• Dr. Greg Brannon’s first ad supporting his U.S. Senate bid takes a swipe at GOP rival Thom Tillis, the state House speaker from Mecklenburg County.
http://youtu.be/cCIor3uft-8
• Keith Gary Ruehl, a Buncombe County business owner who switched his affiliation from Republican to Democrat in September, filed for the Democratic nomination in the 11th Congressional District. Ruehl plans to take on GOP Rep. Mark Meadows, who’s seeking his second term in Congress.
• The left-leaning League of Conservation Voters issued its latest congressional scorecard, dinging representatives who supported fracking, traditional energy sources, and other issues important to the environmental establishment. Not surprisingly, Republicans generally scored poorly. Reps. Renee Ellmers (2nd District) and Patrick McHenry (10th) scored 0 percent. Rep. Walter Jones (3rd District) was the only House Republican from North Carolina to reach double digits, at 18 percent.
• The Republican National Committee has launched an ad on YouTube attacking Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan for her support of Obamacare.
http://youtu.be/kOclEleRvxw
• State Democratic Party Chairman Randy Voller (for now) has backed away from his plan to name controversial civil rights activist Ben Chavis as the party’s executive director. As the news story suggests, Voller wants Chavis in the post but plenty of Democratic leaders in the state rejecting placing someone with Chavis’ checkered past as a prominent party official in an election year.
• The list of candidates who had filed as of the end of business Tuesday is here (PDF).
