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North Carolina voters, for a moment, turned their attention away from the national election, and gave their thoughts on the gubernatorial race between Bev Purdue and Pat McCrory and the heated U.S. Senate campaigns of Kay Hagan and Elizabeth Dole.

Rasheen Williams, an employee at Wachovia, took time earlier Tuesday to give his opinions on the two high profile state elections. Perdue was elected North Carolina's first woman governor; Hagan swamped Dole, an incumbent senator and former presidential cabinet member.

“I personally feel that Pat McCrory has done a great job as mayor of Charlotte so he could possibly do a great job as governor,” he said. “Bev Purdue also seems like she would do a great job, so it wouldn’t bother me to see either one over the other. I think Pat McCrory having ties to Charlotte would look out for the city if he gets to Raleigh. Some say he won’t but I believe he would. Not to say that Purdue wouldn’t do the same. I just hope whoever gets the seat doesn’t overlook Charlotte because it’s a big city. We need help in a lot of areas, education especially.”

Said Johnson C. Smith University political science professor Kelly Harris: “Purdue on the other hand has been a (state) senator. One would say she’s not as rigid as McCrory, but one could also look at her record and say that she has had no true principles to stand on, except for maybe education.”

McCrory, Harris says, “has a lot of experience, but he doesn’t have the executive experience one would expect a governor to have. What may help him in North Carolina is his stance on illegal immigration. This state has a lot of issues with illegal immigration. McCrory wants to be tougher on it.
It also helps him that Charlotte has been doing so well. This is not necessarily because of him, but rather economic and socio-economic situations. But he can still make it work in his favor.”

While Williams was OK with either result in the gubernatorial election, he slammed Dole for an attack ad that called Hagan “godless.”

“It seems like the negative ads show that she might be hard to work with,” Williams said. “Her saying Hagan is godless rubbed people the wrong way. That is a hard criticism to make on a person. As senator you should protect and represent everyone regardless of religion or what have you.

Regardless of what I believe or what I think you’re supposed to have my interest at heart.”

Friends and longtime Democrats Tonita Alston and Karen Davis reflected similar thoughts.

“I voted for Kay Hagan for two reasons, because she wants to bring back jobs to the state and because she didn’t run negative ads while Dole did,” said Davis. “I knew more about what Elizabeth Dole didn’t do than what she did do. She was out of state way more than she was ever here and she voted with Bush 93 percent of the time,” said Alston.

“As for the Senate race, Elizabeth Dole has to go,” Harris said. “She’s been in Washington long enough.

“I agree with the claim made by the Charlotte Observer that although she’s from North Carolina, she hasn’t represented the state well because she’s been in Washington for four decades. So essentially she’s out of touch. Kay Hagan seems to be in touch with North Carolina more than Dole. She’s very strong on education, which North Carolina needs.”

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