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…

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