RALEIGH -- Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and former state Sen. Cal Cunningham are headed to a Senate primary runoff, meaning that the Democrats will duke it out for the next seven weeks rather than take on the Republicans.
Marshall led Tuesday's Democratic primary with 36 percent of the vote, just short of the 40 percent needed to clinch her party's nomination. Cunningham immediately called for a runoff, which will be held June 22.
"For the last year he has run a clean campaign. If he decides to continue this campaign for another seven weeks we will beat him again with a larger margin than we did tonight," Marshall told a crowd of cheering supporters at about 10:20 p.m. at Raleigh's Brownstone Hotel near downtown.
Minutes later, at his campaign party in Lexington, Cunningham said he was ready for round two.
"I just spoke with Miss Marshall," Cunningham said. "I told her I hope we can continue to conduct this campaign in the same manner that we conducted it so far. I admire her tremendously. I look forward to seeing her on the campaign trail. We will prevail on June 22nd."
In an interview, Marshall called her 10-point lead "significant" and said having a runoff "would be contrary to a united party." But she did not call for Cunningham to drop out, saying it was his decision.
"I wasn't planning on taking a vacation anyway," she said.
Both Marshall and Cunningham immediately began courting the other four Democrats in the race, particularly Chapel Hill lawyer Ken Lewis, who finished with 17 percent of the vote. Lumberton lawyer Marcus Williams finished with 8 percent, retired accountant Susan Harris of Old Fort had 7 percent and Ann Worthy, a Gastonia teacher, had 4 percent.
Winner faces Burr
The winner will take on Republican Sen. Richard Burr, who easily won the Republican nomination with 80 percent of the vote over Larry Linney of Charlotte, Brad Jones of Hendersonville and Eddie Burks of Asheboro.
"I have a strong record in the Senate fighting for issues important to North Carolinians," Burr said in a statement issued from Washington where his Democratic opponents noted he was attending a fundraiser. "It will be up to North Carolinians to decide if I have upheld my commitment and allow me to continue my service to this state."
It was a gritty performance for Marshall, 64, a four-term secretary of state. She won despite a lack of money, being overlooked by the national Democratic Party establishment and even losing her husband to cancer in November.
What she did have was a strong grass-roots network of support, particularly among older women who have followed her career since she first beat NASCAR legend Richard Petty in 1996.
Cunningham's disappointing showing was a setback for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which had recruited him into the Senate race. The committee viewed the square-jawed Iraq war veteran with the degree from the London School of Economics as the strongest possible opponent for Burr.
GOP sneers
The Republicans chortled over Cunningham's failure.
"Cal Cunningham, the hand-picked Democrat establishment candidate, has proven a weaker candidate than his party bosses in Washington had hoped as they were unable to drag him across the finish line today," said Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
"Meanwhile those same party bosses have snubbed Secretary of State Elaine Marshall's candidacy, and it remains to be seen whether they will financially back her campaign if she becomes the party's nominee next month."
The major issue in the Democratic primary was the economy, and which candidate was best equipped to address North Carolina's high unemployment rate.
While the general election will provide sharp ideological contrasts, the primary offered few policy differences among the candidates.
The major difference was Afghanistan. Marshall was the only Democrat in the field to appeal to the anti-war vote, voicing opposition to the Obama administration's surge in Afghanistan. She said U.S. anti-terrorism efforts should be spread out over the country, and that the U.S. wasting money trying to build a corrupt government.
Cunningham said his time in Iraq, where he was an Army lawyer, proved to him the value of counter-insurgency efforts in fighting terrorism.
Marshall, was the best known of the candidates, had led in the polls throughout the primary. She campaigned as someone who had modernized the secretary's office, and who aggressively policed securities fraud, and pushed for lobbying reform.
She was disappointed when she was unable to get the backing of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, an arm of the national party, which saw her poor showing in the 2002 Senate Democratic primary and her difficulty in raising money as signs that she would not do well against Burr.
The national party helped Cunningham raise money that enabled him to run three weeks of slickly produced TV commercials, allowing him to close the gap with Marshall. He campaigned on two main themes: that he would focus his energy on restoring jobs and that he was best positioned to take on Burr.
Lewis' effort fails
The third major candidate, Lewis, a 48-year-old Harvard-educated business lawyer, was inspired to enter the race by President Barack Obama's success. Lewis gained the backing of many of the major black political figures in the state such as former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, who cut a radio ad for Lewis.
But as a political neophyte, Lewis struggled to find his footing and was unable to raise the money necessary to get his message to the voters.
Mamie Burdick, 73, a retired teacher from Durham, said she voted for Cunningham, even though she liked Lewis and Marshall just fine.
"I thought he had the best chance against Richard Burr," said Burdick, who voted at Parkwood Volunteer Fire Department in South Durham. "He [Burr] voted solidly with the Republican Party and he never seemed to think there were other people in this state."
Staff writers Ben Niolet, Lynn Bonner and Fred Clasen-Kelly contributed to this story.
