In North Carolina the Presidential race is close. The most recent Public Policy Polling survey shows Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain beating Democrat Barack Obama by three percentage points.

To find out how voters think the candidates would change the business climate in North Carolina, WHQR sat down with a group of Republican businessmen to talk about the candidates.

The Wilmington Professional Referral Group meets every other week at a Wilmington cafe.

The members are mostly men and come from all corners of the business world from financial advising to cabinet making.

Bill Gourville, a registered Republican who sells mortgages, says the economy weighs on his mind this fall.

"We have gone back probably 15 years in underwriting standards, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but on the same account, we went from one extreme to the other, and it's halted our industry."

Forty-two year old Gourville's age group supports Obama by a margin of two percentage points, according to Public Policy Polling's most recent research. But Gourville says McCain and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, can turn the economy around. He says he likes Palin's history of taking on the oil companies in her state.

"She came in in the first two years and taxed the oil companies higher, which was against the old boy network up in Alaska."

Forty-five year old Sales Manager Blake Baker says he prefers McCain, too.

"Whovever gets in the White House is going to have to come up with some different things, because business as usual ain't working right now."

Baker says he disagrees with Obama's plans to tax the wealthiest Americans.

"When you've got 90% of the taxes being paid by a 10% faction of society, you can't tax them more. And that's what Obama wants to do."

But Baker does not support taking over banks that have made bad business decisions just because the government thinks it will solve short-term problems.

"And I hope McCain really makes that distinction in his economic plan, is hey, we're not going to go in every time there's a failing in some sector of the economic or health care industries."

Among North Carolinians between 46 and 65, McCain has made gains in recent months, actually overtaking Obama's lead. But for 60-year-old mortgage salesman Rick Huston, neither major party candidate is clearly better than the other.

"Both parties are going to promise you a chicken in everybody's pot," says Huston, "and one's not going to give it to you, and the other's going to slice your throat before you have a chance to eat it."

Huston's referring specifically to the Democrats' repeated call for nationalized healthcare. He thinks the government would not be able to afford such a plan, but if it got involved somehow, things would change.

"I can't afford insurance. I've had a heart attack, I've had kidney stones, I've got a back problem. It costs me a $1000 a month for health insurance. The insurance companies and the hospitals and the pharmaceuticals? They gotcha."

But change alone isn't going to swing Huston over to the Obama camp. As he puts it, who doesn't want change? And Bill Gourville agrees. Gourville says he's voting for McCain. To him, Obama isn't all bad, but he seems to lack experience.

"Do I think he's a good candidate? In general, yeah, but I think he's one election off. I think he needs to be in office in his own state, doing more things. I think he's four to eight years away from truly being our leader."

All three men agree that whoever is elected this November, Congress will have to work together, they say, to lift the economy out of the gutter.

See the Public Policy Polling research by clicking here.

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