CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The main drag through downtown Charlotte looked a bit like Times Square on Sunday night, as revelers and out-of-towners converged to gawk at the flashing city around them.
The electric scene before the start of the Democratic National Convention belies the trouble under the surface.
For Democrats, North Carolina was an awkward choice and represents some of the challenges President Obama faces this Election Day.
Unemployment here is at 9.6 percent, well above the national average. The governor of the state, Democrat Bev Perdue, was rated as the least popular governor in the country in a recent survey and does not plan to seek re-election.
The state’s laws also run counter to Democrats’ publicly held positions. It is a right-to-work state, meaning workers cannot be forced to pay union dues — and meaning unions weren’t too thrilled about the decision to host the convention here.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a memo last month that the union “won’t be buying skyboxes or bringing a big staff to the convention,” and other big labor groups have declined to contribute to the cost of the convention, after doing so in 2008.