• Former Shelby Mayor Ted Alexander, who’s running for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination to face incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan, releases an ad touting his record and his comparative standing to his rivals in a recent poll.
• Eleven Senate Democrats, including Hagan, send a letter to President Obama urging him to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, and soon.
• Hagan also joins the assault against the billionaire Koch Brothers, who have funneled millions of dollars to Super PACs for ads opposing Democratic senators’ support of Obamacare. Several prominent Democrats, including West Va. Sen. Joe Manchin and North Carolina political consultant Thomas Mills, note that the Kochs aren’t running for any office and the strategy may backfire.
• The East Wake Republican Club will host a debate tonight featuring seven of the eight Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate. House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, will not be there. Donna Martinez, co-host of Carolina Journal Radio, will moderate.
• Dr. Greg Brannon, who’s running for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination, tells radio host Glenn Beck that he will win the May 6 Republican primary outright. Brannon would need to get 40 percent in the eight-candidate contest to avoid a runoff. Tillis has finished first in every independent poll reported so far, with Brannon finishing second in most of them.
