Learning the Lessons of Dole

I was really glad to see about this event Kay Hagan is having on the stimulus in Durham next week.

On two fronts it's showing she hasn't forgotten who helped her get elected:

-She got a larger percentage of the vote in Durham County than anywhere else in the state and also had her second largest margin of victory there at over 68,500 votes (only considerably more populous Mecklenburg was bigger.)

-By focusing on how minority-owned businesses can benefit from the stimulus package (at the request of the NAACP) she's showing black leaders that she's not going to be a politician who only pays attention to their concerns at election time.

And it gives her an opportunity to show folks what she's doing on the economy, still by far and away the biggest issue for voters in the state.

These are the sorts of things Elizabeth Dole didn't do enough of. Hagan knows better than most people what flaws Dole had in the way she conducted herself as a Senator- those are the things that helped her get elected- and if she continues to learn from those lessons she might just be the rare North Carolina Senator who actually gets a second term.