The general election was between the Democratic incumbent Mike Easley and the Republican nominee Patrick J. Ballantine.Mike Easley was first elected as governor in 2000 and opted to run for a second term.He faced opposition in the Democratic primary from Rickey Kipfer, a former corporate manager from Lee County.Kipfer campaigned on a platform of abolishing North Carolina's personal income tax and exploring potential natural gas resources in the state.Kipfer also proposed a system similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund as a means of distributing potential natural gas revenues to citizens in North Carolina.