Charlotte looks like front-runner for convention

There seems to be a buzz building about Charlotte as a likely spot for the 2012 Democratic convention.

Several observers think Charlotte is the early front-runner to win out over St. Louis, Minneapolis and Cleveland - the other cities on the short list.

Among them is Chuck Todd, chief White House correspondent for NBC News.

"Everything we're hearing points to Charlotte as the front-runner - given that's a keycity in a battleground state where demographics are trending Democratic, while St. Louis is in a state where the state is slowly growing toward the Republicans," Todd wrote on his blog First Read.

Mike Allen, who writes the widely read daily column Playbook for the website Politico, wrote: "Playbook predicts Charlotte! (with St Louis as backup)"

Well-known liberal blogger and author Jerome Armstrong writes, "I still think Charlotte is the favorite," although he said Charlotte's anti-union sentiment could hurt it. He sees Cleveland as the backup because Ohio could be critical to the Democrats' chances.

Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced the four finalists last week. Party officials will visit the four cities this summer to scout them out.

Polls are ambivalent

You could call North Carolina Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan the Bobbsey Twins of Tar Heel politics.

They have nearly identical standing in the polls - and in this case that is not a good thing.

Burr is viewed favorably by 33 percent of North Carolina voters and unfavorably by 26 percent, with 29 percent having no opinion, according to a new poll conducted for the Civitas Institute.

That is very similar to Hagan, who is viewed favorably by 32 percent of the voters, unfavorably by 27 percent, with 28 percent having no opinion, according to the Civitas poll.

Of course, the numbers are more worrisome to Burr, the Republican, who faces re-election in November, than to Hagan, the Democrat, who has until 2014 to improve her standing.

The survey of 600 likely voters was conducted June 15 through June 18 by Tel Opinion Research of Alexandria, Va., and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Promoting democracy

U.S. Rep. David Price will begin his Independence Day by talking about democracy in a small community of Liberia.

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, is once again leading a congressional delegation to a group of emerging democracies - this time to Kenya, Liberia and Mali. Price is chairman of a bipartisan House of Representatives group called the House Democracy Partnership that mentors parliaments around the world.

In Liberia, Price will attend a town hall meeting in Kakata early today with a local member of parliament before returning to the capital city, Monrovia, for a Fourth of July celebration at the U.S. embassy.

The group left the United States early Saturday and will return July 12.

Price and seven other members of Congress, , along with committee staff members, the clerk of the House and the House parliamentarian, will also lead workshops on budgets and procedures with government officials during their visit to Liberia. They'll do the same in Kenya.

The congressional delegation is visiting Mali as well because of an interest in helping its parliament develop, Price said in an interview. The country is not an official partner of the House group, but Price said the United States has an interest in Mali's stability. The sparsely populated country is situated between northern and sub-Saharan Africa and has an important role to play in fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and human trafficking, Price said.

"Strong democratic institutions enhance stability by ensuring popular support for a nation's security policies and providing a venue in which conflicts can be resolved by compromise rather than violence," he said.

Price also plans to visit a health clinic in Tanzania run by Duke University and focused on the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

By staff writers Rob Christensen, Barbara Barrett and Benjamin Niolet