Mike Munger reports that the first day of the Money Grenade has garnered 150 donations and topped $5,000! For a Libertarian gubernatorial candidate (who is now polling 5%) this is outstanding--possibly unprecedented. As he says, if you are so nerdy that you are reading this on the 4th of July, hit the link and make a donation today. (I did.) And remember all those other deserving Libertarian candidates.

Yesterday Public Policy Polling released its latest presidential numbers for North Carolina, and I did a detailed examination of the so-called Barr Effect. This poll focuses on State offices (Governor down), and the only Libertarian it considers is gubernatorial candidate Michael Munger. This makes sense when you realize that it was only two days ago that the Libertarian Party of North Carolina announced its slate of 38 candidates statewide. Hopefully, by the time PPP does its next poll, we'll see at least a little impact from some of them. Michael Munger, however, is already having a BIG impact on the race . Democrat Bev Perdue now leads Republican Pat McCrory by one point (42-41%). Michael Munger is up to polling 5%, with undecided at 12%. Most pundits had assumed, when Munger entered the race, that any votes he pulled would come from McCrory. But--as with Bob Barr--the reality is far more complex. Munger gets 5% of women, 6% of men--no real surprise there. Munger gets 3% o...

My favorite weekend biker chick, outraged Delaware voter, food porn addict Shirley at Delaware Curmudgeon is good friends with Jan McKay , who is the Libertarian candidate for North Carolina State Senate in District 15. She's prevailed upon Jan to release a letter on motorcycle helmet laws that she send to her current opponent, Senator Neal Hunt, when she was a constituent. It explains in large part, I think, (a) why Jan is running and (b) why Libertarian activists around the country need to pay attention to her. A short excerpt (but you really, really need to visit Shirley and read the whole thing ): Regarding the motorcycle helmet issue, I prefer to make my arguments based on loss of rights and violations of constitutional law. The current situation is that the law leaves enforcement up to arbitrary decisions of enforcement agencies, and with a state highway patrol which describes itself as paramilitary, I would prefer to make the laws clear. I spoke with a Cary police detectiv...

The big news, I suppose, is that Public Policy Polling's latest estimate (July 1) shows Senator John McCain maintaining a four-point lead (45%-41%) over Senator Barack Obama, even with Libertarian Bob Barr pulling 5% that most analysts have long believed would come almost entirely out of the GOP vote: One of the most interesting findings in the poll is that while McCain leads 49-36 among life time residents of North Carolina, Obama has a 46-40 lead with those voters who have moved to the state from somewhere else. “The race continues to be tight in North Carolina,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “This may not be the year Democrats win the Presidential contest here, but the data showing Obama leading among non-natives is an indication that this state could become bluer as more and more people move here in the coming years.” Obama is still only getting the support of 67% of self described Democrats, while 83% of Republicans intend to vote for McCain. Boost...