Barack Obama's North Carolina Coattails (or Not)

I wrote on Election Night about whether Barack Obama would have North Carolina coattails—would first-time Obama voters keep voting Democratic down-ballot? Doug Heye (who first posed the question to me and writes in our op-ed section today about the future of the GOP) passes on the following figures:

In NC in 2004, 63,038 voters voted in the Presidential, but not down ballots. This year the # was 139,831, more than doubling, though turnout increased by only 20%.

Short coattails it appears, then, in North Carolina. But a win's a win. 

•   Click here to read more by Robert Schlesinger.
•   Click here to read more from the Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
•   Click here to read more about Barack Obama.
•   Click here to read more about Campaign 2008.