Pure speculation

This is absolutely pure speculation but the separation between Bill Graham's campaign and the Republican consulting firm Fetzer Stephens, reported by Ryan Teague Beckwith at the Under the Dome blog, is certainly interesting on two fronts:

-Tom Fetzer, one of the company's principals, made his way in politics as the moderate Republican mayor of a large Democratic leaning North Carolina city. Wonder if he might be in position now to help someone with a similar profile, Pat McCrory, make the next step in his political career.

-Graham has been declining rapidly in our polls and maybe in his campaign's internal polling as well. It's always easy to blame the consultants when things aren't going well. It'll be interesting to see if this leads to a new direction in Graham's campaign.