Some observations about Tuesday's primary:-- It was not a good day for Charlotte's Black Political Caucus. Despite distributing thousands of copies of its endorsements, a slate pushed by state Rep. Beverly Earle and her counter-caucus were the ones celebrating Tuesday night.
The Earle slate, consisting of Sheriff Chipp Bailey, Sen. Malcolm Graham, Rep. Becky Carney and House candidate Rodney Moore, beat the Black Caucus slate all around. And while the Black Caucus-endorsed Senate candidate Elaine Marshall carried Mecklenburg, most African American precincts went for Ken Lewis, a black attorney from Chapel Hill.
-- A sign of trouble for Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell? While he won 63 percent of the vote in the 8th District, his little-known opponent, Nancy Shakir of Fayetteville, won Mecklenburg County with 51 percent.
-- Turnout in Mecklenburg was one of the lowest in the state at 7 percent.
-- State Rep. Nick Mackey -- another candidate endorsed by the Black Caucus -- carried just two of the 21 precincts in his state House district.
-- Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham needs to work in Mecklenburg. He finished third behind Marshall and Lewis. The handful of precincts he carried were generally suburban areas, and he didn't carry them by much. He won one with 12 votes to Marshall's 11.
-- What to expect from a June 22 runoff when people are on vacation and otherwise occupied? Not much. In 2008, when North Carolina had a runoff for state Labor commissioner, less than 1 percent of Mecklenburg voters showed up. Statewide, turnout was 1.8 percent.
-- Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling, a Democrat-leaning firm, found plenty for Democrats to worry about in the Senate results.
"What the turnout numbers do show is a disturbing lack of interest from Democratic voters," he wrote. "The 426,000 who cast a ballot in the Senate primary represents a 32 percent decline from the 628,000 who did in 2002, and this is despite the fact that after the 2008 election cycle there are more registered Democrats in the state than ever."
