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.
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