NC-Sen: Will Miller Run?

Although she's not on top of the list, Democrats are looking to take out Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina) next year. Earlier in the year, polling showed Governor Mike Easey (D-North Carolina) ahead of Dole in a potential matchup. While the Democrats haven't successfully lured the outgoing governor into the race, they do have a backup...Congressman Brad Miller of Raleigh.

Miller is slightly to the left of the state politically, but almost in the mold of John Edwards, who represented the state from 1999-2005. He represents the 13th district, a district with a slight Democratic lean that includes the northern portion of the state between Raleigh and Greensboro and up to the Virginia border.

A recent poll shows Miller trailing Dole by 11%, 44%-33%, but Miller is suffering from lack of name-identification and these a high number of undecideds, mostly Democrats and African-Americans. Dole is below 50%, a threshold at which an incumbent is considered vulnerable. Just a note of information; Lincoln Chafee, Conrad Burns, and George Allen were all over 50%, way over 50%, at this point in their campaigns, and they all lost last year.