Our chance of making NC-5 competitive this year has just taken a hit. The Winston-Salem Journal is reporting that Allen Joines, the popular mayor of Winston-Salem, will not be challenging Foxx. Apparently the race looked too "tough". From the article:

Allen Joines, the two-term mayor of Winston-Salem and whom national Democratic Party leaders had seen as the top potential challenger in the overwhelmingly conservative 5th Congressional District, is no longer a threat to Republican incumbent Virginia Foxx.

Joines announced yesterday that he will not run for Congress.

"I talked to my pastor this morning," Joines said. "I told him over Christmas that I'm looking for the burning bush, but I never saw the burning bush. I did a lot of thinking about it, a lot of praying about it," he said, adding that he believes that he can be more effective as mayor.

Before making the decision, Joines also paid a Democratic research group $12,000 to poll 5th District voters about his chances against Foxx. What Joines found out was that even when President Bush's approval ratings were dipping nationwide, they remained strong in Northwest North Carolina. Nearly seven out of 10 district voters picked Bush in the 2004 election.