As early as November 2006, some of us here at BlueNC speculated about Sue Myrick's reasons for spending so much money to run against a virtually unknown candidate, Bill Glass in 2006. At the end of the last election cycle she had only $150,000 COH. This led to speculation that she might be planning a run for the Senate in Liddy Dole's place. We further speculated that Pat McCrory, the popular mayor of Charlotte, might run for Myrick's seat.

All that was a little under a year ago and now McCrory has been re-elected mayor of Charlotte. How did he decide to thank the voters in Charlotte Well, by basically telling them he didn't really want the job after all. Via the CharO:

Even on the night he swept to a record seventh term, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory fueled speculation about his political future.

He and his wife Ann would talk over the holidays, he told reporters Tuesday night. And all doors are open.

.php"Hopefully we'll have some choices," he told the Observer Wednesday. "I'm not going to rule out any options. If an opportunity arises ... I'd be a fool not to look at it."

As it turns out, according to Jim Morrill's piece, McCrory is always coy about whether he will complete his term.

My, how nice.

I'm not exactly sure how a new Mayor would be selected if McCrory left before 2009. If he runs for higher office, I don't think it's appropriate for him to continue as Mayor. He already has one full-time job with Duke Energy. The job of Mayor is supposed to be part time, but I can't imagine that anything about the job is part time other than the pay. Running for higher office would be more than a full-time job. I don't think it is possible for McCrory to do justice to all of these demands on his time.

Back to our predictions.

Myrick has raised $350,000 for a run for Congress. This can transfer to a senate campaign, but she wouldn't be very far ahead of Neal or Hagan in the money race. McCrory has $500,000 left over from his Mayoral race. This cannot transfer to a run for federal office, however he could use it to run for state-wide office. Candidates from Mecklenburg County have a very difficult time winning state-wide campaigns. Is McCrory moderate enough to overcome that particular problem

I don't know, but I do know that if McCrory were to enter the gubernatorial race and win the nomination we could be looking at picking between these two faces. Hint....McCrory is the one with the beady eyes. Do you think the average voter will be able to tell them apart?