And here we go: Election Day to Cooper-McCrory

Less than a week to go until Election Day. Everyone wants the barrage of TV ads to stop. And we can thank the Supreme Court for the $100 million invested in Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis to make this one of the most excruciating U.S. Senate races anywhere.

With all that in mind, let's look ahead to 2016. Hillary, Jeb, Ted Cruz, maybe Paul Ryan, those crazy kids are one thing. Still another is the all-but-inevitable N.C. governor's race between the incumbent Republican, former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory, and Roy Cooper, the state attorney general and heir apparent among the Democrats.

Cooper has yet to make his candidacy official, but he has already begun speaking around the state. A recent speech in Charlotte included cursory remarks about the attorney general's office, followed by a lengthy recitation of policies and laws backed by McCrory and what Cooper called Republican "extremists." You get the idea.

As for the governor, he remains steadfast in declaring a "Carolina Comeback" everywhere he goes. McCrory, like his ally Tillis, has tried to shift from the hard right turn taken when the GOP took control of the governor's mansion to go with the state House and Senate in 2012. The last time Republicans enjoyed such political riches here, Chapel Hill's "Carolina Way" was actually seen as a model for big-time college athletics. No, really.

McCrory, Tillis and the General Assembly approved teacher raises over the summer, a sign of election-year moderation. In recent weeks, Tillis and the governor have softened their stances on expanded Medicaid funding, another sign of moving closer to the middle.

Erik Spanberg covers government, sports business, hospitality and airlines for the Charlotte Business Journal.