Adding Edwards may help Kerry in NC

[Freddie Stubbs]

N.C. running mate would create a challenge for Bush in state, poll finds


By David Ingram
JOURNAL RALEIGH BUREAU

RALEIGH

If the presidential election were held this month, North Carolinians would choose President Bush over Sen. John Kerry in large numbers - unless Sen. John Edwards was on the ticket, too, according to a new statewide poll.

Bush handily beat Kerry 48 percent to 41 percent in a Mason-Dixon poll released yesterday.

But with Edwards as Kerry's vice-presidential running mate, the race tightens to a statistical dead heat - 46 percent to 45 percent.

Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee and the junior senator from Massachusetts, has given few hints about his choice of a running mate.

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