Yeah, my feeling exactly

[womzilla]

Courtesy, of course, of sarah_ovenall, who, as far as I'm concerned, won the damn state for Obama. [ETA: She points out that credit for the graphic goes to her friend and fellow Obama campaigner Mark Johnson. She's too modest to actually take credit for delivering the state, but we all know better.]

Because Helms was the public face of North Carolina politics for so long, it's easy to overlook the fact that it's not a solidly red state. Here's a comment I left somewhere about North Carolina and its purpleness:

There is more to a state's politics than just who it gives it Presidential votes to. North Carolina has a long history of voting in Democrats for statewide office, even after the Republicans adopted the "Southern Strategy" (i.e., becoming the party of racists). The governorship switched back and forth between the Dems and Republicans all through Jesse Helms's life, as did the Senate seat not held by Helms. (No Senator has held the NC Class Three seat for more than one term since Sam Ervin retired in 1974.) Kay Hagan, of course, just took the Class Two seat, which has been held by Republicans since 1973 (first Helms, then Liddy Dole).

NC's Class Three seat ("class" here refers to the election cycle in which the seat comes up for election) was held by John Edwards, who, while not as liberal as Bernie Sanders or Paul Wellstone, is reasonably far to the left of the current American political spectrum--further left in goals, I would say, than Obama, though clearly not as good an administrator and certainly not as good a speaker.

North Carolina, as noted, just put a Democrat into the Senate, and elected a Democratic governor again. But it hadn't gone Democrat for a president since before I started voting. It's good to see it wake up.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Plus one Nebraska for 365.

B

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

Credit for the WOOOO! graphic goes to Mark Johnson, WXDU dj and all-around cool guy who's been volunteering for months just like me. I lost track of him when we moved out of the main office to our staging areas. Just found out yesterday that he had joined the "Mobile Canvass Unit" which traveled around canvassing wherever they were needed. He went as far as Asheboro. So awesome!

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

NORTH CAROLINA, 'zilla. NORTH CAROLINA!!!!!!

I grew up with the SHAME of knowing that when people thought of my HOME, they thought of JESSE HELMS.

North CaroLIna!!!!! YES.

[washa-way.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I'm happier that NC went blue or that VA went blue--I've had long years of exasperation thanks to Helms' control of my beloved home state (the first bumper sticker on my first car showed Jesse with a turban and the legend AYATOLLAH HELMS), but I'm also in year 14 of life in Virginny and delighted to see the iron control of the Falwell/Robertson axis slipping away here in my children's home state.

Oh, what the heck--I'm happiest about both.

What NC means to me

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

In my adolescence, mention of the words "North Carolina" was likely to be immediately followed by: "respectfully yields to South Carolina."

Later on, my first thoughts would be of Sam Ervin. Let's give a small nod to Sam Ervin, a strict-constructionist conservative who, when the chips were down, proved to be a genuine strict-constructionist conservative and not one for whom that was merely a code for "against civil rights for blacks," though ghu knows he was that too.