News-Record.com

Gov. Easley on Tropical Storm Ernesto this morning:

"North Carolina was prepared and it appears that the state has been spared any large-scale damage," said Easley.

However, do look out for and stay out of streams that are above normal, flooded roadways and the like. In other words, try to avoid any sentence/action that begins with the phrase "Hold my beer and watch this..."

More from an Easley news release:

Those traveling on roads in the eastern part of the state need to be particularly cautious. A portion of U.S. 70 near Goldsboro, a major route for weekend travelers headed to North Carolina’s beaches, has been closed due to the flooding. The section of U.S. 70, between N.C. 581 and U.S. 117 Bypass, was closed because of a pond dam breach, according to the state Department of Transportation. The eastbound lanes will be closed and that traffic will be shifted to N.C. 581.

While there are isolated roads closed in some low-lying areas of the eastern part of the state, all interstate highways are open. Maintenance crews are working to clear debris that is blocking roads.

Click here to read the whole release.

It’s the day after Labor Day, which marks the beginning of political season in earnest here in North Carolina and elsewhere across the nation. You can expect broadcast ads to start airing with higher frequency now, as well as direct mail from candidates to step up in volume.

I’m celebrating today by heading down to Randolph County to check out the contestants in state House District 70, who are running to replace Arlie Culp, the nine-term Republican from Ramseur.

The contest features Hampton Spivey, a Democrat and the current mayor of Ramseur, and Pat Hurley, a Republican and deputy clerk in Randolph Superior Court.

Registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats 51 percent to 30 percent in the district, which gives Hurley a massive advantage. But this is an odd election year, with turn out in doubt on both sides of the political ledger. Plus, being a sitting mayor should be an advantage for Spivey in terms of name recognition.

All around, it should be an interesting race and I’m looking forward to hearing more about it.

My colleague Taft Wireback will be writing about this audit report (PDF warning) for tomorrow’s paper. The intro from the report:

The Office of the State Auditor received a number of allegations concerning a State of North Carolina term contract for tire retreading. The tire retreading contract was written and administered by the North Carolina Department of Administration–Division of Purchase and Contract. The allegations primarily concerned the contractor, White’s Tire Service, Inc., (the Contractor), and the procurement of retread tires for local school districts, which are referred to as Local Education Authorities (LEAs). Allegedly, the contractor violated provisions of the contract regarding charges for repairs, tire casing identification, and price adjustments.

On a quick read through, the report seems to say that there are some things that need to be changed with how this contract works.

Click here for one of Taft’s prior stories on the topic.

I don’t have reams of polling data at my finger tips, I’m not a highly paid political operative and there could be a ton of stuff at play I’m missing, but I’m having trouble reconciling the news of the day with the talk of the town.

A New York Times story Tuesday morning, laid out how Congressional Republicans had moved on from the immigration issue, in part, because they thought other issues would play better in the fall campaign. From the story:

As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.

But as I mention earlier, I spent a good deal of my day wandering about Randolph County Tuesday afternoon, mainly Ramseur and Asheboro. During that time I interviewed two candidates, on a moderate-to-conservative Democrat the other a moderate Republican.

Both named immigration and the lack of federal action as a major issue in their race.

I also talked to a bunch of folks, leaving my notebook in the holster, just to chat. And while I ran across my share of politically disengage and party-line voters, of the folks who said they were swayed candidate-by-candidate, most said immigration was a big issue.

In fact, other than the war in Iraq, immigration reform or the lack there of was probably the most easily identified, discreet issue that one would naturally think of as a federal responsibility that came up time and again. That’s mind boggling considering a lot of the folks I was talking to were older, from whom I would have expected more talk of Social Security or Medicare.

Let’s be clear – this wasn’t an exhaustive sample, more than dozen but less than 20 folks chatted up during the course of a single afternoon. And the methodology wasn’t exactly scientific – I basically picked off people who looked like they had nothing better to do than talk to a scrubby reporter like myself. But it does jive with what I hear from folks in my own discussions outside of work.

The afternoon did make me wonder if the folks in Randolph County knew something the pols in Washington didn’t. (Heck, even the Washington Post named immigration as a “bell weather issue” this year.)

Bringing the issue into additional focus: In both Asheboro and Ramseur there are businesses, in what would argue is the downtown core, that cater to Spanish speaking customers. (The signs were in Spanish, etc...) And earlier this year, rallies in support of immigrant rights showed that a sizeable population of that community was intent on having its say.

Irrespective of how you feel immigration policy should be change, it seems like issue itself is more than some second-rate political player to be benched during the final quarter of the political football game.

Yes, this could end up being quite the clever strategy. Republican leaders and the rank and file seem to be split between reformer/integrators like President Bush (the path-to-citizenship lot) and the hard-liners (the use-school-buses-to-deport-‘em crowd.) By not having united behind one plan, it lets Republican candidates run whichever way serves them best in this fall’s election.

But today it felt like immigration was an issue where voters would like to see something done, and for those who are paying attention to the issue inaction is going to be as much of a black mark as “the wrong” action.

If nothing else, today’s wandering elevated the issue in my mind as potential issue in state races. I’ll be looking to see how it plays in Greensboro and other parts of Guilford County.

National Journal writer Charlie Cook held court at Elon University today – thanks to the folks at Elon’s Political Science Department for inviting me – talking mainly about the upcoming Congressional elections.

Cook, for those who don’t know, is one the foremost nonpartisan pollsters and analysts in the country. Here’s some of what he had to say (after the jump):

Ah, the beach. A great place to go, relax, and feel that impending sense of doom as you figure reams of work is piling up on your virtual desk as the ocean sweeps your three-year-old off into the gulf stream, bound for parts unknown.

Anyway, now that the whole family is back – and all the sand is out of parts that shouldn’t be known – here are some of the things I’ve been negligent about:

• Apparently, this story I wrote a while ago on IMPAC ran. Prior post on the group here.
• North Carolina lottery chairman Charles Sanders has decided to step away from the lottery commission. He wrote in an e-mail this week:

  I am writing to tell you I am stepping down from the Commission as of my appointment expiration date of August 31, 2006. When I accepted Governor Easley’s invitation to join the Commission, I told him I would do it for one year. During this time together we as a Commission have brought a smoothly functioning lottery into being, directed by an outstanding leader in Tom Shaheen and his dedicated, energetic, and professional staff. I am proud of what we have been able to do. I am proud the funds generated by the lottery are adding to the existing commitment of North Carolina to the education of its students – a commitment the people of North Carolina must guard to insure that these funds are truly additive and not supplanting existing funds in the years ahead. And I am particularly proud to have served with each of you who reflect the best to be found in our citizenry, for each of you has brought expertise and common sense to the work of the Commission.

• (Update on this below). The state auditor checked out finances over at the General Assembly. He found some problems, like lax accounting for office supplies, which the GA folks basically said “Yup, we’ll get right on that.” He also pointed out that the Speaker and Senate President Pro Tempore gave out larger than normal raises without much by way of paper work. The answer was sort of the same, just with a different inflection. (sarcasm)“Yup, we’ll get right on that.”(/sarcasm) Ok, what they really said was “The Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate are authorized by statute to approve expenditures for their respective chamber. The increases in question were properly approved. Your findings and recommendations will be forwarded to the Speaker and President Pro Tempore.”
• Gov. Easley was named to the National Governor’s Association Public Safety Taskforce. From the “Nothing like a prompt response” file, the press release announcing this starts: “On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on America, the National Governors Association (NGA) has announced the creation of a Public Safety Task Force in recognition of governors’ evolving role and responsibility in enhancing the safety of their states’ residents.” I feel safer already.
• Oh, and the House Republicans have set the tune that they’re all supposed to march in lock step for this fall's elections. (Remember, House Democrats sort of did the same thing before the legislative session.) Click here for the GOP release.

Alright, I’ve got to dig out my calendar and see what it is I’m supposed to be doing today. More later.

Update:
Re: the audit of state legislative salaries, Julie Robinson in the Speaker's office sent me this:

On Sept. 22, 2005, the Speaker and the President Pro Tempore requested that the State Auditor conduct a fiscal audit of the General Assembly. The audit released on Sept. 12, 2006 is the result of this request.

This request was made because an audit had not been conducted since the fiscal year ending June 30, 1999. In addition to this specific audit, the Speaker and President Pro Tempore have requested that in the future, audits be conducted no less than every two to three years.

The finding regarding House and Senate salary increases is not regarding salaries for the Speaker and Pro Tempore staff members. As the Auditor's review notes, the General Assembly Personnel Manual and state statute authorize the Pro Tempore and Speaker to address personnel issues within their respective chambers. This finding involves salary adjustments for House and Senate staff in general who had received raises in excess of 10%. There are currently 315 total House and Senate employees; the audit refers to 15 employees who had received raise above these amounts.

Six of the 15 employees received salary increases above 10% because their status changed from being interns to being hired as staff members after their internships ended. The remaining employees had seen increased workloads due to significant increases in legislative activity. For example, the number of bills filed in 2005-2006 was 50.2% greater than the number of bills introduced during the 2003-2004 legislative session (4,929 bills in 2005-2006 compared to 3,281 during 2003-2004). Salary adjustments for all 15 employees were made in writing, based on additional workload or position reclassifications, as is standard practice for all compensation adjustments.

From Gov. Mike Easley's office:

RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley today appointed John McArthur of Cary as chair and Bryan Beatty of Raleigh to the N.C. Lottery Commission.

McArthur takes the place of Charles Sanders, who has stepped down after heading up the lottery commission for its inaugural year. More from the release, after the jump:

This USA Today story that ran Thursday on voting machine glitches got my attention because we have some of the same gear here in North Carolina, and specifically Guilford County. (A similar story was in NPR’s rotation Thursday as well.)

From the USA Today story:

Eight weeks before elections that will decide control of Congress, a rush by state and local governments to prepare new voting machines and train poll workers is raising the possibility of trouble reminiscent of the 2000 presidential election standoff.

Problems range from delayed delivery of new equipment to an insufficient supply of trained technicians to fix anticipated problems, voting experts say.

North Carolina, as you might have noticed, just went through a big voting machine replacement binge in the past couple years.

So, with less than 60 days to go before Nov. 7, should we be worried?

There are some problems that were mentioned in the above stories that seem less likely to crop up here. Counties have their equipment now and ran it during the primary, so they’re not going to be waiting on machines to ship in right before an election. And we’ve already been through one primary on the new machines, so it might be safe to think that most poll workers will know there way about the new gear.

There was one issue that kept cropping up in those and other stories that got me curious though. In counties such as Guilford, where they use DRE machines (small computers with touch screens) the machines are required to produce a voter verifiable paper back up. The thing looks like a grocery store receipt.

In the stories mentioned above, problems with those paper records included printer jams and some ballots not recording. The stories seemed to chalk this up to a combination of poll worker error and the occasional bad machine.

In the aftermath of the May primary, we got reports from most quarters that voting machines had worked well. But I wanted to double check. When we examined paper records here, did we find any glitches?

“The experience that we had was much better than I expected,” said Guilford County Elections Director George Gilbert. He said that audit counts of two precincts went as they should have and there were few reports during the primaries of printers getting gummed up.

Gilbert, it should be noted, is no fan of the paper back up system. He says the electronic machines are reliable and that if there is to be a backup, it ought to be an automated one. There are (a lot of folks who disagree with that view.)

At any rate, Gilbert seemed to think the printers on Guilford County’s machines were working with a minimum of fuss, but added the following caveat:

“Ask me the same question after the November 2008 election, and we’ll see,” he said. “A presidential election is a whole different animal.”

Translation: a higher turnout election equals more work for the machines equals more chances for something to go wrong.

So, no, we didn't see problems locally in May. But because more folks will be showing up to vote in November, it might be reasonable to assume there is a somewhate elevated (if not necessarily huge) chance of something going haywire that we didn't see earlier this year.

As furniture executives used to tell me back in my business reporting days, I'd say we can be cautiously optimistic.

(Blogger's Note: You will find several audio files from each candidate at the end of this post, along with some biographical information on each. We will have further coverage of this race, including Q+As on more issues not represented here, in the paper.)

If you are going to talk about battle-ground elections in and around Guilford County, then you need to be chatting about House District 57. It is a central-Greensboro seat currently occupied by Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Democrat, who is challenged by Republican and political newcomer Ron Styers.

Two years ago, Harrison beat Rep. Joanne Bowie, a longtime Republican legislator. There are some analysts who chalked that up to tinkering with the district boundaries by Democratic leaders during the last round of redistricting. Indeed, the core of the district shares many precincts in common with Guilford County Commissioner District 6, itself a Democratic stronghold.

But there are other factors that point to a more competitive race. Although voter registration favors Democrats, in a year that could produce spotty voter turnout observers on both sides say that the district is close enough to be competitive.

And Harrison is just completing her first term in the legislature, having made a reputation as one of the more progressive-liberal members of the Democratic caucus. That gives her neither the inertia of a long-time legislator who voters are loath to boot nor the comfort zone of more centrists or so-called “business” Democrats who draw both yellow-dog Democrats as well as some Republican votes.

“There are a lot of (districts) that are vulnerable this time, including that seat,” said Bill Peaslee, the state Republican Party’s chief of staff. “She’s been kind of wishy-washy on that whole Jim Black thing.”

That “Jim Black thing,” is the ongoing saga regarding embattled House Speaker Jim Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat Republicans say wields power in a heavy-handed way on behalf of special interests.

“Yes, it’s been a little bit of an albatross for us but I think that Jim Black is in Jim Black’s district,” Harrison said during a recent interview. “I think the voters out here can make that distinction.”

Still, Styers has criticized Harrison for taking large amounts of money from the Democratic caucus, much of which was raised by Black. The two disagree on the amount, although Harrison said she is working to return all of it to the party. And she points out that she was one of the few Democrats to call for Black to step aside from his leadership post while various state and federal investigations proceeded.

Peaslee said that Harrison was merely “hedging her bets,” and should have made a motion on the House floor to remove Black. No Republican made such a motion during the session.

On substantive issues, Harrison and Styers share some similarities. Both oppose incentives as a way to lure corporations to the state. Both supported last year’s rise in the minimum wage but say they would need more information before supporting a similar hike. Both say more needs to be done in terms of ethics and lobbying reform during the next session.

Differences include their take on charter schools, publicly funded but privately run K-12 institutions. Styers is a passionate advocate of charters and said that the state should lift the 100-school cap now imposed by North Carolina. Harrison called them as “failed experiment here in Guilford County” and says the state has not seen enough evidence that charters are effective to raise the cap. She said that money is better spent on improving public education, a notion that prompted Styers to say, “The answer is not to keep putting more money into a black hole.”

Tactically, Harrison has been the far more prolific fund raiser. Styers says he will raise more money before the campaign is over and is still waiting to hear if and how much the state party will help with his push down the home stretch.

Audio Links
The following audio was recorded during sit-down interviews in mid-September. I met Styers at his office in Kernersville, Harrison at her home in Greensboro.

• A key criticism that Styers has leveled at Harrison is that she spent too much time concerned with issues not directly affecting Guilford County.
  Click here for Styers’ stake
  Click here to listen to Harrison respond.
  
• Immigration has emerged as an influential issue in state House races. Earlier this year, the debate erupted when legislators, including Harrison, proposed giving in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants.
  Click here to listen to Harrison talk about the in-state tuition debate.
  Click here to listen to Harrison talk more generally about immigration.
  Click here to listen to Styers’ take on immigration, including his take on the in-state tuition matter.
  
• One of the biggest variables in the fall election is what effect the stories surrounding embattled House Speaker Jim Black will have.
  Click here to listen to Harrison’s take.
  Click here to listen to Styers’ take.

About the candidates
Mary Price “Pricey” Taylor Harrison
Party: Democrat
Age: 48
Address: Ridgeway Drive, Greensboro
Family: Widowed, no children.
Education: High School, Greensboro Day School; Bachelor’s degree, Duke University; law degree, UNC-Chapel Hill
Professional: Former communications law attorney
Political experience: First term House member.
Civic leadership: Vice Present of the Julian Price Family Foundation; board member, Piedmont Land Conservancy; board member, N.C. Environmental Defense; board member, Carolina Environmental Program for UNC-Chapel Hill.
Website: www.priceyharrison.com

Ron Styers
Party: Republican
Age: 46
Address: Sanderling Place, Greensboro
Family: two children
Education: High School, Grimsley High School; Bachelors in Broadcast Journalism, University of South Carolina.
Professional: Co-owner, Specialty National, a Kernersville cleaning products maker.
Political experience: none.
Civic leadership: none.
Website: none.

This story on local GOP candidates’ reaction to the recently announced platform by the House Republican caucus.

State Republicans sent out a fund raising appeal Monday morning that, makes me think we might need to give our local pols weapons training. (Click here for a copy.)

“We must destroy the enemy by electing leaders with strength and resolve. Our troops need Republicans of the highest caliber to battle the terrorist forces,” reads the e-mail.
So, that local state house candidate going to be lobbing many grenades? That county commission race is really a referendum on the war in Iraq?

I put the question to Bill Peaslee, chief of staff of the state Republicans, who immediately responded by calling Democrats “the party of cut and run,” etc...

But the fund raising e-mail was for the state party, which funds not only Congressional races but also state and local level campaigns. So, how do those sorts of races play into the global war on terror. Is Osama really looking to see who pulls out a win in a central Greensboro state house district?

Peaslee acknowledged that money given to boost Congressional candidates might have a collateral impact in the GOP’s war on Democrats.

“Most of our funds go to turning out the Republican vote, and that helps candidates whether they’re running for Congress or the state house or county commission,” he said.

Update: The Dems respond.

Gov. Easley announced that the state would conduct performance audits of every low performing High School in North Carolina as a way to get at problems in low performing schools.

Click here for the news release. Come back in a few minutes for updates, including audio.

Update4: Click here for links to Guilford County's own audits of its low performing schools.

Audio Update: Audio from this morning’s announcements: (I'm told our audio server's issues have been fixed.)

• Click here for Easley’s opening spiel, along with some comments from State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee.
  
• Click here for an initial round of Q+A on the audit effort.
  
• Click here for a second round of Q+A on the audit effort.

Update3: Click here for the AP's take on all this.

Update2: From Terry Grier, Superintendent of Guilford County Schools: “This is the first I’ve heard of it … We’ve not heard anything about this, but by the same token we welcome it.”

Grier said that Guilford County has already done an audit of its three low performing schools.

Update: Easley was joined as the news conference announcing this by a host of education and legislative folks, including Rep. Maggie Jeffus and Sen. Kay Hagan, both Greensboro Democrats.

Both legislators said they thought this was a good idea.

Jeffus said she often hears from folks, regular people and campaign opponents alike, that the state cannot simply throw money at public schools and expect to fix the education problem.

“This is one way we can show whether it (money) will help or not,” Jeffus said.

I asked Easley if this audit was requested by the local schools or whether superintendents might feel this is at all heavy handed by the state. Some quotes in response:

• “I don’t expect any push-back from superintendents,” Easley said. He said he has been assured all superintendents are on board with this effort.
• “This is not a gotcha thing,” he said. “We are from Raleigh and we’re here to help.”
• Said that during the last legislative session the General Assembly gave local school districts a lot of funding in terms of teacher salaries, extra money for struggling students, etc… “It’s not as though we’re trying to police something we haven’t given them the resources to do the job.” I think that meant that the state wants to make sure all that money is doing something.

The state has budgeted about $10.8 billion on education for the current fiscal year.

With help form our crack education staff back in Greensboro, I’ll be asking the folks back there whether this is a good idea or no.

...the chairman of the local party has to send out an e-mail re-assuring folks that you're still in the race. Case in point, this e-mail from the Guilford County Democrats’ list:

In recent weeks, rumors that Rory Blake has withdrawn from the 6th District Congressional Race have been making the rounds. Please be assured that nothing could be further from the truth. Rory continues to campaign and needs the support of good Democrats throughout the 6th District.

If you would like more information about the Rory Blake campaign, please visit www.Blake06.com.

Blake is running against Republican incumbent Howard Coble in the 6th Congressional District.

Previously.

Audio Update: Click here to listen to the off-topic Q+A with Easley. (Audio server is back up.)

So Gov. Easley was giving a news conference Tuesday and darn but if those pesky reporters didn’t up an ask him some questions not on his agenda.

As you may know, the federal trial of Kevin Geddings, (reg. req.) who by all accounts lied to state officials when he was appointed to the lottery commission last year, begins Wednesday.

Now, Easley didn’t call all us scruffy media types to talk about anything related to the lottery or corruption on Tuesday. Nope – he had a bunch of education folks like state BOE chairman Howard Lee and legislators like Sen. Kay Hagan up on the dais with him to talk about improving low performing schools.

But when reporters only get to lob questions at the governor sporadically, well, your nice little education news conference is going to get all gummed up with corruption questions.

So all the assembled honorables and education folks got to stand awkwardly, some shifting their weight from one foot to the other, and hope they weren’t in the camera shot as Easley answered questions about whether he knew Geddings worked for a lottery vendor before assigning him to the lottery commission.

I’m sure those running for re-election must have been really happy to be standing in front of a room full of reporters while the biggest public corruption scandal in the state since we packed an Ag Commissioner off to the federal pen was discussed.

Easley did, by the way, say that he didn’t know if anyone on his staff was going to be called to testify at the trial and that his own knowledge of the affair was limited.

“I did not know he was involved with Scientific Games when he was appointed,” Easley said. “Based on my conversation with the Speaker (Jim Black), I don’t think he knew either.”

A few notes, fiduciary in nature:

Note #1When I interviewed Pricey Harrison last week, the Greensboro Democrat told me that she was still raising money for the race against Republican Ron Styers.

She wasn’t kidding. Former Gov. Jim Hunt is coming to town to headline a fund raiser for Harrison on Oct. 3. That’s a big ticket event that should dump plenty of money into her campaign coffers right as election season hits over-drive.

For his part, Styers says he has campaign events planned but said most of his energy has been focused on going door to door.

When I ask GOP state officials last week whether they were going to come to the aid of under-funded candidates in potentially competitive races, like Styers, they were cagey…something about not wanting to give away the play book. Styers said he didn’t know whether he would be getting any help from the state party or not.

My bet would be that you will see some GOP party money from the state level filter down into the campaign…it’s too tempting an opportunity to let pass, especially if the Republicans are serious about pushing to take back the House.

Note #2 The FEC has sent a love note to Howard Coble. Will be checking into this.

Note #3 Passed along to me this afternoon was this: a fund raising letter from House Speaker Jim Black’s campaign.

For a guy that’s supposed to be on the ropes, Black still sounds like he’s throwing body blows.

“A new Speaker is elected every two years. I have far more commitments than anyone else in the House. I ask you to continue to support me,” reads the letter. Sounds to me like he’s gunning to keep his job.

The letter also contains a great example of one of the Mack-truck-sized loopholes in the lobbying and ethics reform bills passed this year: “ps – if you are a registered lobbyist, I am not asking for a personal contribution, but if you would kindly forward this letter to the PACs you represent, I would be most appreciative.”

Give Black credit. He’s complying with the new laws before he has to, unlike some of his colleagues who tried to wring a last donation out of lobbyists before the new rules clicked in.

And viewed under the lens of the new rules, the letter’s language is right on the mark. Lobbyists can’t give campaign donations. But they CAN pass on suggestions about who their clients should give campaign donations to. So while your friendly local pol is out the up-to-$4,000 a lobbyist as an individual could give, they don’t have to forgo the much larger sums that could be raised by that lobbyists’ network.

That’s part of the reason you’ll hear me sniff and jeer a bit when incumbent legislators talk this fall about their big accomplishments in the campaign finance and lobbying reform arenas.

Good on Jay. Now he can start leaking me all the deep dark inner secrets of the GC Dems I’ve been dying to know for years.

The John Locke Foundation has founded a beachhead in the triad blogspace. The new site will be headed up by Sam Hieb, who has been on the GSO blog scene for a while now.

Locke is also hosting a blog conference on Oct. 7 in Greensboro. Yes, that’s the weekend before Converge South.

I may be crazy, but maybe next year these two crazy kids should get together. Sure there are cultural conflicts (Locke charges for its events, Converge is free), but they’re talking about basically the same stuff.

Just a thought.

Three quick links:

• Click here for today’s story on Gov. Easley’s plan to audit high schools.
  
• Click here for audio and other stuff from yesterday’s news conference.
  
• Click here for more info from my friends at the Chalkboard.

Political hacks of all stripes are buzzing about the big Kevin Geddings trial today.

AP: The grand jury indictment charges Geddings with misleading the state, fellow lottery commission members and others about his financial relationship with Scientific Games Corp. and his lottery work in other states.

I got word today that Sen. Kay Hagan is doing a fundraising event tonight featuring Sen. Pres. Pro Tempore Marc Basnight and Majority Leader Tony Rand.

All this to raise money for Hagan’s big race against ... absolutely no one. No Republican filed to run against her this year and there is no write-in effort that I know of.

Now, as of her July report, Hagan had nearly six figures in the ol’ campaign account. So why raise money?

"There’s a continuous need to raise money," Hagan told me when I asked that question today.

Sure. Maybe she's just getting a jump start on '08. Or she could be stockpiling campaign cash for, oh, some race for higher office that comes up in 2008? Hagan gets mentioned from time-to-time by folks in various circles as a potential candidate for statewide office like Lt. Governor or Congress.

So, I asked her if she might be building a campaign account for some other office in 2008?

"Right now, at this point in time, I am running for the North Carolina state Senate," Hagan said.

If y’all are planning on voting, you might want to check out Y'all Vote, a link-heavy website run by Charlotte lawyer and former reporter Jon Goldberg.

The North Carolina Association of Realtors have been actively involved in campaigns for years. Their PAC regularly spreads the love to candidates of both parties.

New this year, the realtors have launched a 527 group, called the N.C. Homeowners Alliance.

So far, the group has done mailings in two places:

• They backed Allan Dameron, a Democrat, who is running against Republican incumbent Bonner Stiller. (Here’s an N+O story on that race.)
  
• They also sent out mailings on behalf of Julia Howard, who has no opposition in the fall general election, but was targeted by fellow Republicans in her primary because of her ties to Richard Morgan.

In both district, they sent out an 8.5x11 flier lauding the candidate of their choice and urging voters to call and thank the candidate for their hard work. According to Tim Kent, executive vice president of the realtors, those are the only two races where the group will intervene this year. So no, you won’t be hearing from them in Greensboro…yet.

“We intend to be very active in the ’07-’08 election cycle,” Kent said.

Something to look forward to, I guess.

In the mean time, Kent said that this would be one of the most active years for direct giving by the realtors’ pac. By the time the final reports are filed, he said, the realtors will have give more than $500,000 to candidates during this campaign cycle.

The President is scheduled to come to Greensboro next month. Some linkage:

• The Whitehouse won't confirm the event.
  
• Marcus Kindley, the Guilford County GOP chairman, is concerned about the effect on local fund raising.
  
• Hat tip to Ed Cone, who has quite the discussion going on over at his joint...something about giving the President a hug or what not.
  
• According to those in the know, the fund raiser in question is to be hosted at the home of New Breed founder Louis DeJoy and his wife, Ambassador Wos.

The outstanding question at this point: what else will the President be doing in our little berg? Sure, rubbing elbows with folks who will shell out big bucks to your party is fun, but I would bet this trip is combined with some policy announcement or speech locally.

(Blogger’s Note: You will find several audio files from each candidate at the end of this post, along with some biographical information on each. We will have further coverage of this race, including Q+As on more issues not represented here, in the paper. Previously: House 57)

Rep. Maggie Jeffus was packing her bags Monday for a trip to Mexico with the Center for International Understanding. The stated purpose of the trip was to find out more about Latino immigrants to North Carolina, who are becoming an increasing proportion of the population.

Update: Link here to a somewhat shortened version of story.

I’ll post a link to this in the morning, but from a story scheduled to run Tuesday:

The rhetoric in the 13th Congressional District race has become so heated that where and when the candidates will debate the issues has itself become an issue.

I’ve been talking to a lot of candidates and others about immigration (or rather the problems associated with illegal immigration) as of late, and more and more I’m convinced it’s going to be one of those issues that drives voters to the polls.

Vernon Robinson has certainly chosen it as his marquee issue in his race against Brad Miller. And although some voters find Robinson’s ads off-putting in their delivery, I think the issue itself is a good one for the district.

Two quick links, one near and one far, that reinforce the idea that immigration is a battleground issue this fall:

• Chris Fitzsimon, of the left-leaning N.C. Policy Watch, used his latest commentary to talk about the proposal to give the children of undocumented workers in-state tuition. When a bill to do just that was run in 2005, public outcry forced many politicians to run for cover. Apparently Jim Hunt is still beating the drum for this. However, the party line for Democrats who supported the measure is that they still think it’s a good idea but the 2007-08 session is not the time to run it.
• I found this video from the Washington Post’s “The Fix” blog fascinating. Although the first part of the clip is about Ohio, it reminded me a lot of central North Carolina.

Coming soon, I'm told, to a cable television ad buy near you: another Vernon Robinson television ad. It is not for the faint of heart and is definitely PG-13 or above. A short excerpt (Hat tip to National Journal’s “Hotline” blog.):

What kind of congressman would try to deny our soldiers the body armor they need to save their lives? The answer is your congressman, Brad Miller. That's right, Brad Miller did not vote for the appropriation that paid for improved body armor for our troops. But Brad Miller has no trouble spending your money -- he would just rather spend it on sex. That's right, instead of spending money on sickle-cell research, Brad Miller voted to spend your money to study the sex lives of Vietnamese prostitutes in San Francisco.

And it goes on from there.

Miller’s campaign reacts:

"Robinson's excessive use of explicit sexual language in this campaign spot is completely inappropriate for families with children to hear in their homes."

That’s from Miller spokeswoman LuAnn Canipe. When asked specifically about the allegation Miller skipped a body armor vote, Canipe responded:

We think----we think he is talking about the 2004 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense and the Reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan on October 31, 2003. The Congressman flew out with a Congressional delegation to meet with U.S. troops in Iraq at Abu Ghraib prison on October 30th. This vote was a final conference vote, purely symbolic which passed by 300-plus votes. Rep. Miller voted for the bill when it came through the House. Since he's been in the House, Miller has not voted against a single Dept. of Defense Appropriations or Authorization bill. No matter what he believes about the war, he fights for full funding of the troops and their needs in combat when they are sent to war.

I have a call in to the Robinson campaign, but it was late in the day Tuesday. More to come from both sides I expect.

Update: By the way, the Miller campaign has an ad out as well, although it’s a little more staid that Robinson’s.

Update2: At Red State, the Robinson ad goes to the “OMG” File.

• A grand jury indicted a politically active optometrist close to House Speaker Jim Black on Tuesday, charging Michael Scott Edwards with four counts of felony perjury.
• A former aide to House Speaker Jim Black recommended changes to legislation creating the state lottery while working for a for-profit lottery contractor, Black's office attorney testified Tuesday at the federal fraud trial of ex-lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings.

Update: Robinson’s ad is provoking some discussion over at our letters blog.

I posted the other day about a new campaign ad by Republican Vernon Robinson, who is running to unseat Democrat Brad Miller in the 13th Congressional District.

A story is forthcoming tomorrow, but to cover a few points:

• Factcheck.org looked over the ad and concluded it was “fact-twisting bunk.” Making no comments as to their characterization, I would say their research and analysis is largely accurate and I confirmed much of it today or yesterday.

• On Wednesday, Robinson stood by his ad and when challenged on many of the points that Factcheck raised responded, in part, “He can explain why he wasn’t there and why he made sure to be there for the sex studies.”

• If the photo used in the opening sequence of what has been posted on the Internet looks familiar, it should. It is from a Rocky Mountain News package on the men who care for fallen soldiers and their loved ones.(Large PDF. The picture in question is on page 5 of 19.) From my story tomorrow on the ad: “We did not give him permission to use that and we’re right now pursuing steps to make him cease and desist using it,” said Ander Murane, a libarian in charge of copy rights for the newspaper.

I spoke with Robinson yesterday about the ad but he did not return calls today after I learned that the photo was in fact from the Rocky Mountain News.

Linkage:
The latest Vernon Robinson television ad.
Brad Miller's current ad.

The Elon University Poll has new results out this morning. There’s a lot to chew on, but some first blush figures from North Carolina:

• President Bush’s over-all approval rating saw an up-tick but remains below 50 percent. The last time that more than half of respondents said they approved of the job he was doing as President was in March of 2005. This time about, 45.2 percent gave him a favorable rating.
• A little over 6 percent of respondents listed immigration as the “most important” issue facing the country, that number was 12.4 percent in the state. More than 75 percent of voters said it will influence how they vote, which is up there with health care costs and terrorism.
• When asked which party they’ll support in the next election, 35.5 percent say Democrats, 29.6 say Republicans, and 27.4 percent say they don’t know.

Usually, the poll folks post data and analysis later in the day. I’m going to curl up with some of these numbers to see what else can be found.

I would be remiss if I did not send out a big thank you to Hunter Bacot, director of the Elon Poll. I asked a question that the data they had for release didn’t answer and he went back and ran a cross tab for me this afternoon to help me out.

So I’ll share it with y’all as something to chew on over the weekend.

Basically, I wanted to know if some issues were resonating more with voters of particular affiliations or independents more than others.

So for example, 75.2 percent of all respondents (all from North Carolina) said immigration would be an issue that would guide their choice in the fall election.

If you take that a step further, you find that 82.3 percent of Republicans say the immigration issue will help swing their vote while only 70.3 percent of Democrats say that. Does that mean Democratic voters don’t care about immigration? No. It means Republican voters care more about it.

Click here to see the Elon Poll’s issue question data broken out by party affiliation.

So in an election where turning out core voters will be key, you can well expect to hear about immigration from Republicans more than Democrats.

Independent voters, as you might expect, fall smack dab between the two parties on the immigration question.

I was interested also in independent voters generally. If you figure folks who don’t affiliate with either party are pretty much swing voters, then folks in both parties should be curious as to what issues capture the imagine of independents.

Unfortunately for political advisors and annalists, this poll shows no one issue you can point to and say “Aha, independent voters cares about X much more than anything else. Campaign on that to capture them.”

What did intrigue me a bit was that independent voters were just as likely say that political corruption would influence their votes as Republicans or Democrats. This had been an issue I expected to be highly partisan in nature, with independents tuning out.

If you take as reliable the notion that Republicans are most fired up about the ethics issues regarding Democratic state House Speaker Jim Black; and Democrats would be most angry about the Republican scandals in Washington, what do you make of the independents?

Could the elections this fall swing on which scandals more incense independent voters?

That may be a question no poll can answer.

More on the poll will be in tomorrow’s paper.