But where others saw dangerous political shoals, Jim Neal, a 50-year-old former Wall Street investment banker, saw a political opportunity.

"Fortune favors the bold," Neal said in an interview. "If there is one thing I've got, I'm fearless, I've got a lot of guts and I'm a fighter." He doesn't care "what the polls say right now about Elizabeth Dole versus Jim Neal or any other opponent."

The announcement by Neal last week that he would challenge Dole brought a lot of puzzled "Jim who?" questions.

Although a Tar Heel native, Neal spent much of his career on Wall Street, moving to Chapel Hill just last year. He said he returned to North Carolina to build a business, The Agema Group, a financial services advisory company, not to run for political office.

But that changed, Neal said, as he watched in frustration as a series of big-name Democrats, from Gov. Mike Easley to Congressman Brad Miller, bypassed a challenge to Dole. This summer, Neal said, he made inquiries about the possibility of running for the Senate seat.

"I see the seat as very vulnerable, and I believe Sen. Dole's performance and ratings and perception in the state put her in a position in which a fresh face, an outsider to the political process, has a unique opportunity to win this election," he said.

Neal's political interest has been simmering, he said, since the days he sat around the Sunday dinner table in Greensboro listening to stories of Franklin Roosevelt. He grew up in a prosperous middle-class family, the son of a Greensboro businessman and a teacher. But he said you don't have to look far to find his blue-collar roots -- his mother grew up in a textile village and his grandmother dipped snuff.

After making money on Wall Street, Neal said he looked for political opportunities. Several years ago, he nearly ran for Congress in New York, but he said the timing was never right.

Dissatisfied with President Bush and the war in Iraq, Neal took a year away from his business in 2004 to raise money for Democrats -- first for Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark, the former NATO commander. After Clark dropped out of the race, Neal raised money for the John Kerry-John Edwards ticket. He also held a New York fundraiser for North Carolina Senate candidate Erskine Bowles.

Bowles lost decisively to Dole in 2002. But Neal thinks the political climate has changed since then because of the Iraq war, the unpopularity of President Bush and dissatisfaction with Washington.

Vows competitive race

Neal said he would contrast his background as a businessman with Dole as the ultimate Beltway insider.

He said he would campaign as a champion of the "squeezed" middle class. He described himself as a social liberal and a fiscal conservative who would campaign for greater federal budget discipline.

Neal expects to need about $12 million to run a competitive race. Neal plans to invest a lot of his personal resources, but said he doesn't have the personal wealth of John Edwards or Erskine Bowles. Edwards gave his campaign $6 million in 1998 and Bowles invested $6.8 million in his 2002 campaign.

But he claims to have a lot of experience in raising money nationally.

"I am supremely confident I will be able to raise the resources necessary to mount a fiercely competitive campaign," Neal said. "I wouldn't have gotten into this race otherwise."

Neal said he expects skeptics about his Senate bid when his campaign begins full time.

One of Neal's favorite sayings is by Gandhi.

" 'First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you, and then you win.' As soon as people start laughing at me, I'm in the game," he said.

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