Dole against Navy landing field sites

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole wants to make sure that folks know that she is against efforts by the Navy to locate a landing field for military jets in northeastern North Carolina.

Dole, a Salisbury Republican, issued a news release Monday saying she has written to the secretary of the Navy to say she is still opposed to the so-called Outlying Landing Field in the region. Brian Nick, Dole's chief of staff, says the point of the letter was not to remind anyone of Dole's opposition to the original site proposed in Washington County, but to point out her opposition to a couple of new sites now under consideration.

"I have stated repeatedly that an OLF must enjoy the support of local residents," Dole wrote. "At this point, I am aware of few if any residents in the Hale's Lake or Sand Banks regions who support the construction of an OLF, regardless of any prospective economic benefits that might accrue in their region."

Dole has taken some heat for initially being slow to come out in opposition to the plans.

Racial breakdown changes for voters

The racial composition of North Carolina's registered voters is changing.

According to an analysis of voter rolls on the Democratic-leaning political blog FiveThirtyEight.com, the percentage of black voters increased from 20.3 percent to 21.4 percent, and the percentage of "other" voters went from 3 percent to 3.4 percent.

At the same time, the number of white voters decreased from 76.7 percent to 75.2 percent.

Although the percentage changes are overall fairly small, blogger Nate Silver writes that they have probably helped Democrat Barack Obama gain a slight edge over Republican John McCain. He writes that the change in racial composition "is worth a net of about 1.5 points to Obama in his race against McCain."

Palin visiting state again on Thursday

Sarah Palin will be back in North Carolina on Thursday at the baseball stadium at Elon University for a rally at noon. The Republican vice presidential candidate will be joined by country singer Hank Williams Jr., who has debuted a song called "The McCain-Palin Tradition," about the GOP ticket. He will perform it at the rally.

Tickets will be available at major McCain offices across the state. They are limited to two per person and will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Palin also will be at a private fundraiser in Greensboro on Thursday.

No return sought yet of state's jet deposit

N.C. Department of Commerce officials haven't quite asked for a refund on their quarter-million dollar jet deposit -- yet.

Commerce Secretary Jim Fain sent a letter to jet maker Cessna on Friday saying the state was scrubbing its planned purchase of a Citation Encore Plus for $9 million. Last week, when news media inquiries prompted the cancellation, Fain and others made clear they would seek a refund of the state's $250,000 deposit.

In his letter, though, Fain indicated he'll wait to meet in person before asking for the money back.

Polls keep coming as vote approaches

New poll results are out almost daily as Election Day nears.

According to one survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, Obama has a slim lead in North Carolina with 49 percent, McCain with 46 percent, and Libertarian Bob Barr with 1 percent. Three percent were undecided. Obama and McCain are statistically tied, given the close margin of sampling error.

"For the longest time Barack Obama basically had free rein in North Carolina, but John McCain is finally starting to make some visits and put some money in here," said Dean Debnam, the polling firm's president. "... North Carolina looks like it will be one of the closest states in the country."

The same poll shows a tightened U.S. Senate race. Democrat Kay Hagan had 46 percent, Dole had 44 percent, and Libertarian Christopher Cole had 5 percent. Five percent were undecided.

The survey of 1,196 likely voters was taken on Oct. 11-12. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.