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When I asked Rep. Pricey Harrison for her thoughts on Jim Black Friday she said, "I'm evolving."

Last November, Harrison was one of the first area legislators I interviewed about Black and she said "I do appreciate his leadership, and I'm supportive of him, and I'm not going to back off on that."

She still thinks the Speaker has been a good leaderbut now she thinks he may need to temporally step aside. (Published Saturday.)

More to come in Sunday's paper.

Update: Click here for Sunday's story.

You ever get the feeling that you're writing and reading about the same thing over and over and over...

In case you missed prior links from yours truly:

• A Sunday story from me rounding up the rumblings calling for Speaker Jim Black to step aside.
  
• A story from Saturday on Rep. Pricey Harrison calling for Black to step aside.
  
• Also in that vein, I chat with Hugh Holliman re: Black.

Items of interest on Black from around the neighborhood and around state:

• In case you wanted a second source, Charlotte's Mark Johns write about Pricey Harrison and Black.
  
• Ed Cone asks "How is it that Pricey Harrison, a freshman rep from Greensboro, is the second Democratic legislator to call for Jim Black to step aside?"
  
• The W-S Journal's Paul O'Connor plays guess the next Speaker.
  
• N+R Editorial Board member Doug Clark gets in on the act: "It's going to take a little longer, but Jim Black will resign as speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives."
  
• I'm a little late in posting a link to this, but here are the Green Dog's take on Jim Black.

Oh, and just in case you thought we had all figured out how the money from North Carolina's new state lottery was going to be spent, this story from Asheville’s Kerra Bolton says think again. And the N+O's Jim Nesbitt writes about legislators becoming stone cold lottery revenue junkies.

There, that ought to be more than enough to chew up your lunch hour.

I was hoping last week to catch up with Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat for my Sunday story on House Speaker Jim Black's troubles.

But Holliman was on the way to the beach and mobile phones being what they are, we never caught up before the weekend.

So we ended up talking Monday morning.

Holliman has been widely quoted as saying the House Democrats need to come up with a "contingency plan," in case Black isn't able to continue in his role as Speaker, or chooses not to.

"I think we as a caucus need to sit down and look at that possibility," Holliman said Monday. "If we do have to replace him, then how do we do that?"

Typically, he said, the caucus meets in advance of the short session to plot its legislative strategy, determine priorities, etc. . . The leadership question, he said, will not doubt be a focus of that meeting this year.

When asked about Pricey Harrison's suggestion that Black may need to at least temporarily step aside, Holliman said:

"That's one scenario, and I think maybe that's not a bad way to go."

But Holliman emphasized that he thought if, when and how the Speaker stepped down should be up to Black.

"I think whether he steps aside temporarily or not is his call. What I'm saying is that we, as a caucus, need to be ready."

He continued: "This cloud keeps hanging over our heads...It's hart to tell if an indictment is going to come or not. Certainly, we need some direction."

Holliman has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Black. When asked if he wanted the job, Holliman said:

"Sure I would. And I think most people in the General Assembly would be honored to be Speaker. I know my name has been thrown around, but I haven't been running a campaign to be Speaker."

He continued: "I think there would be eight or 10 people who would be running if the job was open."

When asked what issues he was interested in pushing through the General Assembly during the short session, Holliman listed his tax credit for small businesses that provide health insurance to their employees.

That proposal was passed by the House and is tied to the pet bill of another Triad legislator: the proposal to raise the state's minimum wage by Rep. Alma Adams.

Will they remain tied together?

"I kind of hope so. I'm all for the minimum wage increase. I think the two fit together pretty well."

Gary Robertson at the AP initially tipped me off to this as I wandered absent-mindedly through the General Assembly building, but my very own copy was waiting for me in the e-mail box when I wandered back into the office:

Rep. Alice Underhill has become the third Democrat Representative to call for Speaker Jim Black to step away from his leadership post.

Background can be found here.

The news that former U.S. House majority leader Tom Delay plans to leave Congress following months of scandal prompted some local writers to compare the Texas Republican to North Carolina House Speaker Jim Black. (Black is a Democrat for those who have not followed along.) Examples of that from Doug Clark and Patrick Eaks.

(Meanwhile, Guilford County Republican John Blust has written to say that he thinks Black should step down. Members of Black's own party have said the same thing.)

In some ways the Delay analogy is apt.

The Asheville Citizen-Times' Kerra Bolton writes:

Women are the fiercer sex. That's why it came as no surprise that three female lawmakers were among the first Democrats to publicly break ranks and ask House Speaker Jim Black to resign.

Later in the piece she writes:

Soft-core sexism continues to taint the culture of the General Assembly. After five years on this beat, I still have to explain to lawmakers that it’s not appropriate to hug me or call me "shug," especially in front of my peers.

Click here to read the whole thing.

To be fair, the principal clerks of both houses are women, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue runs the Senate with a velvet-clad iron fist and many of the senior advisors to both Black and Senate leader Marc Basnight are women. (And, as Bolton notes, of 120 House members, 33 are women. Of 50 senators, 7 are women.)

But no, I don't think Bolton is exaggerating. The rhythms of the General Assembly when it's in session are still distinctly southern, which entails both the charming and genteel and, well, some of what Bolton is writing about.

You may have read how the state lottery made $24 million during its first five days of sales.

Bully for the lottery.

So late today, I get news alert from the lottery folks that reads in part:

"...sales of the tickets are going very well with the $5 ticket, "$100,000 Carolina Cash," a top seller."

Really?

Well, it depends on how you look at it. The lottery put out these (approximate) figures:

Game/sales
$100,000 Carolina Cash ($5 ticket)/$7,486,961
Blackjack ($2 ticket)/$5,758,655
Tic Tac Toe ($1 ticket)/$5,137,201
NC Education Lottery ($1 ticket)/$5,647,481

So yes, the most cash was generated by the Carolina Cash game. But what game sold the most number of tickets?

That would be the "NC Education Lottery" game which lottery officials said sold 5.6 million tickets at $1 a pop. The Carolina Cash game sold something like 1.49 million tickets at $5 a pop.

I say "something like," because there's another math problem with the amounts handed out by the lottery.

If you sell tickets with a face value of $5 a ticket, your sales totals should all end in "5" or "0," numbers that are multiples of 5. There's no way to multiply 5 by a whole number and get "$7,486,961." So unless there's some sort of discount program, some way to buy a fractional ticket, or something else we don't know about...something is amiss.

Also, the sales figures for the $2 "Blackjack" tickets should all be even numbers. If you multiply "$2" by any number - odd or even - you get an even number. There's not way, without fractions, to sell "$5,758,655" worth of $2 tickets.

Yes, I have an e-mail requesting clarification into the lottery. And yes, I realize that these figures are supposed to be estimates, but they should at least be plausible.

In the mean time, I'm taking all the sales figures given out by the lottery with a big ol' grain of salt.

Update: Here's the response I got from Pam Walker, the spokeswoman for the lottery:

The only way we can extract the data is to take a snapshot at time requested. I asked for the info today, but got response in percentages for each game. I divided the number for sales as of the end of the day yesterday and got the APPROXIMATE numbers.

I'm taking the family on a short trip, so don't expect any bloggy goodness out of me until Tuesday, April 11. Before I leave, here are some bits and pieces of news:

• Gov. Mike Easley Thursday is expected to address a big confab of legislators in Durham about his 2006 education agenda. You think he'll make mention of how the state should spend it's new-found lottery revenue?
• In case you didn't see, Greensboro Electrologist Trudy Brown has resigned as head of the state board of electrologist examiners following an unfavorable ruling by the state ethics board.
• If you're looking to wonk out in a really serious way and have a conservative streak, you may want to stop in on the Conservative Leadership Conference in Durham on Friday and Saturday. Click here for info on that event. The conference will feature speakers such as U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) and U.S. Senator George Allen (R-Va), and "Polling data that verifies North Carolina is a conservative state that favors conservative government."
• A new group has formed to push the minimum wage bill through the General Assembly this summer. The bill they're backing is now a co-production of Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro House member who has been pushing for a minimum wage hike for years, and Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington representative who drafted language in the bill related to small business tax credits. It has passed the House and now rests in the Senate's hands. Adams and Sen. Kay Hagan say they expect to see stand-along minimum wage efforts launched in May.
• Peggy Schaefer, 47, has been named to head the North Carolina Justice Academy. According to AG Roy Cooper's new release, "The Justice Academy provides training for thousands of law enforcement officers from across North Carolina each year." Schaefer is a veteran of both the Guilford County sheriff’s office and the Greensboro Police Department.

That's it for now. Play nice while I'm away. And as always, the comment link is open.

Cleaning out the ol' e-mail box after a few days away has been an adventure, one that tells me it's time for the N+R to upgrade our spam filters.

In the definitely not-spam category is an invite from the Guilford County legislative delegation to the citizens at large to huddle in High Point later this week.

This is the second such meeting this spring and I'm told that turn out at the first one was sort of light.

Folks, I get a lot of phone calls about what the honorables should be doing or shouldn't be doing or should be doing differently. And while I'm happy to lend a sympathetic ear this is your chance to let the folks you elected know directly what's on your mind.

Give a little talk and/or handing them some information. Will it turn the tide on your particular issue? No, but it's a fine place to get a foot-hold.

Now, the particulars:

What: "Take It To Raleigh" meeting in High Point
When: Thursday, April 13, 2006; 6-8 p.m.
Where: It will be held in the High Point City Council Chambers, 211 S. Hamilton Street, 3rd Floor.
Also: Please be there fifteen minutes prior to the meeting.

From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — More than 20 state House members have signed up for a new list indicating they won't accept trinkets and other gifts this year, months before an official "no gifts" registry will begin next year.

House Principal Clerk Denise Weeks created a registry this year after contact with legislators, including Speaker Jim Black, who has already pledged not to take any gifts from lobbyists or others.

A lobbying reform law passed last year ordered the Secretary of State's Office to establish the "no gifts" registry for legislators or executive branch members covered by the law. But that registry doesn't begin until next January.

As of early Tuesday, 22 of the House's 120 members had signed up — 13 Democrats and nine Republicans — including Black.

You can find the list at http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/members/reports/noGiftsList.pl?sChamber=House

And now the state capital has its newest parlor game: spot which legislators have (or haven’t) turned down swag from lobbyists.

So far, there are no Guilford legislators on the list, but Rockingham County’s Nelson Cole and Randolph’s Arlie Culp are. I’m sure there are more to come.

If all this keeps up, the people who make up cheesy key-chains with corporate logos are going to loose some serious market share.

You always know you're in for a good time when a Republican starts quoting John F. Kennedy or Franklin Roosevelt; ditto when Democrats start quoting Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan. There's nothing better for some political types than to use quotes from an icon of the other guy's party to support your position.

To wit: North Carolina GOP Chairman Ferrell Blount's "open letter" (read: sent to media outlets) to Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek. (Link is to a PDF file.)

It starts off:

Forty five years ago this month John F. Kennedy in a message to Congress stated, “The basis of effective government is public confidence, and that confidence is endangered when ethical standards falter or appear to falter.”

Hmmm...where could he be going? But wait, more Kennedy quotes:

In the same message to Congress President Kennedy stated, “The ultimate answer to ethical problems in government is honest people in a good ethical environment. No web of statute or regulation, however intricately conceived, can hope to deal with the myriad possible challenges to a man's integrity or his devotion to the public interest.”

But what could he want? You don't suppose this is about Jim Black do you?

Now I am asking you, a fellow state chairman and North Carolinian, to take the courageous step of asking a member of your own party, Jim Black, to resign. I know that this issue has not been easy for your and your silence on the issue evidences the conflict I imagine you must feel.

Yup.

I leave you with a quote from one other Democrat President, Woodrow Wilson. He said, “I love the Democrat Party; but I love America a great deal more . . . . When the Democrat Party thinks that it is an end in itself, then I rise up and dissent.”

Bonus icon quote from Woodrow Wilson! That's going pretty deep on the rhetorical bench. I was SO expecting him to lay down some Lyndon Johnson.

In case you missed the link above, click here to read Blount's whole letter, without my smart-alec remarks.

When Meek's response comes my way, I'll post it.

The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research put out its legislative effective rankings this week.

Click here for a PDF of the whole report.

The rankings are based on surveys of legislators, lobbyists and us scrubby media types. (And by way of full disclosure, yes, I did submit a survey this year.)

What do all these numbers mean?

First, remember the rankings are based on perceptions, not on a measure like how many bills someone got passed or what have you. And while the people who fill out the surveys are pretty knowledgeable, you have to figure there is some "conventional wisdom" and bias mixed in to the ultimate scores.

Also, it's helpful to think of these as relative measures. Does the fact that Harold Brubaker hold the 14 spot and Nelson Cole holds the 15 spot and Hugh Holliman holds the 16 spot mean that Brubaker is somehow two notches more effective than Holliman? No. All three are in roughly the same category.

Some notes on Triad legislators:

• Greensboro Rep. John Blust gets the good attendance award, being among the few legislators to be in the hizzle every day the House was in session. On the flip side, Blust ranks 119 out of 120 in effectiveness. Why? Because Blust butts heads with the powers that be, and his bills suffer the consequences.
• Greensboro Sen. Kay Hagan is the only Guilford legislator to hold a top 10 spot in either chamber. She rates 7 in the Senate.
• Holliman, from Davidson County, and Greensboro Reps. Earl Jones and Alma Adams saw big jumps in their rankings from the prior survey.
• Greensboro Rep. Pricey Harrison ranks 72 in her freshman term. Conventional wisdom, I'm told, says freshmen ordinarily end up in the bottom third of the rankings. By that measure, Harrison does well, making her way in to the top two-thirds.
• Guilford County's other freshman Laura Wiley, of High Point, places 96 out of 120. That's respectable but I would have put her higher based on a couple of bills she championed and a couple of budget provisions she helped knock down. My guess is she would have scored a good 15 or 20 points higher, up near Harrison, except for the fact she's Republican.

Speaker Black seemed delighted to see all his friends from the press corps as he walked into the House Democratic caucus this evening.

For those who don’t know, the House Democrats are meeting to talk about their legislative agenda for the upcoming session…at least that’s what most of them have been saying all day.

Of course, they’ll probably touch on the whole leadership situation and whether embattled House Speaker Jim Black ought to remain Speaker.

Black was upbeat as he entered the caucus room of the General Assembly building, snarking, “Welcome to the short session of the General Assembly,” and then listing all the issues he anticipated talking about.

When asked if the caucus might, you know, boot him, Black said that he was “willing to stay on the job” and had “strong indications” that the representatives present would keep him.

Of course, some of the Democratic honorables don’t seem to be around. Among them, Pricey Harrison from Greensboro.

More to come when white smoke emerges from the caucus room.

The House Democrats emerged after three hours from their caucus meeting Tuesday night, sometime before 10:30 p.m.

The bullet points seem to be this:

• Black will remain Speaker for this session, at least as far as the Democratic caucus is concerned.
• There will be several people – more than four if you believe the chatter – who are interested in being Speaker when the new session convenes next year.
• A lot of other stuff like the minimum wage and health care got talked about but no one is going to write about that in Wednesday’s papers because we’re all obsessed with the leadership thing.

I think the most telling quote came from Rep. Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat and the majority leader in the House, when asked if the Democrats talked about opening up leadership elections Tuesday night:

“There was a lot of feeling that if you open this up right now, it affects our agenda for the short session and that’s not a good thing.”

In other words, they’re going to push through the session that begins in May with the leadership they have, hope nothing else goes wrong before they can adjourn for the year and deal with the leadership questions again after the November elections.

Some elections house keeping.

First off, we're aggregating our elections coverage for all races (county, state and federal) on this page (click to follow the link).

You will notice that more information shows up on the web than does in the paper. Yes, that's by design.

We took a peek at the three legislative elections with Guilford County ties in this story Sunday.

We're supplementing that story with what we are either calling "grids," "long-form bio-boxes," or "that election format thingy," on the three legislative primaries.

The first on of those, which looks at candidates in the Senate District 26 race, ran today. (That the race between Ken Hux and Rick Miller for the Democratic nod to run against Phil Berger this fall.) The other two legislative races will follow Thursday and Friday.

And if all goes well - read: my computer doesn't go ape-snot and I can at least get everyone I need on the phone - Sunday we'll take a look at the Republican primary for the 13th U.S. Congressional, the winner of which will take on Brad Miller. (That should be both a story and a long-form bio-box thingy.)

As always, let's hear your suggestions, questions and complaints...just click on the comment link below.

In case you missed it, this is my story detailing how Scientific Games, the company that helped cause some of Jim Black’s problems, will probably get a cut of North Carolina’s lottery business despite not actually being awarded a contract or anything.

Some of you may remember Earl Jones' push to have North Carolina fund stem cell research. If not, click here for the story from last summer.

And here's a link to information on the bill itself.

That bill got stalled in the push to end the legislative session last summer, although Jones did wrangle a "study committee" to look at the issue. Study committees are the legislatures way of saying "hey, we couldn't get this done, but we think it's important so we'll keep the idea alive."

That committee next meets "Thursday April 27, 2006 in room 544 of the Legislative Office Building, 300 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh, from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon," according to a news release from Jones' office. Also from that release:

The Committee Chair, Representative Earl Jones invites members of the public with interest in this issue to attend, there will be an opportunity at the end of the meeting to address the Committee. The North Carolina House Select Committee on Stem Cell Research was established in 2006. The Committee is charged with studying the State's role in stem cell research, including enacting laws limiting or expanding current research efforts and providing State funds to scientists doing research in this area. The Committee consists of members of the North Carolina House of Representatives.

The Committee will examine a variety of issues related to stem cell research including funding, ethical concerns, economic impact, health and wellness potential, the State's role in these issues, and recommendations to the North Carolina House of Representatives. As part of the information gathering process, the Committee members are interested in public input. Individuals who wish to address the Committee may sign-up immediately prior to the hearing and are asked to limit comments to 2 minutes. Speakers are also asked to furnish a written copy of their comments if possible.

Last summer, Jones thought there might be some way to wrangle this funding into a budget bill that would be considered during the short session that begins in May. But with the honorables hoping to set a land-speed record for adjourning, that possibility has dimmed a bit.

The stem cell debate, at least from a political perspective, is intertwined with the abortion debate. Pushing the stem cell funding bill would be a good way to slow down the short session, provoking vigorous debate both on the floor of the House and in and about the General Assembly building.

Jones told me a couple weeks ago he now aims to reintroduce the stem cell bill in early 2007 at the start of the next legislative session. Of course, that's if he wins his re-election bid this year. (Jones has a Republican challenger with a pretty good political pedigree this fall.)

Three Republicans are hoping voters will give them the nod to face off against Democrat Brad Miller in N.C.'s 13th U.S. House district.

The GOP contenders are:

• John Ross Hendrix, a graphic artist who lost to Richard Burr in the 2004 Republican Senate primary. (Link to his web page.)
  
• Vernon Robinson, the former Winston-Salem council member known for, among other things, his aggressive radio and television spots. (Link to his web page.)
  
• Charlie Sutherland, a Rockingham County business owner and frequent candidate who has never held elective office. (Link to his web page.)

Audio links from my interviews with the candidates are at the bottom of this post. (For those of you visiting this blog for the first time, there's an opportunity for you to comment to me and exchange ideas with other readers via the comment link at the bottom of the post.)

We're putting the story on this race in the paper-and-ink edition Sunday, but as I did with the Blake and Coble interviews, we're posting the audio and some other matter early so blog readers can get a preview.

From Sunday's paper (hyper-links coming Sunday when the stories post to our website) Update: hyper-links added:

• A story on the race.
  
• An issues box containing biographical information and the candidate’s responses on some issues.(You'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the biographical info and Q+A on this race.)

The story looks more at who will likely emerge from the primary to face Miller. If you have to bet the butter and egg money, plunk it down on Robinson.

That's not a slight against the other two candidates or an endorsement of one set of views over another. It's simply an acknowledgement of the political realties on the ground.

The 10,000-pound elephant in that regard is campaign fund raising. Robinson has almost $300,000 in the bank and is spending it on broadcast ads. (Robinson was fresh from placing his latest radio spot when he stopped by to speak with me Friday afternoon.)

The other two candidates aren't raising money at the moment, although Hendrix does have a donation option on his web site. He told me that as of Thursday, no one had used it.

In my story, political strategists (and blogger) Carter Wrenn says:

"The first thing you have to do when you run for office is become known," said Carter Wrenn, a media consultant who worked for Jesse Helms and other well known GOP politicians. He said if nothing else, Robinson’s fund raising prowess should see him through the primary.

"If (Robinson) has got $300,000, and the other guys aren’t raising anything, then Vernon’s going to win," Wrenn said. "He's going to have the money to talk to these people."

Weird stuff can happen, though. It's possible, for example, Robinson's ads cheese off the wrong folks or some news event comes along that happens to give one of the two other candidates a boost at the polls.

Robinson would probably have more to worry about if he was in a one-on-one race with either of the two other candidates. Being well known has its disadvantages, and one big one is there will be a certain cadre of people who just don't like you. Instead of having that vote concentrated all in one place for one candidate, Hendrix and Sutherland will be splitting it.

Now for the audio.

All these clips are MP3 files. The files for Hendrix and Sutherland should be somewhere between two and six minutes in length. I posted longer but fewer files for Robinson at the request of our web gurus. Aside from being cut out of the hour-or-so of tape I have on each candidate, they are otherwise unedited.

Hendrix I spoke to Hendrix at a Raleigh area Perkins restaurant, so you'll hear some clinking plates and other background noise:

• Talking about immigration policy.
  
• Talking about abortion rights.
  
• Talking about why he should face Brad Miller rather than the other two candidates.
  
• Talking about gay marriage and adoption.
  
• Talking more about Brad Miller.
  
• Talking about Robinson and Sutherland.
  
• Talking about his views on the constitution.

Robinson: Robinson visited me at the News & Record's Raleigh bureau in downtown Raleigh:

• Talking about why he's running in a district he doesn't live in, his thoughts on a national sales tax and the GOP Congress' performance on the budget.
  
• Talking about immigration and Iraq.
  
• Talking about why he's the primary candidate with the best chance of beating Brad Miller.
  
• Talking about gay marriage and guns.

Sutherland: I ended up speaking to Mr. Sutherland over the phone. My apologies for the fact my voice is twice as loud as his is:

• Talking about the war in Iraq.
  
• Talking about abortion.
  
• Talking about gay marriage.
  
• Talking about immigration policy.
  
• Talking about why he and not Robinson or Sutherland should run against Miller.
  
• Talking about what he sees as Miller's flaws.

Update: I'm laughing at my self now, and not just because of the ludicrously bad round of golf I played after work yesterday. I wrote this post and then began thinking, "Wow, that feels sort of familiar." That's for good reason. Forgive the semi-rerun folks. -mb

----

The folks at Public Policy Polling put out their latest survey Monday, among other things focusing on immigration, gas prices and potential political outcomes related to Speaker Jim Black.

Click here for the news release and a copy of all the questions.

The biggest grain of salt to take with these numbers - other than the polls automated methodology - is this: people may feel one way or another about a particular issue, but they may not necessarily back a candidate based solely on how they respond to that issue.

For example, the survey says that 81 percent of "likely voters" would favor candidates who backed tighter immigration controls. But how many of those respondents are going to vote solely on the immigration issue? If a candidate favored tighter immigration controls but also stumped for a big tax increase on the middle class (silly example, but hang with me) which issue is likely to drive more votes? I'm thinking that tax thing.

That brings me to the survey's question 5:

Would you be more or less likely to vote for a candidate who wants to keep Jim Black as Speaker of the House? If more likely, press 1. If less likely, press 2. If it makes no difference, press 3.

The respondents answered:

More likely.............. 14%

Less likely ............. 50%

No difference ........... 37%

What's interesting, if it holds true for the population at large, is that those numbers weren't affected much by whether a respondent was a Democrat or a Republican.

So the question becomes, is that enough to drive votes from one House candidate to another come fall? Will the Democrats who backed Black during their last caucus pay a political price? Is all this enough to prompt moderate democrats to defect in some house districts?

With the primaries still a week off, I think it'd be hard to make the case that any of the fall campaigns have become one-dimensional yet, even if a few of the primaries themselves seem to be.(Reg. Req.)

But this poll seems to be evidence that the Black issue - rightly or wrongly - has become a scale tipper for moderate and unaffiliated voters.

It wouldn't prompt someone to vote for a candidate whose views are noxious to their own - an ardently pro-choice Democrat, for example, is not going to cross party lines to back a stridently anti-abortion Republican, no matter what. But if the candidates are roughly equivalent in their views, or an incumbent has a knock or two against them already, the Black question might tip the campaign.

This is going to matter most in true swing districts and districts that can swing due to vagaries of voter turn out, enthusiasm, weather and what not. I would put House 57 (now held by Democrat Rep. Pricey Harrison) firmly in that latter camp.

Harrison is a freshman, and in 2004 wrested the district from Republican Joanne Bowie during an expensive and contentious race. Signs point to this year's election being another hard fought battle.

I am tempted to think that the three other Guilford Democrats, particularly Maggie Jeffus in House District 59, might see some effects of the Black controversy as well.

District 59 reaches out through northeast Greensboro to the northeastern corner, taking in some Republican leaning precincts both in the city and in the county. From my perspective, Jeffus doesn’t seem particularly close to Black – compared to some other Democrats – but hasn’t really distanced herself much either. However, I'd want to see more out of this race from both sides before saying that the Black issue will be at play in the bottom line.

Gov. Easley proclaims May Motorsports Month.

From the release:

Eighty-two percent of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race teams, 72 percent of the NASCAR Busch Series race teams and 55 percent of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race teams are headquartered in North Carolina. More than one million fans attend motorsports events each year in North Carolina.

I have to confess, I'm not a big gear-head. So motorsports racin’ fans, how do we celebrate? I'm thinking a race around Painter Boulevard is out, if only because large sections are, well, not built. Any other suggestions?

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Senator and prospective presidential candidate John Edwards, is appearing at a fund raiser for Pricey Harrison in Raleigh tomorrow. No press invited, Harrison tells me, but if anyone who attends wants to drop a dime, my e-mail is open 24-7.

Harrison, who missed the big Democratic caucus on Jim Black because she was on vacation in Central America, says she’s “very grateful” to Edwards for headlining the event. (Harrison worked on John Edwards’ presidential campaign.)

Asked about the Raleigh location, Harrison said, “I was trying to make it easier on her and I have lot of supporters in Raleigh.”

Why note the event? My guess is that when the second quarter finance reports come out this summer, they’ll show Harrison took in a sizeable sum from this event, giving her plenty of ammunition for the fall campaign even without taking PAC contributions.

Rep. Pricey Harrison isn't the only local pol passing the hat this week.

Rep. Maggie Jeffus, also a Greensboro Democrat, will be fund raising Friday night.

Her shindig will feature a visit with State Treasurer Richard Moore.

Schmoozing and snacks are to be had at 5:30 p.m. Location, is The Marshall Art Gallery up on Pisgah Church Road, near the Chop House.

Why note the event? Jeffus told me this week she has about $10,000 in the campaign treasury compared to her challenger, Jim Rumley, who has under $1,000 according to his first quarter report. Jeffus spent somewhere north of $100,000 against Rumley in 2004, including help from the state Democratic PAC. This kind of event Friday night appears to be preparation for another high-dollar campaign.

For my money, the answer to the headline's question just might be state auditor.

Why?

You not only get a cool office in downtown Raleigh staffed by investigators of various sorts, but you can poke around in just about any part of state government you really want to.

And hey, if you're a Republican, say, and most of the other statewide elected officials are Democrats, then you just might take the opportunity to tweak your colleagues every now and then.

To wit:

• Click here for links to the Auditor's latest report, detailing how a computer in the treasurer's office was used for campaign purposes.
• And Click here for the auditor's statement on that report. (PDF)

Now, it's definitely improper for anyone in state government to be conducting political business on a taxpayer computer.

But is it me, or does these lines from the release not sound like they're aimed at the former deputy in question?

“We fully understand that in an elected office there will be some points of contact, some minimal contact between an office or agency and the political process. While it may be difficult for elected officials to completely isolate politics from the work environment, public officials should make strong efforts to do so,” said Merritt.

Merritt recommends that agencies develop proper policies to ensure taxpayer dollars are used for taxpayer purposes.

“Taxpayers need their dollars (whether state vehicles, computers, supplies or salaries) to work for them and for them alone.” Merritt said.

Maybe it's just me.

From the Lt. Gov's office:

Raleigh: Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue is the featured speaker for the Greensboro Rotary on Wednesday, May 3rd at 12:30pm at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center.

The Lt. Governor will speak about education and economic development.

If you're dying to ask a question but can't think of a good one, ask her what she did while Gov. Mike Easley was out of the country (looking at biotech efforts in Europe) this past week.

According to the state constitution (tip of the hat to Barry Smith at Freedom newspapers for pointing this out to me) whenever the governor is out of state, the Lt. Governor is considered the Acting Governor...which means she could have issued all sorts of whacky proclamations if she wanted to.

Sadly, it seems like she didn't take advantage of the opportunity.

You ever begin to think you have one of those headaches that's like jack hammer going in your head and then realize, no, that's an actual jack hammer going outside the office window? Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, while the fellows outside expand the sidewalk all of three feet (really!), you can dig into some of the stuff that's been showing up in my e-mail as of late after the jump.

You remember how AG Roy Cooper decided to sue the TVA over air pollution?

The joke at the time was this sort of law suit ate up some much paper that it was environmentally unfriendly itself.

Turns out, it isn’t cheap either.

The Council of State next week will consider shelling out $326,078.81 for legal fees, in addition to $158,258.94 already spent on the case.

Of course, there is an argument to be made that if North Carolina wins the case, it could be a boon to the economy and well worth the investment.

That's right people, after the lawn is mowed, I'm getting all grilly with a whole chicken this afternoon.

Meanwhile, for those interested in politics and stuff:

• My colleague Jeri Rowe writes about the potential sale of portions of the Uwharrie National Forest.
• Click here for my story on the NC General Assembly being a middle of the road sort of place, at least compared to some other state legislatures we could name. If the news gods were kind, it will have been paired in the print edition with this story from the NY Times, otherwise it just won't make a whole lot of sense.

That's it. Now go play outside. We'll see you back here on Monday.