No race shows more dramatically how Raleigh has changed than Josh Stein’s smashing 3-to-2 victory over Johnny Mac Alexander in Senate District 16.

Alexander is prototypical Old Raleigh. He and his family are pillars of the city’s long-time business and social elite. He graduated from Broughton. He and his family have done great work at the YMCA. He was endorsed by another Old Raleigh icon, Smedes York, in an ad that ran heavily.

Stein is a public-interest lawyer. He worked for the N.C. Justice Center, then in consumer protection for the Attorney General.

I got to know Josh well when he was John Edwards’ campaign manager in 1998. He worked briefly in Washington for Senator Edwards. Edwards would be a lot better off today if he had kept – and listened to – Josh rather than going through serial advisers in his quest for glory.

Stein grew up in Chapel Hill and went to Dartmouth (as I recall). His father did good as a civil rights lawyer and well as a trial lawyer.

His is a far different world and worldview from Alexander’s. And Raleigh is a far different city today from what it was.

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