By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. said this morning that she “feels mighty good” about her re-election chances, though most polls going into Election Day showed her trailing Democrat Kay Hagan.
Bob Dole, who had campaigned elsewhere in the state for his wife, felt the same vibe from voters, according to Dole, who cast her ballot at her home precinct in Salisbury, the Rowan Public Library.
“He says it feels great to him,” she said.
But Dole acknowledged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and the strong grassroots organization working for him throughout North Carolina could have an impact on Republican candidates this year, including her.
“Yeah, it’s been a tough climate,” Dole said.
An army of television and still photographers followed Dole in and out of the library and recorded her marking the 2008 election ballot. She answered questions briefly inside the library after she was finished voting.
Dole said she hoped people would vote for her experience, leadership and vision. She said her position on the issues is clear, though she couldn’t say the same for Hagan.
The first order of business for the next Congress and administration will be “jobs, jobs, jobs,” Dole said. She thinks a comprehensive energy policy, as outlined by a bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers in Washington, including herself, and a $50 billion bond proposal she is working on to fix America’s roads and bridges are ways to create jobs and get the economy moving again.
Dole said no matter who is elected president, Obama or Republican John McCain, she could get along with either one. But she described the candidates’ policies as “so terribly different” before giving her strong endorsement of McCain, especially his personal background in the military and his long service on the Armed Services Committee.
Dole said she traveled to every corner of the state and into every county during her first term and reiterated that the voter feedback has been good, from “up in the mountains or down at the coast.”