Tillis’ Senate bid walks tightrope with tea party activists

Speaker Tillis plans Senate campaign that 'goes all the way to November...'
If he keeps skipping candidate forums, will he make it past May 6?

BY JIM MORRILL, jmorrill@charlotteobserver.com, February 1, 2014 

This time the empty chair was close to home.

It was at a restaurant in Birkdale Village, in a packed room at a U.S. Senate forum sponsored by a group called Lake Norman Conservatives. Three of the invited Republican candidates were there.

Missing: N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis, who lives just 10 minutes away. He was at a Durham fundraiser.

READ IT HERE.