Lisa Barnes

Watley might be being a team player here.

Him pulling his ads down is leaving room for folks like Representative Dennis Riddell or Senator Lisa Barnes to buy more ads in their market.

In that same race, WRAL put out a poll yesterday, we're recording on Wednesday afternoon, that Roy Cooper had 54% of those polled and Watley had 40, so that's a 14-point difference.

A couple weeks ago, or maybe it was three weeks ago, when the Carolina Journal came out with a similar poll with a similar spread, I know they got knocked around for that, but this seems to be confirming what their polling was showing.

His district in New Hanover is relatively competitive, and in a good year for Democrats, it's possible that he might not be back.

I did notice that he spoke during Berger's press conference about the gas tax, as did Lisa Stone Barnes, who was also in a competitive race.

I wrote about this in the Under the Dome newsletter that published on Sunday about the political dynamics of all of this.

Democrats criticize Republicans for doing this for the election.

Uh, back on Wednesday, during Berger's press conference, uh, he handed the mic to three Republican senators, all of whom spoke and were sponsors on the bill, who are also in tight races.

So Wednesday, we saw him sort of promote these Republicans in tight races, Buck Newton, Michael Lee, and Lisa Stone Barnes.

Um, I wouldn't be surprised if one, if not all three of them, lose in the upcoming election because the polls have been so bad for Republicans.

Um, you know, and then Stein today took the bill out to Western North Carolina, and he didn't just have Ager.

Um, it's been trending more Republican over the years.

Uh, and Lisa Barnes held this-- she's held this district for a couple cycles now.

I think it has been redrawn.

Um, this district has a lot of registered Democratic voters, uh, who have started voting more Republican to the top of the ticket.