North Carolina poll – Edwards (43), Dean (25); everyone else single digits

[pruner]

The poll found Edwards leading in North Carolina's Democratic presidential primary, which will be held in May.

Edwards drew the support of 43 percent of Democrats surveyed, with Dean at 25 percent - an amount that has more than doubled since January. The seven other Democrats were in single digits, including Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts at 9 percent - down from 20 percent in July.

The poll also showed increasing approval of his presidential run - 54 percent of those surveyed now approve of it compared to 39 percent when he launched his exploratory bid in January. Edwards said in September he would not seek re-election to the Senate next year so he could devote all of his energies to run for the presidency.

Twenty-one percent of those polled said Edwards is likely to win the nomination, while 34 percent said he has some chance to win and 36 percent said he has no chance.

<snip>

The telephone poll of 600 likely voters in North Carolina, conducted Monday through Thursday, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031115/APN/311150546

[CMT]

1. Dean is running second in North Carolina with 25% of the vote

All I can say is that is pretty impressive since the conventional wisdom is that he has little support in the south. Add to that he is only running 14-points behind Bush in the state (Edwards is ten-points behind in his home state). At one point Edwards was running 19-points behind in NC so it looks like things are improving.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

6. in a Democratic primary

it's close to meaningless with regard to November.

[michaud]

2. WNC

I just want you all to know I was one of the first in North Carolina to support Dean.

[GreenInNC]

3. Dean on the ballot

Before Dean can win NC, he has to get on the ballot. I don't know if other states are like this but if a presidential candidate decides not to take public financing, they have to get 10,000 signatures from members of their own party to get on the ballot.

So far that is Dean, Kerry and Chimpy.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. One or two rallies ought to do it.

[a_lil_wall_fly]

5. GO EDWARDS....

a spread of 18 points will be interesting if Dean can catch Edwards. But like I have been stating; Dean should have started in the Carolinas several weeks ago--and forgo wasting postage on letters to NH and IA.