[by:¿É¿ÉÓ¢ÓïÍø¡«www.utensil-race.com] [00:00.00]Early voting has already begun in key states that could determine the balance of the Senate [00:05.64]and the direction the nation may be heading in the final two years of the Obama presidency. [00:10.61]One of those states is North Carolina, [00:12.98]where a Democratic senator is defending her seat in a race the latest polls show could go either way. [00:19.61]For most North Carolina voters, [00:23.78]this is what next week's Senate election has boiled down to. [00:27.45]Kay Hagan enabled President Obama's worst ideas. [00:30.92]She refuses to clean up his mess. [00:33.28]Tillis is a hypocrite, covering up that The Charlotte Observer called on him to resign for missing critical votes. [00:39.19]Senator Kay Hagan says she puts voters first. [00:42.31]But she votes with Obama 96 percent of the time. [00:45.45]Speaker Tillis should be ashamed for running an ad that says I would let our soldiers die in vain. [00:50.71]That is outrageous. [00:52.07]Ninety thousand ads, up to $100 million spent, [00:56.47]and clashing messages from incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan¡­ [01:00.94]North Carolina is not for sale. [01:07.13]¡­ and from challenger Thom Tillis, the Republican speaker of the North Carolina House. [01:12.54]We need independent leadership that will stand up to your own party when you disagree with it. [01:17.59]We're going to win. [01:21.17]We're going to with your help. [01:23.91]The high-stakes political duel has prepared Hagan, [01:26.96]who was first elected the year President Obama won North Carolina, and Tillis, [01:33.05]who came to power in 2010 after Republicans took over the Statehouse for the first time since Reconstruction, into a genuine final week dead heat. [01:42.96]Mac McCorkle teaches at Duke's Stanford School of Public Policy. [01:47.24]Turnout is going to be key for Hagan for her in order to win. [01:51.94]There's not going to be a turnout like there was among minority voters and younger voters for Obama in the presidential years. [01:58.52]But she's got to get some of that vote. [02:00.63]This is not 2008. [02:01.85]This is not 2008. [02:03.43]This is not even 2012. [02:04.80]This is a smaller, whiter, older, richer, electorate. [02:08.67]It's not an Obama electorate. But she's got to get some of that vote out. [02:12.91]At this weekend's state fair in Raleigh, the voters we talked to had already made up their minds. [02:20.36]Sara Berth is for Tillis. [02:23.20]Well, as in all campaigns, there's always a lot of mudslinging going on, unfortunately, which doesn't interest me. [02:31.98]I want to know what the candidate is going to do, what they're not going to do, their beliefs, what they stand on. [02:38.37]Andy Jones and his friends are sticking with the Democrat. [02:41.80]I like Kay Hagan. [02:43.22]I like that she has experience. [02:44.56]I think that the amount of money that is poured into this race, television ads, is just kind of silly. [02:50.20]It's become kind of a very hateful, [02:53.13]people just throwing mud at each other and seeing what sticks, [02:56.42]and I think that's kind of silly. [02:57.49]It's taken a lot of talk and a lot of money for this campaign to go boil down to a simple choice between a Democrat [03:04.19]who would rather talk about education and equal pay [03:07.52]and a Republican who is anxious to link his opponent to national issues like Ebola and ISIS. [03:14.45]The recurring disagreement was on display as we sat down with both candidates this weekend. [03:19.73]Speaker Tillis has put forward the most disastrous legislative record we have seen in North Carolina. [03:26.08]He is taking our state backwards. [03:27.99]What did he, he gave tax cuts to the wealthy and has balanced the budget on the back of everybody else, the middle class. [03:34.52]He's rigged the system against small business, but he has gutted public education. [03:39.57]I think if it's about the truth about education, we have the edge there too. [03:43.35]We have given a 7 percent raise, the largest raise in about a generation. [03:47.36]So if all Senator Hagan has are statewide issues, [03:51.25]and nothing to point to at the national level that she's proud of, [03:54.52]other than rubber-stamping President Obama 96 percent of the time, [03:58.19]I think she's in trouble with the citizens of North Carolina. [04:00.79]Tillis mentions Mr. Obama by name in virtually every sentence, [04:06.27]never missing the opportunity to link an unpopular president to the state's incumbent Democrat. [04:11.94]Senator Hagan knows that President Obama's policies, [04:14.79]he said a couple weeks ago, all of them are on the ballot. [04:17.69]Does the president hurt your campaign? [04:21.08]You know, this election is about the people of North Carolina. [04:23.85]And with the president, I support increasing the minimum wage. [04:27.94]I support ¡ª I supported his very first bill, my very first bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. [04:33.99]But I have also opposed the president on things that weren't good for North Carolina. [04:39.01]Replacing President Obama on the stump in tight races like this one, Hillary Clinton. [04:45.57]Elections come down often to who's got more money, [04:50.43]who's pedaling more fear, and who turns out. [04:56.85]And there is nothing more important for Kay than who turns out. [05:06.41]Tillis too has attracted national support, including this visit from GOP Chairman Reince Priebus. [05:13.51]I know that if we work really hard together, [05:18.83]that we can get Thom over the finish line, not for the party, not for the majority, for power. [05:26.45]We have to do this to help save this country. [05:28.91]Both candidates are getting a tremendous boost from outside groups on the right and the left. [05:36.32]From the Koch brothers to Planned Parenthood, [05:38.89]they have kicked in more of $70 million, [05:41.38]two of every three dollars spent on television advertising. [05:45.34]North Carolina very well made determine the future of the United States Senate. [05:50.36]And this race between Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis has been a focus for months for us at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. [05:56.60]It is the most important race in the country. [06:00.15]To add to the uncertainty, a third candidate, libertarian Sean Haugh, could tip the balance, [06:05.56]even if he gets a small percentage of the vote. [06:07.93]The dynamic is, I don't want to vote for the incumbent, [06:11.49]and so I'm looking who I vote for. [06:13.82]So, to the extent you vote for a third party, you don't vote for the challenger. [06:17.23]Thousands of North Carolinians descended on Lexington for the annual Barbecue Festival this weekend. [06:24.71]Thom Tillis supporter Deric Brady was among them. [06:28.62]With the federal government, the spending has got so out of control. [06:31.87]It needs to be brought down. [06:33.90]I'm one that thinks that states, local governments should have more control of the money that they have, [06:39.37]instead of sending it to Washington and then having to do stuff to get it back. [06:42.92]And William Mciver is one of the thousands of volunteers working the state for Hagan. [06:47.77]When we went canvassing, my wife and I, [06:50.53]we found that they were like, thank the lord, hallelujah, you showed up. [06:54.44]We're here. [06:55.31]We're glad to see you. [06:56.33]We didn't think you cared about us. [06:58.14]But the money, the finger-pointing, the hostile television advertising leaves many voters perplexed. [07:05.00]It kind of depends on how you view politics. [07:06.77]Some people view it as a sport, right? [07:08.47]So, it's my team vs. your team. [07:10.48]So, whoever has the most money can have a better ground game, [07:12.69]because now you need money for television, print, social media, everything else. [07:16.39]There's a lot of money spent, but it's the same thing. [07:18.89]It's ¡ª one, it's about Medicaid. The other ones are about abortions and birth control and college funds. [07:25.17]And it seems like one is for the rich one is for the middle class and the poor. [07:29.69]Then there is this last wild card. New voter I.D. laws that Republicans call protection [07:37.34]and Democrats call suppression could affect turnout in a state that both national parties now see as their key to the South.