Battling for North Carolina; It's All About North Virginia; Alternative Car Repair Strategy
PAUL: I want to share some live pictures with you from Nags Head, North Carolina. As Sandy slowly turns ashore, we've seen a lot of those -- those white caps get a lot more intense just in the last couple hours here. Want to turn now to the election. Less visibility, of course -- definitely not what the candidates are looking for, particularly in pivotal battleground states like North Carolina. Well, CNN political contributor John Avlon is traveling on the CNN Election Express taking the pulse of the voters in some of those key states. So John, I know that you're in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, right now. What are people there saying about the race?</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Christi, you know, the battleground bus tour's here in Winston-Salem because this is one of the key swing districts of this swing state, North Carolina. President Obama won it four years ago by a razor-thin 14,000-vote margin. We've been talking to voters here. Here's a little about what they're saying.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given Governor Romney's prior experience in Massachusetts, I think he will be more moderate perhaps than as appeared in his earlier campaign, when he was actually trying to get the nomination of the Republican Party.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess I made my decision really after the first debate. Just the level of professionalism for somebody who's been in office for four years wasn't there for Obama.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't even have to think about it. Even though I'm a registered Independent, I don't find anything about Governor Romney believable or authentic.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I voted for President Obama, because I do see the change. I do see us digging ourselves out of the hole.</s>AVLON: So there you have it, just a sampling of the voters we've been speaking to. Very tight. The voters here just as closely divided as the polls show North Carolina is. But again, you see that focus on the economy, questions of character, and really a discussion about Mitt Romney's pivot back to the center in that pivotal first debate. All things on the forefront of folks' minds here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.</s>PAUL: Yes. And it was interesting to hear why they were making their decisions, too. But I'm wondering with Hurricane Sandy slowly edging inward there, as it's going to, we know the President and his opponent have spent millions of dollars trying to get the word out. Now that could change as we shift to covering this hurricane. Do they expect any effect with voting, especially early voting?</s>AVLON: Early voting is the key. It's a core strategy for both campaigns. We're already seeing a start-up in effect. Yesterday the state put out an advisory saying that two early-voting locations in coastal counties from (inaudible) would be suspended today. They'd be shut down out of an abundance of caution. But early voting continues in the rest of the state. That's very important for people to understand. If you're in those coastal counties, early voting is suspended today. But those are just two counties out of many in the state. Early voting continues in North Carolina and the rest of the state. But the storm is having an impact to that extent today.</s>PAUL: All right. John Avlon, enjoy your trip to your next pit stop. We appreciate you.</s>AVLON: Thank you.</s>PAUL: Sure. Thank you. So Virginia, as you know, is one of the states that President Obama flipped in 2008. But the most recent CNN poll of polls, which tracks a variety of polls mind you, shows the state as solidly purple. CNN's John King reports on how both the presidential campaigns hope to win Virginia by winning over voters in the north.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Urgency in a place once reliably red. Mitt Romney's path to the White House runs through Virginia and to win it, he must run strong in the fast- changing suburbs within an hour's drive of Washington.</s>WHIT AYRES, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: It's all about northern Virginia. There have been so many people who have lived in to northern Virginia, particularly from the northeast, from Democratic areas, that they have turned a solid red state into a purple state.</s>KING: Recent polls show a dead heat. But Republican pollster Whit Ayres likes the trend line.</s>AYRES: If you look at the dozen polls in Virginia, taken before the first presidential debate on October 3rd, Obama was ahead in all 12. If you look at the eight polls taken after the first presidential debate, Romney was ahead in six out of the eight and it's now a dead even tie.</s>KING: To prove its 2008 win here was no fluke, Team Obama knows it needs to run up a margin of 200,000 votes or more in the northern Virginia suburbs. If it delivers, it can ruin Governor Romney's night before the polls even close in the Midwest.</s>REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D), VIRGINIA: The epicenter of this outcome is going to be right here in Virginia.</s>KING: Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly knows Romney's more moderate tone of late is aimed at the suburbs. He's betting it won't work.</s>CONNOLLY: I think there's a trust factor that with that. My constituents remember the Republican primaries. They don't suffer from amnesia. And I think that's a tough stuff for Mitt Romney.</s>KING: Lunch time visit to Harold and Kathy's proves the President has deep suburban support, but there are some cracks. Mona Phillips is a registered Democrat but says she will vote Republican for president as she did last time.</s>MONA PHILLIPS, REGISTERED DEMOCRAT: From the get-go, Mr. Obama promised so many things that I didn't believe he could do it, and he has proven that he couldn't do it.</s>KING: Robert Stevens is an Independent and Obama 2008 supporter.</s>ROBERT STEVENS, UNDECIDED VOTER: And it was something different for the country, something that hadn't happened before electing a black president. So I got caught up in that a little bit. But I think he's a disappointment.</s>KING (on camera): You don't like what you got, but you're not sold on the alternative.</s>STEVENS: Absolutely not. At this point, I don't know who I'm going to vote for.</s>KING (voice-over): Living in a battleground means there's no escaping the ads or the get out the vote effort.</s>STEVENS: I kind of hang up the phone. I want to make my own independent decision. I don't want anybody shoving stuff down my throat. It's kind of scary. I thought I would have been there by now but I'm not. But I will be by Election Day.</s>KING: Tense final days in a place long known for its historic battlefields but a newcomer to the world of presidential battlegrounds. John King, CNN, Prince William County, Virginia.</s>PAUL: I know you've heard over and over the race for the White House rides on who wins Ohio. We're going to have the latest poll results from the Buckeye State, taken just the past week.