Sep. 7--RALEIGH -- Unemployment is up, gas prices are up, and voters may be fed up when they cast their ballots in critical elections this November.

No matter what happens, the nation will have a new president, and North Carolina will have a new governor.

In those and a number of state and local elections, what the candidates say about the economy will go a long way toward determining who wins.

"The economy will be the top issue voters care about, and it has been for several months," said Morgan Jackson, a principal in Nexus Strategies, a Raleigh political consulting firm. "It overtook the war last year."

Jackson has directed national and state campaigns, including the presidential and vice presidential campaigns of former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Jackson said one of the most troubling signs in this election is the increase in home foreclosures. Across the state, almost 50,000 foreclosures were filed last year, a record high and an increase of more than 4,200 over 2006. So far this year, foreclosures are up 14 percent in Cumberland County compared with January through July of last year.

"When folks stop paying their mortgage, they've already stopped paying everything else. That's the last thing to go, and the credit cards are already maxed out by then," Jackson said. "You've got that and gas prices, and home heating gas costs are going to go up this winter. Those are real kitchen-table issues, not being able to afford the life they've been living."

A report last month by the N.C. Justice Center showed the average North Carolina household was no better off in 2007 than it was in 2000. The center, a nonprofit group that advocates for the poor, used U.S. Census Bureau data to show that income adjusted for inflation was the same in 2007 as it was in 2000, and that poverty rates had increased.

Chris Legette of Fayetteville is living the economy's harsh reality. Legette was at the state Employment Security Commission office on Ray Avenue last week looking after his unemployment benefits.

Laid off from his job as a waste collector eight months ago, Legette said he is waiting to see whether presidential candidates Barack Obama or John McCain will offer the best promise of hope for American workers.

"It doesn't matter if someone's a Democrat or a Republican. They shouldn't be strained just to live, and not be out there doing illegal stuff, I mean, just to live," Legette said. "To live, take care of yourself medically and financially -- all those things come from having a decent job."

Legette said he held his last job for almost three years but was laid off because he was one of the most recent employees hired.

"It was a good job, good benefits, and I was more productive than a lot of guys who had been there longer than me," he said. "I will be looking a whole lot at who is going to do the most for jobs and the economy."

Experts say economic issues are not as critical in state races as they are in a presidential race. The overall perception of the economy is tied to the performance of the incumbent or, in this year's race, the incumbent's political party.