While I have generally written off the North Carolina Senate race, assuming Liddy Dole would win easily, the numbers are showing the race tightening.

A Survey USA poll shows Dole with a narrow 49-45 lead, within the poll's margin of error. Granted, it's a Survey USA poll, which suffers from flawed methodology. However, another Survey USA poll two weeks ago gave Dole a 10-point lead over Democrat Erskine Bowles. Thus, at the very least we are seeing some momentum heading Bowles' way.

It would be nice to see an independent poll on this race, to either confirm the Survey USA numbers or an internal (D) poll showing Dole with a similarly narrow 47-41 lead. But in any case, even Dole concedes the race is tightening:

Dole said she had long expected the race to close up as the election got closer.

"As far as tightening, I always said it would. I always knew it would," Dole said in an interview with reporters and editors of The News and Observer. "Please know the campaign is not falling apart when it starts to tighten. We have to inoculate people and the press that this is going to happen."