WP: Edwards Returns Home to North Carolina to Cast His Vote

[kskiska]

RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 29 -- Sen. John Edwards returned home Friday to North Carolina, where he was greeted by thousands of boisterous supporters at the state fairgrounds here and cast an early vote for the Kerry-Edwards ticket.

If polls are any indication, however, Edwards will be among the minority to have done so once all the ballots are tallied in North Carolina on Tuesday.

Kerry visited the state three times, and up until mid-September, Edwards was here almost weekly. The campaign and the Democratic National Committee invested about $2.5 million in advertising, prompting President Bush to counter with ads in a state that he won by 13 percentage points in 2000.

But in September, the ads disappeared, and Friday's visit was Edwards's first in three weeks to the state. "They really sort of abandoned North Carolina about a month ago," said Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "I think they understand that there are easier scenarios for getting to 270 . Clearly, Edwards has made a difference, but not enough of a difference to push the state to the Kerry column."

Recent polls have put Bush's lead at six to 10 percentage points in North Carolina -- far closer for the Democrats than four years ago but not close enough to put the state on anyone's list of battleground states.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10603-2004Oct29.html