RALEIGH – With tens of thousands of North Carolina voters picking and choosing their way down Tuesday’s ballot, the results gave both major political parties some victories to savor and defeats to mourn.
President George W. Bush beat Sen. John Kerry in North Carolina by about 13 percentage points – the same margin of victory he enjoyed against Al Gore in the state in 2000. His strong showing may have helped Republican Richard Burr win a tight U.S. Senate race against Democrat Erskine Bowles, which moves a Democratic seat to the GOP column and continues two North Carolina political traditions. After being held by longtime Sen. Sam Ervin, a Democrat, this seat has changed partisan hands in every subsequent election. And since Ervin’s 1968 victory that also saw the election of Richard Nixon to the presidency, Democrats have been unable to win any U.S. Senate races held during presidential years.
But with regards to control of state government in North Carolina, Democrats enjoyed far more success. Gov. Mike Easley won reelection by a large margin, as did Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue and several other members of the Council of State. The party also appears to have regained a clear majority in the North Carolina House and added to its previous 27-23 edge in the North Carolina Senate.
Republicans did exploit some opportunities at the state level by reelecting Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry and adding at least two more members to the Council of State: Les Merritt as state auditor and Steve Troxler as agriculture commissioner. The race for state superintendent of public instruction between Democrat June Atkinson and Republican Bill Fletcher remained close throughout Election Night and has yet to be called. The GOP successfully replaced previous Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr with another Republican, Paul Newby, although the race had become officially nonpartisan, and added another Republican, Barbara Jackson, to the state court of appeals.
Wednesday’s edition of Carolina Journal Online has a complete wrap-up of state and local news coverage of these various and fascinating political outcomes in North Carolina and around the country.