporate media could talk about was the damned goat.

Enter Roll Call.

In December 2006 they had this to say:

For a Red State, North Carolina's GOP Is Surprisingly Embattled - (Dec 11 2006)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Though this year was a “blue moon” election in which neither a Senate seat nor the governorship was contested, North Carolina played host to several spirited House contests. Former football star Heath Shuler (D) knocked off veteran Rep. Charles Taylor (R), and to nearly everyone’s surprise, teacher Larry Kissell (D) came within 329 votes of ousting Rep. Robin Hayes (R). emphasis added

Sigh.  I guess I need to clarify some things.

Last week I claimed that people shouldn't assume that the DCCC is going to financially support Larry Kissell in a substantive way.  One person wondered if this was hyperbole.  An emailer asked me what I had against the DCCC.  (Really, you have to ask?)  Finally, I get a phone call with basically the same question.

Where's my proof?

I don't need proof.  The DCCC doesn't typically prop up campaigns that don't show promise.  Traditionally, they've looked for a campaign to prove it has the ability to raise money before promoting the candidate.  My claim that the DCCC can't be counted on to support Kissell is based on those realities.  They can't be counted on unless we do our part first.

A few days ago, Larry Kissell wrote a diary on DailyKos titled No Confidence in Politics as Usual.  Tucked away in that diary was this little morsel:

The Washington folks seemed shocked that we recently polled and it showed my opponent is in big trouble and the district agrees with me that we've had enough.

That's right.  There's a poll.  Unfortunately, I can't get my hands on it, but what I've heard so far is that Robin Hayes is in more trouble than he's ever been in and Larry Kissell hasn't lost momentum.  From what I hear - and I promise to produce the poll if it is ever released - on the uninformed poll question, the two candidates (Kissell v. Hayes) are neck and neck.

Hayes appears to be operating out of desperation if the tone of his fundraising letters is any indication.  A commenter in the above mentioned diary had this to say:

The Larry Kissell team has found one of the 330 votes we were missing in 2006.  Not only that, this vote actually takes one away from Robin Hayes.  The young lady you see pictured on the left was willing to speak to us on Saturday at the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party convention in Charlotte.  She explained that her family had always voted Republican and she followed suit.

Then, she made friends of a different political persuasion and she opened her mind to the things they were saying.  It didn't take long for her to become a Kissell convert.  Before you hear her testimonial, though, Larry needs your vote.  No, not for congress.  That comes later.  Larry is in the running for DFA Grassroots All-Stars.  At last check he was running a close fourth and we need to bump him up into the top three.  Please visit DFA and vote for Larry Kissell.

Don Imus is someone I can honestly say should never have been let out of his cave.  This man has his head shoved so far up his ass there is no hope that he will ever truly enjoy the beauty of this world for the thin film of excrement that clouds his vision.

He appears to be so afraid of strong women, black women and strong black women that he can't discuss a women's basketball team without making a derogatory or racist comment.

Now, for those of you who have seen Imus you know the biggest thing on the man is that hat he wears.   It has to intimidate the guy hiding under that big old hat that any one of these women could kick his ass seven ways to Sunday without breaking a sweat.  It's got to bother the guy that he couldn't hold his own against any of these women physically or in any test of intellect or wit.

So, what did Imus do that has me breaking my new year's resolution and calling him names?  Find out on the flip.

You might have wondered what happened to Larry Kissell after November's election.  We haven't been bringing much news out from North Carolina about him, so wanted to update you on all that has happened.    

Larry Kissell immediately declared his intent to run again in 2008.  He might have slowed down over winter holidays, but he hasn't missed a beat.  He is already running like an old pro and is doing what he can to help other prospective congressional candidates in North Carolina.

This past weekend Larry and his staff attended the annual convention of the Young Democrats of North Carolina.  A reception was held for him with DCCC recruitment chair, Rep. Artur Davis, Rep. Brad Miller, NCDP Chair Jerry Meek and Chris Bowers attending.  A full post about the event is at BlueNC.

As many of you have heard or read via Pam's House Blend, cskendrick, Anglico, Matt Stoller, Screwy Hoolie and Matt Hill Comer, in January there was a gathering in Raleigh at the Democratic Party Headquarters of a small group of North Carolina Bloggers.  We met with NCDP Chair, Jerry Meek, Schorr Johnson(NCDP Communications Director), Matt Stoller(MyDD.com), Tim Cullen (Dodd for President), NC Senator Jim Harrell, III and Congressman Brad Miller to discuss the role of blogs in politics, how we do or might influence news in the corporate media and how we can help further the cause of progressive politics in North Carolina.  

There's more on the flip....

Unless you've been in seclusion or you've been living under a rock, you've heard about the alarmingly high undervote rate in Florida's 13th Congressional District race.  According to The San Francisco Chronicle piece linked above via CommonDreams, the undervote of somewhere around 15% in Sarasota County means that close to 18,000 people voted for other races, but failed to select a choice for the Jennings/Buchanan race.  Unlike North Carolina, Florida does not require a paper trail for its touch screen machines.  There are several theories floating around as to what happened to those 18,000 votes, but with no paper trail, it is difficult, if not impossible to verify the count from the machine.

Grab a cuppa and get comfy.  This one's looooong....

This piece was originally posted on the day that Robin Hayes voted for CAFTA after promising he would vote against it.  This week, another textile mill has announced that it will be closing its doors and send its operations to a foreign country to take advantage of the cheap labor.  

In 60 days almost 400 people will lose their jobs when a Westpoint Stevens plant closes in Wagram.  With so few job prospects and with Scotland County already experiencing the worst unemployment in the entire state of North Carolina, you can imagine the bleakness of this situation for most of these workers.

I am posting this again in honor of the men and women who are suffering in our country, our state, in the 8th Congressional District and in Scotland County.  They need Larry Kissell standing up for them in Congress.  Please follow to the end of the piece and help make this a reality.

Please read below the fold....

In the recent debate between Robin Hayes and Larry Kissell held by the League of Women Voters in Charlotte and aired on WTVI, both men claimed that improving the job market for the 8th District workers was a top priority.  Larry Kissell said it was the number one priority.

Robin Hayes claimed that he had worked hard to bring jobs to the district.   From WWAY we have this:

Hayes said he's worked hard to promote economic development and efforts to bring good jobs to the parts of the district that are struggling.

The great thing about a claim like this is there is proof readily available about just how effective Robin Hayes has been at bringing jobs to the 8th District.  Unemployment numbers are readily available through the North Carolina Employment Security Commission. Not only can we find out what the unemployment rate is today, we can look back at 1999 when Robin Hayes took office.

Please follow below the fold....