This month's tracking poll

I am intending to run this month's primary tracking poll tomorrow night and release the Republican numbers on Thursday and the Democratic numbers on Friday. Plans always subject to change.

Here are my notes on this month's poll:

-I know I said last month that I was going to put all the fringe candidates in the poll and then take them out if they didn't get 5%, but the reality is that they're all going to be on the ballot and even a candidate who only pulls 3% or 4% can still have an impact on the race overall. So Dennis Nielsen, Elbie Powers, John Ross Hendrix, and Duskin Lassiter, you get to stay in our poll.

-We'll be adding one new race to the mix this month now that the Democrats have a competitive race for State Auditor. I'm sure everyone will be waiting with bated breath to find out who has the advantage between Fred Aikens and Beth Wood.

-We'll add Howard Staley to the US Senate poll on the Democratic side. I'm sure Kay Hagan and Jim Neal will be shaking in their boots at that news.

-Every interview I've done in the last week I've been asked where John Edwards' supporters are going to go on the Democratic side. So we'll be asking folks whether they supported Edwards before he dropped out so that we can produce a crosstab on whether they're headed toward Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

-Finally, the most important thing going on Wednesday night is the Carolina-Duke game so we'll be asking folks who they're pulling for so that we can produce the all important analysis on whether Carolina fans prefer Bev Perdue or Richard Moore and whether the Dookies are going for Pat McCrory or Fred Smith. We've all been waiting on that one.

Speaking of Carolina-Duke, did anyone watch the women's game at Cameron last night? I think the phrase is ownage. I was there and the Dook fans were so comatose it felt like a neutral site game. Maybe because it was on a weekday night all their students were studying or something. But I digress...