Today the Winston-Salem Journal is reporting on a new horserace poll conducted by NCFREE in the open Senate race. It has Burr 3 points back from Bowles and within the margin of error. The survey was taken immediately after the GOP convention and before Burr went on television with his much talked about “tax” ad. The results differ significantly with other polls that have shown more distance between the two.

While this poll says nothing about who will eventually join Senator Dole in our delegation, it does suggest three things to me: 1) Fundraisers for both candidates will try to capitalize on it to collect money from waivering but not maxed-out contributors. Burr’s team will claim the ephemeral big ‘mo on his side. Bowles’ camp will stake out a position arguing for potential contributors to be the person who “helps him over the finish line.” 2) The availability of late-arriving money in other North Carolina races will diminish. 3) Even if the top of the ticket looks like it is secure, we are more likely to stay on the list of targeted states for national party surrogates. Burr and Bowles will continue to succeed in getting big names to stump in North Carolina because of bare majority control that exists in the U.S. Senate.

Hold on to your hats…the next 40 days should be interesting.