Republican senator Richard Burr is a top Democratic target in 2010.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – When North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper ruled out a run for the Senate last week, national Democrats lost their top choice to take on Republican incumbent Richard Burr in 2010.

But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee still sees Burr as vulnerable, and several state Democrats have emerged as potential challengers in the wake of Cooper's decision. The Raleigh News and Observer even suggested Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, might jump into the ring.

Still, the DSCC — which is otherwise staying mum on the recruitment process — is taking four Democratic candidates seriously at the moment, according to a committee source.

Their top candidates are, in no particular order: Rep. Heath Shuler, the former NFL quarterback and second term congressman from western North Carolina's 11th district; Rep. Bob Etheridge from the Raleigh-area second district; former state Treasurer Richard Moore, who lost in the state's Democratic gubernatorial primary last year; and Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton.

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Burr is a top Democratic target in 2010.

(CNN) – North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr said Thursday he was merely reacting to the economic crisis last fall the way many Americans did when he advised his family to withdraw as much cash as they could from their bank accounts.

"There are individuals in this country who keep cash at home," Burr told the Charlotte News and Observer. "I don't happen to be one of those. I live from ATM machine to ATM machine. The reality is when you look at a financial industry that is not exchanging capital, it immediately says you better have a little bit of cash set aside."

The North Carolina Republican has taken heat this week after he told a gathering of business leaders in his home state that the collapse of major financial institutions last fall convinced him his family's bank accounts could have been frozen.

"On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, 'Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday,'" Burr said during a speech at a Henderson County Chamber of Commerce meeting Monday.

National Democrats quickly seized on the comment, characterizing it as irresponsible at best and damaging at worst. But a NRSC spokesman defended the remark, telling CNN, "It's little wonder Americans want to keep their hard earned money away from the grips of Washington."

Clarifying his comments Thursday, Burr said its important to remember what the economic landscape looked like last fall when he pushed for the bank withdrawals.

"That was when the financial architecture of the industry was in jeopardy," he said. "It was when cash was frozen from institution to institution. The purpose of TARP was to stabilize that architecture to free up the flow of capital from bank to bank and bank to business.

"That part of the economic crisis is over."

Burr, whose approval ratings are languishing in recent state polls, is likely to face a difficult reelection race in 2010, though Democrats have yet to field a candidate.

The President recently refused to predict a winner in a face-off between two North Carolina college basketball teams.

(CNN) — Apparently ever the consensus-builder, President Barack Obama avoided taking sides in the perennial feud that is the Duke-North Carolina men's college basketball rivalry.

President Obama was meeting with a group of regional reporters Wednesday to pitch his stimulus package — just hours before the Tobacco Road showdown in Durham, North Carolina — when the topic of the game came up, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.

The President, a basketball star in high school, declined to take a position.

At first, Obama hinted he might side with the Duke Blue Devils. He said team was “coming off one of the worst losses it has had in several years,” a blowout loss to Clemson last week that coach Mike Krzyzewski might have used as motivation in practice.

“They might be fired up,” Obama said. “I hope it’s a close game.”

But even though he famously scrimmaged with the Tar Heels before the state's primary last year, Obama also declined to support the University of North Carolina. Why? He pointed to his personal aide, Reggie Love, who played at Duke.

“If I said anything contrary to Duke, I might not be able to find my Blackberry,” he joked.

North Carolina won the game, 101-87.

Updated 9:43 a.m.

Voters were in line before sunrise at one North Carolina polling place Tuesday morning.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Rain in parts of North Carolina caused some early problems for voters using optical scanner ballots Tuesday, but a memo about using paper towels seemed to dry up the problem, according to North Carolina officials.

Voters were coming into voting locations early Tuesday morning and getting the paper ballots wet as they handled them, according to Gary Bartlett, Executive Director of the North Carolina Election Board.

"We sent out a memo to the county election boards asking them to hand out paper towels to voters before they were given a ballot," Bartlett said.

Bartlett was not sure how many calls his office received Tuesday, but he said it was very few before he recognized the potential problem and sent out the message.

The problem seemed to subside, Bartlett said, as he saw a drop in the number of calls reporting the wet ballot problem later in the morning.

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New gains for Obama on the CNN Electoral Map.

(CNN) — If Barack Obama is betting on Nevada, he may find a pleasant payoff. A new poll suggests that the Democratic presidential candidate is widening his lead there.

That's contributing to an increase in territory for Obama in CNN's Electoral College Map. The map estimates what would occur if the election were held today, by reviewing state polls, voting trends, campaign visits and advertising.

In the Nevada survey — one of five CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation state polls released Thursday morning — 52 percent of likely voters say Obama is their choice for president, with 45 percent backing John McCain. That seven-point lead is up from a five-point advantage Obama held in a poll taken one week ago.

Nevada narrowly voted for George W. Bush in the last two presidential contests.

"Obama is racking up support among blue collar voters in Nevada," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Two weeks ago, he had a six-point lead among people with no college degree. Now he has a 23-point lead over McCain among that group. If the unions are making a big push for Obama in Nevada, it seems to be working."

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Warren Tompkins, standing, is a veteran GOP strategist.

NEW YORK (CNN) — Warren Tompkins, the hard-hitting South Carolina Republican consultant who worked against John McCain during the state’s vicious primary battle in 2000, is now toiling in North Carolina alongside McCain’s campaign on behalf of the Republican National Committee, according to sources.

Tompkins has been working in the state for two weeks, participating in conference calls and traveling up from South Carolina for meetings, said one southern GOP operative.

A McCain campaign official said that Tompkins is volunteering for the campaign, doing so through the RNC, but that he has only been in the state for “a few days.”

The presidential race in North Carolina has tightened in recent weeks, and CNN has moved the reliably red state into the “toss-up” category. The state’s down-ballot Republican candidates — Senator Elizabeth Dole and gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory — are also in tough races.

“He is working for the RNC, so therefore coordinating with all the campaigns,” the operative said of Tompkins. “It’s the final few weeks of a campaign and you need people with experience, and frankly there are not many people in the southeast with near the experience that he has.”

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Palin stumped in traditionally-red North Carolina Thursday

ELON, North Carolina (CNN) – Thursday marked the first day of early voting in North Carolina, a state unaccustomed to being in the political spotlight this late in a presidential election year.

But at an afternoon rally at Elon University near Greensboro, Republican Sarah Palin did not offer her supporters even the gentlest reminder that early voting — an opportunity both parties are working to take advantage of — is now underway at nearly 400 sites across the battleground state. Long lines at one-stop voting locations have been reported throughout North Carolina.

She did, however, mention the 85 degree heat.

“Thank you all for that very, very warm welcome to beautiful North Carolina, and it is warm,” she said. “Man, this Alaskan gal is … I’m roasting. This feels really good.”

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McCain is campaigning in states he had hoped to have sewn up at this point in the race.

(CNN) — John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning Monday in two states that haven't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in more than four decades, a clear indication the GOP ticket is scrambling to defend longtime Republican strongholds with only three weeks until Election Day.

But at a time when the McCain campaign had hoped to have shored up its support in the traditional red states, a string of new surveys show Obama has made significant gains there as voters become increasingly worried about the nation's financial woes.

McCain and Palin held a joint rally in Virginia Beach Monday morning before the two candidates split up, as the Republican nominee heads down to North Carolina as his running mate stays behind for more events in Virginia. It’s only the second time McCain has made visits to either state in more than four months, and comes as a series of battleground surveys suggest his playing field is increasingly shrinking.

Watch: McCain on defense

But while McCain has largely been absent from both states all summer, the Obama campaign has aggressively built up on the ground organizations there, outspent their GOP rival considerably on staff and television commercials, and worked to register tens of thousands of new voters.  The Arizona senator has also been badly out-campaigned in the two states.  According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Democratic ticket has made nine visits to Virginia and seven stops in North Carolina.  That compares to just one visit in Virginia and two in North Carolina on the Republican side.

And in a sign of just how seriously the McCain campaign is worried about both states, the Arizona senator unveiled a re-vamped stump speech there that an aide says is a "frank assessment" of where the race for the White House stands.

"We have 22 days to go. We're 6 points down," he said. "The national media has written us off…. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them."

A loss in either state could prove devastating to the Arizona senator's presidential hopes, given his campaign’s recent pullout from competing in Michigan and sagging poll numbers in many of the other key battleground states. Should Virginia or North Carolina tilt Obama's way, the Arizona senator would have to compensate by taking a state such as Pennsylvania that appears solidly leaning in Obama's direction.

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Obama makes major gains on the new CNN Electoral Map.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Polls in five key battleground states in the race for the White House released Tuesday suggest that Sen. Barack Obama is making major gains.

The CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation polls of likely voters in Indiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin reflect a significant nationwide shift toward the Democratic presidential nominee.

Check out the latest CNN Electoral Map

In Indiana, 51 percent of likely voters say Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, is their choice for president, with 46 percent backing Obama. Indiana went for George W. Bush by 21 points four years ago; the Democrats have not carried the state since 1964.

Obama has made significant strides in New Hampshire, a state which is credited with reviving McCain’s GOP primary campaign in both 2000 and 2008. Fifty-three percent of the state’s likely voters are backing Obama, while 45 percent are supporting McCain. Obama’s eight-point lead is larger than the five-point lead held by Obama in the last CNN New Hampshire poll taken in the beginning of September.

Bush squeezed out a slender one-point win in the state in 2000 — but four years ago, John Kerry narrowly carried the one-time GOP stronghold.

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Palin will go to Greenville, North Carolina Tuesday.

(CNN) — The McCain campaign announced Sarah Palin is set to make a stop in North Carolina Tuesday night, two days after the Republican VP candidate stumped in Nebraska — two reliably red states that haven't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in at least three decades.

Palin's most recent travel schedule is the latest indication Barack Obama and the nation's ailing economy have put John McCain on the defensive, even in states where the prospect of a Democratic win was unthinkable only four years ago.

Palin's visit to North Carolina comes as most recent polls of the state show Obama and McCain essentially in a dead heat there. A CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation poll of North Carolina last month showed the candidates dead even, while some recent polls have even suggested a slight Democratic lead. CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation will release a new North Carolina poll Tuesday morning.

Election Center: Check out the latest state polls

Then there’s the unknown variable of an anticipated rise in turnout in the African-American community. In 2006 that voting bloc made up 26 percent of North Carolina's electorate, with 85 percent voting for Sen. John Kerry. Obama is expected to win an even higher percentage of the black vote this cycle, with a higher expected turnout as well.

"The North Carolina of today is far more diverse than the North Carolina of twenty or even ten years ago," CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib said. "The state’s changing economy has attracted thousands of new voters willing to pull the lever for a Democratic nominee. Second, the state’s sizable African-American voting bloc is extremely energized by Obama’s candidacy. Third, the economic downturn has made Tar Heel voters — just like voters in the rest of the country — much more receptive to the Democratic message of change."

Palin's appearance in the state comes more than five months after McCain held his last public event there, delivering a speech in early May at Wake Forest on his vision for judicial appointments. The event came the same day as Indiana and North Carolina's Democratic primaries and was largely overshadowed by the still-ongoing battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton.

McCain-Palin spokesman Ben Porritt said Monday the campaign remains confident the Republican ticket will carry the state.

"This is a state that Barack Obama has put millions of dollars into," he said. "This is an opportunity to speak to our supporters there and makes sure they turn out."

Porritt also declined to say whether McCain has any plans to visit North Carolina before Election Day.

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Watch Michelle Obama's event on CNN.com/live.

(CNN) – Michelle Obama is campaigning on behalf of her husband in Charlotte, North Carolina this hour — a state that hasn't voted Democrat in more than 30 years but one that polls show could be up for grabs this election.

She is holding an economic round-table with working women in Charlotte, and will speak at a rally in Greensboro later Thursday.

Read Michelle Obama's remarks after the jump

UPDATE: This event has ended, but stay with CNN.com/live for the day's latest campaign events.

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MoveOn released a new ad, 'Pocket,' Tuesday.

(CNN)— MoveOn.org has their sights set on Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s unexpectedly competitive contest for re-election in North Carolina, spending nearly half a million dollars on an ad accusing the North Carolina senator and fellow Republican John McCain of being “in the pocket of Big Oil.”

“We could have provided clean energy for a million homes…or reduced our dependence on foreign oil,” the announcer says. “Instead, John McCain and Elizabeth Dole allowed big oil companies to keep $13.5 billion dollars in tax breaks.”

Dole, who currently has $2.7 million in her campaign war chest to State Senator Kay Hagan’s $1.6 million, was thought to be a safe bet for re-election, but finds herself in an unexpectedly tough fight.

The 30-second spot, “Pocket,” is MoveOn’s first Senate race ad this cycle, according to Communications Director Ilyse Hogue. She added that MoveOn currently has no set plans to use similar versions of the ad in other states, but has not ruled out the possibility, as the nation’s energy woes continue to dominate headlines this campaign season.

Dole campaign spokesman Dan McLagan downplayed the potential statewide impact of the MoveOn buy, saying Dole had already been hit with a million dollars in outside spending, “and they are welcome to spend more. That dog ain't gonna hunt down here. These are the same surrender monkeys that called for a peaceful response to the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Their credibility in North Carolina is pretty low."

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John and Elizabeth Edwards made an appearance at Sen. Obama's speech in North Carolina Monday.

Photo credit: AP.

CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from the Best Political Team.

(CNN) – It was a split decision — with a substantial win for Sen. Barack Obama and a razor-thin victory for Sen. Hillary Clinton — in the North Carolina and Indiana Democratic primaries.

In the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily, Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider breaks down exit polling data from Tuesday by age, race, and gender.

Suzanne Malveaux was with the Clinton camp on primary night, and has an inside look at the candidate’s next moves. Will Clinton fight to have the Florida and Michigan delegations seated? How will the New York senator raise the money she needs to continue her battle against Obama and his fundraising juggernaut? What arguments is she readying for her party’s superdelegates? Malveaux has all the answers – straight from sources inside the Clinton campaign.

Despite Clinton’s commitment to soldier on through the remaining contests, the math of the Democratic Party’s proportional pledged delegate allocation is working against her. Chief National Correspondent John King uses CNN’s “Magic Wall” to explain Clinton’s uphill battle to secure the delegates necessary to claim the nomination.

The next Democratic contest is in West Virginia, and CNN’s Jim Acosta is already on the ground there. Acosta takes a look at the demographics and issues in the state before Clinton and Obama face off there.

Finally, in a special post-primary version of his “What if?” series, CNN Special Correspondent Frank Sesno takes a look at what might happen at the Democratic convention if Democrats have not settled on a nominee before the party gathers in August.

Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.

Watch CNN Political Researcher Alan Silverleib on Tuesday's exit polls.

(CNN) — Watch CNN Political Research Alan Silverleib as he speaks with CNN.com's Melissa Long and gives a historical perspective to Tuesday's exit polling data.

Schneider: Obama got 36 percent of white voters in North Carolina's Democratic primary.

(CNN) — In this clip, Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider explains the racial break-down of North Carolina voters who supported Sen. Barack Obama in Tuesday's primary.

CNN projects that Obama wins North Carolina primary.

Track county-by-county results here.

Related video: Obama camp: Big victory in N.C.

Watch Bill Schneider on Tuesday night's exit polling data.

(CNN) — Watch CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider break down exit polling data about whether supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton would support Sen. Barack Obama if he wins the Democratic nomination and vice versa.

Watch John King break down different regions of Indiana and North Carolina.

(CNN) – Watch Chief National Correspondent John King use CNN’s Magic Wall to explain how the demographics in certain parts of Indiana and North Carolina may favor Sen. Hillary Clinton or her rival Sen. Barack Obama in Tuesday’s primaries.

Sen. Hillary Clinton makes a campaign stop in Kinston, North Carolina, on Friday

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama stumped for last-minute votes in Indiana and North Carolina Friday ahead of the states' Tuesday primaries.

New polls show Clinton narrowing Obama's lead in North Carolina, once seen as an easy win for Obama.

Polling in Indiana shows the two candidates running dead even.

"We are seeing terrific support all across Indiana and all across North Carolina … I have no doubt these are going to be tight races. This campaign has been tight throughout," Obama said in Indianapolis, Indiana, Friday morning.

"But I am very confident the American people are looking for the kind of truth telling and serious policy making that is going to have an affect on heir lives, and as long as I'm talking about the issues."

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