by Mike McWilliams

ASHEVILLE – U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal said North Carolinians have been served by “career politicians” for too long.

“I think it’s time for us to have new people, fresh faces, new ideas and different backgrounds,” Neal, a financial adviser from Chapel Hill, said at a rally Thursday in Asheville.

Neal mingled with about 50 people at Asheville Brewing Co. as part of his last swing through Western North Carolina before Tuesday’s primary.

He is one of six candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to run against first-term U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

If elected, Neal said he would continue to come back to North Carolina to take issues most important to voters back with him to Washington.

The top issues Neal said he’s heard while campaigning include the economy, health insurance and the war in Iraq.

“I would not vote for any more open-ended funding until the next administration either unilaterally or in consultation with Congress agrees to give the following order to our military authorities: Bring our troops home quickly and safely,” Neal said.

Read the full article at citizen-times.com

by Howie Klein, DownWithTyranny.blogspot.com

Ex-Senator John Edwards could do the transformative agenda he has espoused a great deal of good by making an endorsement. One candidate is a committed, grassroots progressive and the other is a pitiful Big Money corporate shill, in some ways only marginally better than the Republican incumbent. No, no, I’m not talking about Hillary; she may be a corporate shill but she’s certainly better than the Republican incumbent and she’s also much better than his sadly transformed doppelgangerish would-be replacement. You see, while everyone else is urging the Edwardses to do what Governor Easley just did and endorse in the presidential race– where I doubt he would have much impact– I would like him to do the right thing in the race for the U.S. Senate seat, currently held by pathetic rubber stamp Republican Elizabeth Dole.

In a race like this, where not many people are aware of the giant chasm between the two candidates, Edwards really could make a difference. One candidate, Kay Hagan, stands for everything he claims to detest. She is owned, lock, stock and barrel, by the same pernicious Big Money interests that own Dole– and whom Edwards just spent two years railing against. The other candidate– the one endorsed by Blue America– is Jim Neal and he has a long way to go in the next 7 days if he’s going to be able to beat back the Establishment and give North Carolina voters a real choice– other than a basically meaningless choice between generic party labels– in November.

Hagan rarely goes on the record saying anything. Her victory plan is to just be the establishment Democrat against the outsider in the primary and the generic Democrat against the hated Republican in November. And when she does go on record about something, she comes out against the basic values and principles that differentiate between the party of FDR and the party of George Bush. A corporate tool like Chuck Schumer may love her but she can’t be trusted on choice, is as clueless as Dole on Iraq, is basically a George Bush Republican when it comes to tax policy, weak on economic policy, weak on ethics, adamantly unwilling to be pinned down on Equal Rights, on the wrong side of the health care issue, untrustworthy and confused about torture, weak on privacy rights, absolutely plutocratic when it comes to campaign finance reform, etc. She sounds like one of them, not one of us– and certainly not the kind of progressive Democrat that Edwards has evolved into. In fact, you have to ask yourself, is Kay Hagan really a Democrat in anything but name? Hers is the party of corporate campaign contributions that are exchanged for favors at the expense of regular folks.

It isn’t likely that a Republican-light version of Elizabeth Dole is going to beat Elizabeth Dole, regardless of what Chuck Schumer’s lizard brain is telling him. A few days ago the weekly paper in North Carolina’s most Democratic area made passionate endorsements of the two candidates for real change– Barack Obama for president and Jim Neal for U.S. Senator.

Read the full post - and join the conversation - at Daily Kos

By Ann Forte

RALEIGH — When North Carolinians vote in the primary on May 6, the state of the economy is sure to have an impact on their decision. According to a recent Elon University Public Policy Poll, 35 percent of those surveyed said the economy was the most pressing issue facing the Tar Heel State; gas prices came in a distant second at 9 percent.

It’s no secret that gas prices are at record highs and the state unemployment rate is up for the third month in a row. Both are signs of the weakening U.S. economy. When voters head to the polls, many said it will definitely be on their minds…

Chapel Hill businessman Jim Neal and state Sen. Kay Hagen are the frontrunners in the race. Neal said, if elected, he will invest in what he calls homegrown wealth. He said he believes by ending the war in Iraq and repealing some of the Bush tax cuts, the country can invest money in small businesses and entrepreneurship.

Read the full article, and watch a video clip, on the News 14 website

There has been much written about this race. Jim Neal is a successful businessman with progressive ideals who is willing to fight for what he believes. Kay Hagan is a corporate Democrat that is most famous in North Carolina for proposing a budget that cut Medicaid to the blind, elderly, and seniors while also cutting taxes for corporations and citizens making over $250,000…

However, the DSCC has decided that Kay Hagan is their candidate. Take this little info that was slipped into a blog by well-respected North Carolina Journalist and Blogger Mark Binker:

Hagan is rolling with DSCC-vetted staffers…

The following is a rough transcript of a forum that took place recently in North Carolina…

Question: If you had to deal with President McCain, how would you deal with that and implement some different Iraq policy:

Neal: “Any of us up here will do a hell of lot better job than Senator Dole. With respect to Iraq, this is one thing that distinguishes me….I will not vote for any further funding for the war until such time as the administration has come to the Congress and has a discussion where the order is given to bring our trips home orderly and quickly. I can’t tell you how long it will take…”

Hagan: “First of all, I would never use the funding of the military as a political tool to not fund the military. However, I think what I would do is hold hearings after hearings after hearings.”

Who do you want standing next to Harry Reid, Jon Tester, and Jim Webb when the next Senate battle begins. A corporate, Lieberman-Democrat, or Jim Neal, a progressive who stands up for what he believes?

The DSCC has decided it knows best, show them they are wrong. Give to Jim Neal and if you are in North Carolina, go to early voting now and cast your ballot for Jim Neal! If you are in North Carolina and want a chance to meet Jim Neal, you can find him here.

Read the full post and join the discussion on BlueNC

by Bob Geary

A blue April sky beckoned some 250 Democrats to the 10th Congressional District straw poll in the Catawba County town of Newton Saturday. When the speeches were done and the votes counted, there was only one big surprise: For the U.S. Senate nomination, Chapel Hill businessman Jim Neal ran ahead of state Sen. Kay Hagan, D-Guilford, 127 votes to 108. Three other, minor candidates received no votes.

The 10th is a heavily Republican district in th foothills, and this was a self-selected group of its Democrats, so it’s debatable how indicative the results were of the statewide May 6 primary. At a minimum, though, they are evidence that Neal’s grassroots campaign poses a challenge to Hagan’s status as the presumptive nominee.

That’s what WTVD, Durham’s ABC station, thought too when it set out months ago to arrange a televised Hagan-Neal debate. Two WTVD-commissioned polls by SurveyUSA, including one taken in early April, showed the two candidates in a virtual dead heat with more than half the voters undecided.

Neal wanted in, but Hagan didn’t, and last week she made it official: Hagan won’t debate Neal head-to-head…

Read the full article on the Independent Weekly website

…May 6 is also important for North Carolina Democrats because it is the day they pick the candidate to go up against one of Bush’s most pathetic rubber stamp lemmings, Senator Liddy Dole. Blue America has strongly endorsed grassroots progressive Jim Neal. Neal is being challenged by another Insider, Kay Hagan, who was recruited by Chuck “Lizard Brain” Schumer who doesn’t think North Carolina voters are sophisticated enough to elect an openly gay men to the Senate. So far Jim has been holding his own in polls– and even beat the Republican-lite Hagan in a straw poll, 54-46%. And he beat her in one of the most conservative districts in the state, the 10th CD, home of the diminutive neo-fascist congressman and betrayer of military secrets, Patrick McHenry.

The clueless Hagan, whose positions mirror Dole’s and Bush’s in many areas, has chosen to avoid debates with the articulate Jim Neal and is blanketing the state with slick– and very expensive– TV spots (paid for by special interests lobbyists, of course, who are eager to see her elected where she will work for them instead of working families).

Jim is supporting Obama for president and Hagan is frightened and laying low, though Clinton surrogates are campaigning for her.

North Carolina media has taken note of Hagen’s disingenuous campaign. Friday the Ashville Citizen-Times reported that Hagan has refused to participate in a serious, televised debate….

Read the full post at Down With Tyranny!

U.S. Senate: Jim Neal

“Neal promises that if elected to the US Senate, he will use technology to manage health care; expand insurance to all Americans; improve preventative medicine; protect Social Security from privatization; focus on energy independence; withdraw from Iraq; increase job security for middle-class families; protect clean water and air; focus on “hometown wealth” and rural entrepreneurship; promote an increase in Pell grants and “targeted federal research grants”; “scrap No Child Left Behind”; and push for more focus on community colleges.

When asked if he would have voted to confirm US Attorney General Judge Mukasey, Neal said, “Hell, no! I wouldn’t support anybody who has to parse words about whether or not water-boarding is torture.” Neal is also opposed to immunity for telecom companies.

“Our current leadership is asleep at the switch. There are crucial decisions that need to be made by experienced professionals. As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned how one manages change to make the difference between falling behind and leaping ahead of the competition.”

Jim Neal visited Boone and was smart and appealing. He claims he will win based on grassroots support in spite of Hagan’s money and insider endorsements. At a recent Young Democrats Convention, James Carville suggested that Kay Hagan was the only viable candidate, not knowing Neal was in the room. Neal responded, “We have primaries here in North Carolina. We don’t have coronations.” http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/jim_vs_james”

Read the full article on the Pam’s Picks website

by Lauren K. Ohnesorge

U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal won North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District’s Democratic Straw Poll Saturday with 54 percent of the vote.

Neal told the press over the weekend that “despite being outspent two to one,” his message is getting through. District Chairman Tony McEwen says strength for a Democratic candidate in “this type of more rural setting is a great indicator of which candidates will fare best in the general election.”

Read the full article on GoBlueRidge.net

“You have to meet Jim Neal. He is running for Senate in North Carolina and he did a video to introduce himself to AMERICAblog’s readers:

“Jim is a proud Democrat running for Senate. And, clearly, he is right on the issues. He’ll run circles around Liddy Dole…”

Read AMERICAblog’s full endorsement post here

AMERICAblog set up their own ActBlue contribution page for Jim.

By Robert Boyer / Times-News

At first glance, Democrat Jim Neal seems to be waging an uphill battle for the U.S. Senate.

In the May 6 primary, he must defeat state Sen. Kay Hagan and three challengers for the Democratic nomination. The state Democratic party has more or less endorsed Hagan as the nominee.

If Neal manages to clear that hurdle, he will face Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in the general election on Nov. 4.

Hagan, from Greensboro, is finishing her fifth term in the state Senate; over the last three, she has cochaired the powerful Senate budget committee.

Dole has been a player on the national political stage for more than 30 years. Her resume includes jobs in five presidential administrations, including two cabinet posts: U.S. transportation secretary under president Ronald Reagan, and secretary of labor under President George H.W. Bush.

Neal is liberal, gay and making his first run for political office. Aside from former U.S. senators John Edwards and Terry Sanford, since 1980, North Carolina voters have tended to elect conservative Senate candidates like Dole.

But voters are ready for a change, Neal says. When it comes to his bid for the Democratic nomination, two polls show him in a tight race with Hagan, he adds.

Neal stressed the message of change to about 20 students at Elon University on Tuesday.

The visit is part of Neal’s grass roots campaign to reach out to voters who he says are disenchanted with politics as usual.

Read the full article at TheTimesNews.com

Under The Dome (The News & Observer)

Jim Neal called out James Carville at the Young Democrats convention.

At a private reception before his luncheon speech, the Democratic political consultant and commentator met with Young Democrats and others who paid $50 a ticket.

The reception was closed to the press, but Neal and others described what happened inside to Dome afterward.

At one point, Carville said that North Carolina has a great Senate candidate in Kay Hagan, noting that he had just spoken with her daughter, Carrie.

Neal, who is running against Hagan for the Democratic nomination, spoke out from the back of the room.

“I said, ‘We have primaries here in North Carolina. We don’t have coronations,’” Neal said later.

He said Carville did not respond.

“It was the first time I’ve ever seen him quiet,” Neal said.

http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/jim_vs_james

By MIKE BAKER
Associated Press Writer

NEW BERN, N.C. - All five Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate, meeting in a debate for the first time Friday, agreed to end the war in Iraq, but the front-runners disagreed on how quickly troops should be pulled from the country.

State Sen. Kay Hagan said the war should not end immediately.

“I don’t think we can pull out just on Day 1,” the Greensboro Democrat said in the forum hosted by Public Radio East and the North Carolina League of Women Voters. “I think we need to have a diplomatic surge. This needs a political solution.”

Hagan’s chief rival, Chapel Hill corporate financial adviser Jim Neal, disagreed, saying saying he would even vote in Congress to withhold war funding in an effort to end the conflict.

“The time to talk about a diplomatic surge is way over,” Neal said. “It’s time to get out of Iraq.”

Read the full article at the Winston-Salem Journal website

If you believe new political media and Internet politics can beat old political media and old-boy politics, keep a close eye on the NC Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

The contrast is stark in the Democratic race to choose an opponent for Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole. On one side is Jim Neal of Chapel Hill, who is running full throttle through the blogosphere. On the other is State Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro, who was handpicked by traditional Democratic organizations in Raleigh and Washington, DC.

Even their campaign web pages paint a clear contrast between new and traditional.

Read the full article on Talk Politics

Rob Christensen, Staff Writer

WINSTON-SALEM - Even while he was pursuing high finance on Wall Street, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, Jim Neal always had one eye trained on a political career.

After returning home to North Carolina in 2006, Neal wasted little time in plunging into a U.S. Senate race that scared away most of the state’s big-name Democrats: taking on Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

Neal is running as a political outsider, a newcomer hoping to ride the national mood for change, for new faces and for nontraditional candidates. At a time when Democrats nationally — and in North Carolina — are wrestling with whether to nominate a black candidate or a woman for president, Neal is seeking to become the second openly gay Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in American history.

Despite his background in big business and large-scale political fundraising, Neal says he has fewer ties to special interests than other candidates. Neal’s major rival in the May 6 Democratic primary is state Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro, who has the backing of much of the party establishment. Three other Democrats are waging lower-profile, long-shot campaigns for the nomination.

“This is the year when Americans will own our democracy,” Neal recently told a Democratic gathering in Winston-Salem.

On Tuesday, Neal endorsed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race…

Read the full article at the News & Observer website

By Leigh Coker Mullinax
Special to the Watauga Democrat

Jim Neal, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, made a coffee stop in Boone last Saturday.

Neal met with residents of the High Country at Espresso News in Boone on March 15, with around 15- 20 people attending the 3 p.m. meeting, including teachers, college students, nurses, retired citizens, business owners and even Boone mayor Loretta Clawson.

Neal wanted to meet in Boone for several reasons.

“I am running to be a public servant…working for all the people of North Carolina. And all does not mean just people that just live on the I-85/I-40 corridor,” Neal said.

Neal is running what he calls a “grassroots” campaign, trying to have as many “meet and greets” as possible.

Neal said he wants to earn the trust of people of all walks of life, and at every place he has gone, both small town and larger cities, he has learned something new from the people. By the end of his campaign, he hopes to reach an excess of 70 counties.

“How can I go to Washington and represent the voices of the people of this state, if I do not go out and hear them, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Neal said. “I want to come and hear people’s hopes, fears, and dreams.”

Read the full article at The Watauga Democrat web site

…The battle now moves back to the Senate, where there are even more conservative Democrats who have taken huge amounts of corporate bribes from the Telecoms and who are backing Bush and his Republican rubber stamps. Jim Neal is a Democrat running for the Senate against one of those rubber stamps (Elizabeth Dole)– and, in the North Carolina primary, against a reactionary Democrat who has said she favors retroactive immunity, Kay Hagen– and he responded to today’s vote in the House very positively with a letter to North Carolina voters:

The latest FISA bill, approved by the House, is about protecting our Constitutional freedoms and our nation.

It is the duty of any elected official to protect the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.

That is why I oppose any law that grants telecommunication companies retroactive immunity for collaborating with the Bush Administration’s warrantless, illegal wiretapping of Americans’ private conversations.

Our Constitution limits unchecked government power by giving the Courts and Congress the power to oversee the actions of the Executive Branch.

This Administration prefers to act in secret– above the law and beyond the Constitution.

That’s not what democracy is about folks. If Americans can’t have privacy in their conversations, then where can we have privacy? What’s next?

I’d bet that any agreement the telecom companies made to provide customers’ private records to the Administration included a guarantee that the government, not the companies, would be responsible for any lawsuits that might arise. I’ve worked with many Fortune 500 companies– and their lawyers are smart enough to require that kind of legal immunity.

The Administration, again, is trying to smokescreen its shady backroom dealings from the American people which it profoundly distrusts.

Read the full post at downwithtyranny.com 

By Jimmy Ryals
The Daily Reflector

U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal brought his “different kind of statewide campaign” to Greenville on Tuesday night.

Neal, a Greensboro Democrat, spoke to local Democrats at Sheppard Memorial Library. During an interview before his appearance, Neal said he’s eschewing consultant- and media-driven campaigning for a more direct appeal to voters.

“What we’re doing is trying to restore representative government,” Neal said. “I want to go out and listen to people.”

To that end, Neal said he’s touring the state to hear from voters directly. So far, he’s reached roughly 50 counties. His appearance Tuesday was his second in Pitt County since entering the race. Neal spoke at East Carolina University in January.

During that tour, Neal said, a sagging economy has surpassed the war in Iraq as the dominant issue in the campaign. He proposed launching a government purchase of subprime mortgage loans whose holders are in danger of foreclosure for nonpayment. Homeowners would then renegotiate their loans to get more manageable payments.

Modeled on a similar 1930s, Depression-era program, such an effort would stabilize the economy, Neal said.

“Nobody’s getting bailed out,” he said. “It’s not bailing out banks because they’ve already recorded the losses what it’s doing is providing stability to homeowners for their principal asset.”

While Neal described himself as a “fiscal conservative,” he said the federal government should fund more economic development efforts in rural areas.

Read the full article at The Daily Reflector

By Eric Klamut

A Chapel Hill businessman seeking the seat of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., campaigned Monday in Rocky Mount.

Jim Neal, 51, a Democrat, spoke to local residents at Braswell Memorial Library on a variety of issues ranging from the local economy to the Iraq war.

An investment banker by trade, Neal stressed the importance of changing leadership in North Carolina and in Washington, D.C. He is one of five Democrats seeking the party’s nod for the Senate seat in the May primary.

“I believe that this year’s election is the most important one in my life,” Neal said. “The real story is not about Jim Neal, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton; it’s about voters.

“This is the year you get to vote for what you want, not for what they tell you.”

Read the full article at RockyMountTelegram.com

By Howie Klein

Enthusiastic progressives often suggest candidates for Blue America. We encourage that. I have to say, though, that since the beginning of Blue America in 2005 no candidate has come close to the amount of requests that we’ve had in regard to today’s guest, Jim Neal.

I’ve been talking with him on the phone for several months, following his campaign closely at Pam’s House Blend and I have come to understand why people are so excited about the prospect of Jim Neal replacing Bush rubber stamp, Elizabeth Dole, in the U.S. Senate… in a seat once held by arch-reactionary Jesse Helms. The delicious irony however is just a small bonus.

Jim Neal in the Senate would go a long way towards righting the wrongs that have been inflicted on our country in recent years by corporatist rule.

Read the full endorsement, and comments from a live blog event with Jim Neal, at Firedoglake.com

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/27/131315/175

I received an email from a guy at Jim Neal’s campaign after I wrote about Kay Hagan recently. Apparently, they thought I could be nudged from “Like Hagan but can’t find fault with Neal” to “Ohhh… decisions, decisions” or even “Hagan who?” with a short conversation.

They might just have been right.

I just got off the phone with Jim Neal…

Read the full post at Sarah Beth Jones

by Mark Binker
News & Record

RALEIGH - Ask 10 voters who identify themselves as “progressive” Democrats what their wing of the party believes in, and you might very well get 10 different answers.

Passionate and motivated, progressives - particularly the activists among them - are not given to lockstep thinking.

Still, those who identify themselves as progressives seem to be rallying more to Chapel Hill financial adviser Jim Neal than to Greensboro state Sen. Kay Hagan .

The voting bloc is far from decisive. But if the trend holds, it could be good news for Neal, whose campaign relies on the grass-roots one-on-one politicking that progressive activists favor.

Read the full article at News & Record

by Howie Klein,
DownWithTyranny!

Polls in North Carolina are showing a dead heat between progressive Jim Neal and insider Establishment Democrat, Kay Hagan. Both candidates are vying for the seat currently held by Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole. Hagan has the very Old School Inside the Beltway approach of trying to blur differences between herself and Dole and make them fuzzy. No one will ever accuse Jim Neal of that! Just take a look at how strongly and resolutely he’s been speaking out about Bush’s warrantless wiretaps and retroactive immunity– while Hagan does the ole “me too” to Dole’s rubber stamp routine.

As the insurgent Democrat running for this seat, Neal can use our support. On Feb 29th, volunteers around North Carolina and beyond will be holding Leap Friday house parties around the state. And on March 1 Jim will be doing his first live blog session at Firedoglake. (I think you know what that means.)

I asked Jeff Smith, a Boston-based sculptor and an editor of Literary Outpost, to write up his interview with Jim for DWT.

Read the full article, including interview with Jim Neal, at downwithtyranny.blogspot.com

By Keith T. Barber
Lumina News

Characterizing U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole as a career politician out of touch with the challenges facing ordinary North Carolinians, Jim Neal, a candidate for Dole’s Senate seat, spoke to a group of approximately 20 people at Leutze Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) last Thursday.

“She’s a career politician who’s spent her entire life under the bubble in Washington,” Neal, a Chapel Hill resident, said. “She has no sense what the people in North Carolina are experiencing on a day-to-day basis. She is doing a reprehensible job representing our state. She’s doing a reprehensible job representing our country.”

Neal, a former financial analyst and investment banker, said UNCW was one of more than 30colleges and universities he’s visited in recent weeks to make his case for the democratic nomination. Neal said his motivation in seeking the nomination was simple, yet powerful: “Providing a voice to the people of North Carolina who don’t give large sums of money to Sen. Dole, who aren’t part of a special interest group and for whom she works, but she has completely lost her allegiance,” Neal said.

 Read the full article at Lumina News

By Jim Neal : Jan 30, 2008

heraldsun.com 

Guest columnist — I read that Angelo Mozilo, CEO of failed mortgage giant Countrywide Financial, is “giving back” $37 million of the severance package he negotiated for himself.

He’d like us to overlook that fact that he will still walk away from Countrywide with more than $40 million — and that’s on top of $387 million he earned while driving that company into the ground.

So much for personal responsibility. So much for responsible governance by corporate directors.

It’s not right that a CEO so entwined with the mortgage crisis rocking world financial markets gets a huge payoff while the rest of us have to live with — and clean up — the mess.

President Bush, his economic advisors and financial chiefs around the world, say we need to restore confidence in the banking system and the economy.

Well, I tell you, it would go a long way to restore my confidence in the system to know Mozilo will be held responsible for the wreckage at Countrywide.

For decades, hard-working Americans have been asked to sacrifice their pay raises, pensions and even their jobs to “make companies more efficient in a global economy.” They made these sacrifices even as they met or exceeded all the goals management set.

Meanwhile, corporate CEOs enrich themselves even when they destroy American companies and jobs. Our free enterprise system doesn’t reward folks on Main Street for failing, and it shouldn’t reward CEOs on Wall Street who fail either.

To restore accountability as well as confidence, the directors of Bank of America, slated to acquire Countrywide, should freeze Mozilo’s entire pay package. He really ought to return the third of a billion he earned while he was destabilizing the world economy.

I would expect that corporate leaders had learned a lesson from the ruin left in the wake of renegade corporations like Enron and WorldCom. Employees left with worthless pension accounts and no job sure did.

Countrywide and the broader credit crisis show that folks on Main Street do best when someone is watching out for them in Washington and not on Wall Street. That’s what our government is supposed to do. Senator Dole, are you listening?

But too often, politicians protect big campaign contributors rather than regular citizens. It’s time Washington and Wall Street got the message: start doing what’s best for all Americans.

And let’s remember the conservative principles of personal responsibility apply to the fellows at the top of the heap as well as those on the bottom.

Jim Neal, candidate for U.S. Senate, worked as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street, and now lives in Orange County. His campaign headquarters is in Durham.

U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal told his alma mater he’d play hardball to end the war in Iraq.”Congress should use the opportunity to deny the president the money to wage his war, in order to get him to come to the negotiating table,” Neal told The Daily Tar Heel, UNC Chapel Hill’s student newspaper, in an interview.

“Would I (use) defense authorization spending as a tool to block the president’s war and to put responsibility in his court? You’re damn straight.”

Neal, a Democratic contender for the seat now held by Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., said he wouldn’t do anything to put troops in harm’s way.

Neal also told the student paper he can relate to economic difficulties.

“I’ve also stood in an unemployment line,” the Chapel Hill investment banker said. “You know when you’ve been there, you understand more what it’s like for people who are in that position.”

Charlotte Observer 

By Matt Shaw | Daily Times Staff Writer
The Wilson Times

Jim Neal passed through Wilson Wednesday on a route that, he hopes, will lead to the U.S. Senate.

Neal, a Democrat seeking U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s seat, attended a fund-raising event Wednesday night hosted by Allen Thomas Jr., Page and Eliot Smith, and Susan and Tom Hackney.

Before that, he stopped by the Daily Times’ offices.

Kay Hagan, a five-term state senator from Greensboro, has also declared her candidacy for Dole’s seat and looms as perhaps Neal’s biggest competition in the May 6 Democratic primary. Filing doesn’t begin until next month.

During his talk at the Daily Times, Neal called himself “a different type of animal” from Hagan.

“I am someone who is going to go to Washington and do what I’m going to say that I’ll do,” he said. “I am a candidate from the real world, not the political one.”

Read the full article at WilsonTimes.com

by Amy Kingsley
Yes! Weekly

To honor the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Democratic candidate for US Senate Jim Neal joined other politicians and congregants in the vaulted nave of Greensboro’s St. James Presbyterian Church for an ecumenical service.

The service followed four previous King day events, including a pre-dawn prayer breakfast in Charlotte, and a weekend of barnstorming tied to the holiday. One of his first stops on Jan. 19 was the Man Up Conference at NC Central University, a historically black college in Durham. The overarching message of the event, he said, stressed perseverance.

“Don’t give up,” Neal said. “If you can’t knock on a door, or you can’t open one, then build one.”

A similar ethic fuels Neal’s candidacy. Neal, a former investment banker and fundraiser for presidential candidates John Kerry and Wes Clark, is one of the top two Democratic challengers for the seat currently held by Republican Elizabeth Dole, quite a feat, considering his political inexperience. The other is NC Sen. Kay Hagan, a veteran lawmaker who represents Greensboro.

Read the full article at Yes! Weekly

Results of a new poll by Research 2000, commissioned by Daily Kos.

Read all about it here: NC-Sen: Baseline poll, Dole under 50

“…Unfortunately, neither Senator Dole nor Senator Burr dared take their constituents’ side in a disagreement with a telecomm equipment giant at an appeals hearing. I don’t know if they owed this company anything or if they just didn’t give a flying flip about their constituents, but those tech support workers never got Trade Affected retraining benefits.

And that is what regular people are up against. That is why we need someone in the White House who is experienced at dueling with schmooozers, schmucks, slime balls, palm greasers and arrogant, out-of-control, greedy corporate attitudes.

That’s why I support John Edwards for president.

That is also why I support Brad Miller for Congress, Jim Neal for US Senate, Larry Kissell for Congress, Harry Taylor for Congress and Marshall Adame for Congress.

That is why we all want more and better Democrats, isn’t it? We want our country back!! We want to know our parents are ok, that we can take care of them and our kids if we need to, that all kids have opportunities to pursue their dreams and develop their gifts and skills — even if we do live on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks. Right?”

Read the full post on dailykos.com

by Anglico
BlueNC.com

…Jim Neal gave a rousing speech and won over a number of folks who came to size him up. This guy is great at retail politics. Good solid answers to good questions on energy, immigration, and Bush’s War, in particular.

A big highlight for me was the significant blogger turn-out…

Read the full post at BlueNC

Asheville Citizen Times

by Jordan Schrader

ASHEVILLE - U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal planned today to finish up a three-day trip to Asheville, where he met with potential supporters of his bid to take on Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The Chapel Hill financial adviser is a newcomer to politics, something he says is well-received by the people he is meeting from the WNC business community.

“They want fresh faces,” he said. “What I’m hearing overwhelmingly is they’re tired of politicians, professional politicians.”

He faces a better-known opponent in the Democratic primary, state Sen. Kay Hagan, a budget chairwoman in the General Assembly.

In an interview, Neal spoke about his campaign, health care, the war in Iraq and other topics:

Read the full article at Asheville Citizen Times

by Gordon Smith,
Scrutiny Hooligans

Jim Neal, Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, has been in Asheville for the last few days meeting people and stirring support. He was the first Democrat to declare his intention to run against Elizabeth “No Show” Dole, though NC State Senator Kay Hagan jumped in fairly quickly thereafter.

Along with Anne Walch and Joel Schechet, I met Jim Neal at the Earth Fare cafe for a chat. Neal quickly removed his tie and asked us which issues we were most concerned about. For an hour and a half we peppered the candidate with questions, and our discussions took us from Health Care to Nuclear Nonproliferation to Mental Health Services. Well-spoken and forthright, the candidate impressed me as the real deal. We’ve got a race.

Read the full article at Scrutiny Hooligans

Salisbury Post
By Steve Huffman

Jim Neal was supposed to have been at the Salisbury Post for an interview at 6 p.m. Thursday, but he arrived almost 40 minutes late.

And so Neal, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, did what any self-respecting parent would do:

He blamed his tardiness on his son, Winston.

“Tonight, my son is — in political speak — my advance man,” Neal said. “And so it’s his job to get me to my appointments on time. I told him, ‘This is your fault.’ ”

And then Neal laughed heartily, making it clear that if Winston was in fact to blame, the punishment wasn’t likely to be severe.

Neal, a Chapel Hill resident, is one of two Democrats to have filed to challenge Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole for her U.S. Senate seat. Kay Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, is the other.

Neal, 51, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. He’s an investment banker.

In addition to his son Winston, 20, Neal is also the father of 22-year-old James. Neal was married in 1979 and divorced in the 1980s. According to members of his campaign staff, he raised the boys largely on his own.

Neal is articulate, funny and smart. He’s also gay, a revelation that’s made his bid for the Senate newsworthy in places where his candidacy might otherwise have gone all but unnoticed.

Read the full article at the Salisbury Post

Listen to audio MP3 of Jim’s Interview

Michelangelo Signorile’s website is at HittingHard.org

by Pam Spaulding
Pam’s House Blend

North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal stopped by Pam’s House Blend last night to do his first forum ever on an LGBT blog. It was a whirlwind hour of Q&A with Blenders.

As liveblogging is a virtual speed session, and Jim Neal was peppered with a ton of questions on a wide range of issues — not just LGBT ones — I’m posting this summary (and cleaned up typos) for easy reading:

What North Carolinians are looking for in a Senator:
North Carolinians– like the rest of the USA– are fed up with professional politicians. They are disillusioned– the approval ratings for the Dem Party is below that of the President. They want leaders who offer real solutions to the war, economic security and rising health care costs.

Some Washington insiders think I should get out of the race– but my opponents don’t have the advantage I do of genuine outsider status. I’m not a politician and I’m proud of that. It’s my strong suit– but it makes me more dependent on the financial support of people just like all of you– be it big or small dollars.

I’ve had to balance and draw up budgets for small and big businesses. I’ve worked in the private sector and not inside a political bubble. We have to spend within our means– and this Administration and its political enablers like Mrs. Dole in the Congress don’t have a clue as to how to do that.

Read the full post on Pam’s House Blend

By Bob Geary
The Independent Weekly

Jim Neal doesn’t like being called a “cause” candidate. Not if the cause is that he happens to be gay. He’d rather be seen, in his U.S. Senate campaign, as a man with “real-world experience” who’s ready to tackle the nation’s biggest military and domestic problems.

However, the way the Democratic Party establishment has dissed the 51-year-old Chapel Hill investment banker’s candidacy since he announced his intentions to run four weeks ago has made him into a cause for many progressives and gay-rights activists.

Read the full article at the Independent Weekly

Pam Spaulding
Pandagon Blog

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, charged with electing Democrats to the United States Senate, asked State Sen. Kay Hagan to run. She initially showed interest in challenging Elizabeth Dole, but she stepped aside when the DSCC decided to favor prospect state Rep. Grier Martin. When Martin didn’t bite, the Dems were left without anyone to field against Liddy Dole, a weak, ineffective tool of the Bush Administration.

In jumped businessman and NC native Jim Neal. In the process he also announced matter of factly that yes, he was gay, and that he was running on the issues and was ready to sweep Dole out.

The first sign something was afoot at the DSCC is that two weeks after Neal announced, his presence was nowhere to be found on its site as a challenger.

Hagen then miraculously announced last week that she had a change of heart and was getting in the race. Suddenly, the same day she announced and her web site went live, the DSCC web site was updated with all announced challengers.

The PC reason cited for Hagen getting in was that Jim Neal’s chances for beating Elizabeth Dole were slim because he’s a political newcomer (though he is a proven fundraiser), and he has little name recognition. That is completely disingenuous (Hagen doesn’t have name rec either). We’re not talking about a conspiracy; we’re talking about strings being pulled because pols here didn’t want to back an openly gay man already out there running…

Read the full article on Pandagon

Robert P on MyDD:

I, as much as anyone, have come out blasting the DSCC, the Democratic candidates, and anyone else who went looking for a new candidate just because Jim Neal was gay. That said, Hagan might very well make a great candidate. I would suggest that no one discount her because of when she came into the race or how. Anyone, except me that is. Because, for me, this race is about the heart of the Democratic Party in North Carolina and it is a gut check moment for Democrats around the country…

…The North Carolina Senate race has one man who is very progressive on the issues, every good Progressive should back him in this race. ESPECIALLY because the power-that-be don’t want you to back him. This race can be the one where we set forth, once and for all: You cannot believe in civil rights for some, only for all.

True progressives, true liberals, even true libertarians should flock to this race and do the one thing that will make Beltway pundits and power-brokers take notice - bankroll it.

Read the full post on MyDD

To say the least, we’re in a very teachable time on gay rights here in North Carolina:

Today, state Sen. Kay Hagan announced that she’s a candidate for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. The fact that the only other announced candidate, Jim Neal, is gay has absolutely nothing to do with her decision, Hagan told the Associated Press. [AP: Hagan said investment banker Jim Neal’s (D) entry into the race wasn’t a factor in her decision.] Really? Then why did Hagan announce three weeks ago that she would not be running?…

Read the full article on Citizen, the Raleigh blog of the Independent Weekly

by Ted Vaden, The News & Observer

Is the sexual orientation of Jim Neal relevant to his candidacy for the U.S. Senate? Yes, says The News & Observer, which disclosed Neal’s sexuality on the front page Tuesday, under the headline “Gay man’s race for Senate is a rarity.” Neal is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole. So far, he is the only Democrat in the race.

The N&O reported that Neal acknowledged that he is gay in response to a question on the local Web site BlueNC.com. He would be one of the nation’s few openly gay candidates for statewide office, the story said, and, if he wins the North Carolina nomination, only the second openly gay Senate nominee of a major political party in U.S. history.

Read the full article at The News & Observer 

Senate candidate says real-world experience, outsider status a plus

The Charlotte Observer 10.25.07 - The toughest task in N.C. politics could be unseating Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008. Well-known Democrats have taken a pass, but a lesser-known one, Jim Neal, says he’s going to win.

Read Jim Neal’s full interview with David Ingram and Mark Johnson.

Mark Binker, Capital Beat: U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal stopped by my office today and chatted for more than an hour about life, campaigning and living in the news cycle of the past 36 hours or so.

Part one (includes links to audio clip excerpts of interview): http://blog.news-record.com/staff/capblog/archives/2007/10/jim_neal_in_his.shtml

Part two (includes links to audio clip excerpts of interview):
http://blog.news-record.com/staff/capblog/archives/2007/10/more_jim_neal_i.shtml

“If you weren’t around BlueNC yesterday morning, you missed what may very well be the biggest story in North Carolina politics in decades. Live-blogging for an hour, Democratic candidate for Senate Jim Neal hung George Bush around Liddy Dole’s neck, and then dropped some big news…”

Read the rest of the diary and the ongoing discussion over at Daily Kos

I spent one hour yesterday talking with Jim Neal in his home. We mostly talked about life. And here’s what I learned.

Financial adviser is political newcomer

By Rob Christensen

News & Observer

When the big boys of the Democratic Party looked at next year’s race against Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole, they said “no thanks.”

But where others saw dangerous political shoals, Jim Neal, a 50-year-old former Wall Street investment banker, saw a political opportunity.

“Fortune favors the bold,” Neal said in an interview. “If there is one thing I’ve got, I’m fearless, I’ve got a lot of guts and I’m a fighter.” He doesn’t care “what the polls say right now about Elizabeth Dole versus Jim Neal or any other opponent.”

Read the full article at the News & Observer website

“After twists and turns, flirtations and family considerations, drafts and dodgers, North Carolina’s “telephone primary” is over. The waters have been tested, everyone’s made up their mind, and we have our candidate for defeating Dole in 2008: Jim Neal.”

Read the full dairy on the Daily Kos website

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Staff Writer

News & Observer

A Chapel Hill investment banker hopes to challenge U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.

Jim Neal, 50, is a relative unknown who has never run for political office. But he does have experience in an area that will matter a great deal in the race: fundraising.

In 2006, Neal took the year off from work to raise money for retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark’s and U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaigns.

He said he plans to take another year off and tap into that same network of donors to raise the millions necessary to challenge Dole, an incumbent who is nationally known.

“I’m looking forward to introducing myself to the electorate,” Neal said. “I don’t have any name recognition, so I’m going to spend the next year winning the confidence of the people of North Carolina.”

Read the full article on the News & Observer website

by Tim BoyumNews 14 Carolina

RALEIGH — Senator Elizabeth Dole now has an opponent for the 2008 election.

Democrat Jim Neal has filed the paperwork to run. He’s a relatively unknown candidate but does have fundraising connections.

Neal is a Chapel Hill investment banker with no experience as a political candidate.

“He’s known in the very inner circle of Democratic Party politics but to the average voter they are kind of going ‘who is this guy and what does he stand for?’” Peace College political pundit David McLennan said.

But Neal does have fundraising contacts. He helped raise money for and personally knows former presidential candidates John Kerry and Wesley Clark.

“Not too many people knew John Edwards before he ran and plenty of examples of those who sort of came out of nowhere and made themselves a candidate,” Chris Fitzsimon from NC Policy Watch said.
Read the full article on the News 14 Carolina website

Corporate financial adviser Jim Neal is in first run for office

by The Associated Press

Winston-Salem Journal

RALEIGH
Someone has finally gotten into the race to challenge U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole next year, as a Chapel Hill corporate financial adviser announced yesterday that he would run for the Democratic nomination.

The adviser, Jim Neal, a fundraiser for 2004 presidential candidates who has never run for public office, said he has formed an exploratory committee and has been out raising money. He filed his statement of candidacy with the U.S. Senate yesterday afternoon, a spokeswoman said.

“North Carolina deserves a hell of a lot better than a senator who serves nothing more than a rubber stamp for President Bush,” Neal said in an interview. “Like a lot of other people, I’m fed up with it.”

Read the full article on the Winston-Salem Journal website