Respected polling firm, Anzalone Liszt Research, has released a new poll for North Carolina's 8th Congressional District and it shows Larry Kissell with tremendous momentum pulling away from Republican incumbent Robin Hayes.

The number that first jumps out is the informed vote where Kissell leads Hayes by 7 points. (49% Kissell/42% Hayes) The informed vote poll is taken after a paragraph about each candidate is read to the voter. These paragraphs include platform statements and are not considered a negative push.

Looking over the poll it is hard to find anything that is negative for Larry Kissell, especially at this stage in the race. Despite his disadvantage in name recognition (89% Hayes/22% Kissell) Larry only trails Hayes by 8 points in a head to head initial vote.(46% Hayes/38% Kissell) In other words, Hayes can't garner 50% of the vote even with overwhelming name recognition.

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The joint netroots fundraisers have opened up the nominations for endorsements again.  Now that the May primary date has passed and Larry Kissell easily won in the 8th District it's time to make the case for his inclusion in the project.

First, Thank You to those who have supported Larry enthusiastically at DailyKos, MyDD, ePluribusMedia, and BlueNC through diaries written by his supporters and those he has written.  This truly is an amazing community and an invaluable resource to candidates and their supporters.  The campaign trail can be long and hard and it's wonderful to come here and feel the energy, which for us has been completely positive.  I have to admit, I'm not formally with the campaign.  I am an independent blogger, but my heart is behind Larry Kissell and I won't pretend to be even a tiny bit objective about his candidacy.

Please follow below the fold....

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Sam in DC here at My DD has posed an interesting question, and an inevitable one for anyone who has been reading my series on Rahm Emanuel (here and here and here and here and, most recetly, here). Should progressives starve the DSCC and the DCCC? This is what Sam wrote:

"As yesterday's disappointing episode on the Senate floor shows, there need to be new Dems representing us. While I would never jump ship and join another party, I do believe that we must show that these senators need to stand for something. I propose the netroots cut funding to the DNC, DSCC, and DCCC, so long as there are politicians within the party willing to be feed off our money, but refusing to stand for our principals."

[Let me break in here a moment and say that my own research has shown me that the DCCC under Boss Emanuel is the sworn and mortal enemy of progressive Democrats; to treat anything Emanuel-oriented differently than we'd treat something DeLay-oriented is something we-- progressives-- do at our peril. I am not as certain that the DSCC is as bad, although it looks pretty bad, especially if you look at the kind of assistance the DSCC is giving the odious Bob Casey against grassroots progressive Chuck Pennacchio in Pennsylvania. (I bet the DSCC would never get behind Carl Sheeler in his bid to dislodge Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island.) As for the DNC, I have no idea at all why Sam is lumping them in with these guys. The DNC seems to have reformed itself tremendously since the bad old days of Terry McCauliffe. I haven't seen even one instance of them doing anything to harm progressives or grassroots candidates and I have seen them doing a lot of good in terms of strengthening local Democratic parties and becoming less and less of an out-of-touch Beltway agency for politicians'-career-enhancement. I feel confident that the DNC should be left out of this move.] Back to Sam:

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