News-Record.com

Following up on yesterday's post, here's a story from today's paper on potential contenders to replace Kay Hagan in her state senate seat next year.

The summary on the Democratic side:

• * The three House members who live in the district aren't all that interested.
• * County Commission Paul Gibson is "Seriously considering" a run.
• * Former commissioner Margaret Arbuckle and former City Council member Don Vaughan are possibilities.
• * County Commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston shows some tepid interest in the idea.
• * With a few months before registration happens, there's time for more folks to pop out of the wood work.

On the GOP side, no one who popped to my mind said they were interested and Mark McDaniel, who ran against Hagan in 2002, offered this:

"The district has been drawn too much toward the Democratic Party," McDaniel said. "It's impossible for a Republican to win that seat."

The comment lines are open.

Update: County GOP Chairman Bill Wright and I didn't catch each other yesterday. He says that despite the registration disadvantage, Republicans can challenge for the district.

Although he offered no names, he said the GOP will have a "credible" challenger come 2008.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was on campus at Meredith College today.

I didn't see either of two groups of protestors who indicated they would be out there earlier this week, but my colleagues tell me someone was there for a very short time early in the day.

After speaking to an auditorium packed full of college students and professors, she took questions from us scruffy media types.

I imagine the headline that a lot of my colleagues will go with will concern Pelosi promising to send another Iraq war funding resolution through before Congress' Thanksgiving break. By her own admission, it won't be a lot different from what Congress has already done and President Bush has already vetoed and/or ignored. She explains in this video clip:

Pelosi also was asked about funding for drought relief in North Carolina and elsewhere, particularly farmers. When he was asked about this the other day, Gov. Mike Easley said there was no federal funding to tap to help farmers whose crops died on the vine this summer.

So, Madame Speaker, where is that federal funding?

Update: Pelosi was asked why Congress sent measures like the Iraq resolution and the SCHIP expansion bill over and over again, if the president was simply going to veto them again. Doesn't it make Congress look impotent, she was asked. Her answer:

My soon-to-be-departed colleague Nate DeGraff and I have a pair of stories regarding the state's mental health care safety net in Sunday's paper. The lede from the main bar:

HIGH POINT -- Six years into North Carolina's effort to remake its mental health safety net, the system still struggles to fix the problems that came with the overhaul.

The eventual result may well be the more cost-effective, nimble and comprehensive mental health network envisioned by legislation passed in 2001, providers, advocates and analysts say.

But we're far from that goal.

Today's public mental health system cannot always provide the service a client needs or the quality of care one might expect from an agency dealing with vulnerable people. A critique of the state system recently completed for the N.C. Division of Mental Health found that too much change undertaken too quickly had shifted the focus away from patients, something that even top mental health officials say is a fair criticism.

To read the full stories:

• *Click here for the main bar.

• *Click here for Nate's story on ACT teams, a service for the most severely mentally ill folks who don't have to be in a hospital.

• *Bonus: a related column by Lorraine Ahearn.

Right now, I don't have a lot to add other than to say at least one more package regarding the state's mental health system is in the works. With luck, it will roll out later this month. That story (or stories - these things have a way of changing in the writing of them) will take a harder look at the private providers who do a lot of the care in the revamped mental health care system.

Back in September, Rep. Alma Adams told me that more information on the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus Foundation would be forthcoming in October.

Well, October came and went without much of anything coming forth, so it was time to check in with Adams again this morning.

"They got a little bit behind on our audit so I don't have all the information I want yet," Adams said. The "they" in this case is a private auditing firm hired by the caucus. "My expectation is I'll have something to say before the month is out."

You'll remember that questions about the caucus foundation came up because it is tied to the Legislative Black Caucus, a group of influential legislators at the General Assembly. While legislators have certain fundraising restrictions, such as not being able to accept contributions from lobbyists during the session, the caucus foundation has none.

Further questions came up when the foundation acknowledged that some of its scholarships had gone to relatives of caucus foundation members.

Adams said she expected to be able to satisfy everyone's answers once the foundation's own audit was complete. This is something being watched closely by us scruffy media types, so expect wide reportage when she does have something to say.

For those who are interested:

• *Click here for background on the caucus.
• *Click here for the group's 2006 IRS 990 form, which I don't think was available this summer.
• * The N.C. Ethics Commission was asked for an opinion on the caucus' activities. As for making a version of that opinion public, they have not. Of course, they haven't made any opinion public yet, so this is not a unique case.

Guilford County Reps. Maggie Jeffus and Pricey Harrison are backing Richard Moore in his campaign for governor. From an endorsement letter they co-signed (along with several other female legislators) on Monday:

Richard has shown that the people of North Carolina can depend on him for steady leadership and in times of crisis. His careful stewardship of the state's pension fund has resulted in its consecutive rankings as second best in the country. More than 700,000 teachers, police officers, National Guard Members, and other public workers know that they can depend on Richard. When Hurricanes Floyd and Fran and other natural disasters hit North Carolina, Richard Moore led the emergency response and started the rebuilding process for our devastated communities.

Richard has built this record of achievement through hard work and by surrounding himself with a diverse and highly talented professional team, including the first African American female chief investment officer to run a public pension plan. In fact, more than half of Richard's current leadership team is female, including his chief of staff.

Our communities, families, and women need and deserve Richard Moore as their next governor. The steady leadership and fresh approach he offers to fix North Carolina's problems are exactly what we need. We hope that you will join us as we work to make Richard Moore the next governor of North Carolina.

Only one sitting or former member of the Senate signed the letter, Ellie Kinnaird.

I suspect the letter (full text here) is going to be viewed as something of a counter-punch to Bev Perdue's Emily's List endorsement, which came out last week. (For those living under a political rock: Perdue and Moore are the major Democratic players running for governor.)

In fact, Harrison suggested as much when I spoke with her on the phone just now.

"I've been a fan for a while now," Harrison said. "I really was impressed when he came out for the minimum wage before it was popular."

Harrison said she also liked that Moore had been active on climate change issues.

The honorable folks assembled for the purpose of assessing our roads will meet this week. From the Senate Pro Temp's office:

Raleigh - Chairman Brad Wilson announced today that the 21st Century Transportation Committee will hold its first meeting on Wednesday, November 7, 2007.

The Committee, appointed last week by Governor Mike Easley, Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, and House Speaker Joe Hackney, is charged with examining the condition and needs of North Carolina’s transportation system and making recommendations to the General Assembly.

When: 1:00 pm, Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Where: 643 Legislative Office Building, Raleigh

Y'all come ... if you can get here.

Good morning and happy municipal Election Day, if you live in a part of the state where such things are going on. I'll be hanging out over at the paper's Election 2007 blog this afternoon to help with coverage of mayoral and city council races.

Also in Greensboro today, a debate among the governor-want-to-bes at the Koury Center. I'll swing by that if I can and I know some of my colleagues will be on hand, so there will be reports on the web and in the paper a-plenty.

Don't let your franchise get all flabby...go exercise it today if you can.

The Republican and Democratic contenders for governor debated over at the Koury Center today.

I'm on duty for election coverage today, but I popped in to listen to the back and forth. Some quick hits:

• * Republicans hit many of the same themes as they did in their first debate. A question about the Leandro Lawsuit did prompt one interesting answer from former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr.

  Orr and the other Republican candidates were debating the relative merits of having a judge essentially take custody of a group of schools and threaten to close them if they don't run. All three Republicans argued this was a bad idea.

  The quote that caught my ear from Orr: "The governor needs to be the person in charge of public education."

  So...what exactly is the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the state school board supposed to do?

  Click here to listen to the full exchange among the candidates. Orr answers first, followed by Sen. Fred Smith and then Bill Graham.

  -=-=-=-=-=-

• * Democrats were also on hand. Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue and Treasurer Richard Moore kept things civil...mostly. There were, however, a couple testy points during the debate.

  One such point came during a question on how to pay for school construction needs. Moore took the opportunity to pitch his plan to have a public-private partnership build schools.

  That prompted this from Bev Perdue to say it sounded like Moore was suggesting new bureaucracy that would interfere in how school districts keep their buildings.

  "That may be a fresh idea, but it sure is a bad idea from my perspective," Perdue said.

  "That's not the way the plan works at all and I'll be glad to explain it to you," Moore responded.

  Click here to listen to the full ask and answer. (The snippy bit comes toward the end during the 30-second rebuttal period.)

  -=-=-=-=-=-

• * The other testy bit came when candidates were asked about the number of low-income students in the state's public schools. Both candidates talked about how students from poorer families wouldn't have the same advantages as student from wealthier families.

  Perdue said that one way to help was to encourage kids with her North Carolina Promise program that would help kids pay for college.

  Moore jumped on that: "Beverly you were a part of tuition increase after tuition increase," Moore said. "After years of raising tuition how are we going to turn around and give the college away."

  Perdue started her answer by saying, "I believe every kid in North Carolina deserves to have hope and opportunity." However, she never got around to tackling Moore's question head-on.

  Click here to listen to the full exchange. (Once again, the sassy bits are toward the end.)

Okay, I'm off to municipal election land. Y'all play nice.

U.S. Senate Candidate Jim Neal did a live chat at Pam's House Blend this weekend.

It's worth checking out for those interested in the Democratic primary. The crowd over there was sympathetic to Neal's cause and asked him about Kay Hagan's entry into the race and whether national Democrats would support him or not:

The DSCC doesn't vote in North Carolina. We have elections and primaries and not coronations. That's why it's critical to raise the funds to compete in a statewide race. I don't expect all the big DSCC supporters to write $2,300 checks but I hope you and others will help grow this movement by involving your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers.

Click here for a more reader-friendly summary.

What's my favorite irony about the state ethics commission, which the General Assembly created in 2006?

It has to be the fact that the legislature made the group responsible for making government more open, transparent and accountable is forced to do the majority of its business behind closed doors and without reporting the results.

A story from today's paper says "covered persons" should at least be getting a little bit of guidance before the end of the year.

The commission's executive director, Perry Newson, says they will make public about a dozen opinions by the end of the year, after being asked for advice over 2,000 since the group's inception.

The group, of course, has given out lots more advice than in those dozen cases. But that other advice has either come in the form of phone conversations or informal letters and e-mails -- which are none of your business, according to the state law that created the ethics commission.

Now keep in mind, neither the formal opinions or informal ones tell you whether something is ethical. They simply let you know whether you've run afoul of the state's ethics laws. I suppose there's an argument to be made that if you're doing something and you feel maybe you should run it past the ethics commission in order to keep your hind parts our of jail or from getting fined, the behavior in question might not be all that ethical anyway...but I'm told I'm grouchy on Mondays.

You may note in the story that opinions about legislative activities are sent from the commission over to the legislature's own Joint Ethics Committee, which can accept, modify or reject any of those.

Rep. Rick Glazier called this morning (we missed each other last week) and said his group has plowed through about 15 opinions sent over from the commission. While none have been rejected out of hand, several were modified he said. That probably explains the discrepancy between the dozen or so Newson said he anticipates publishing by the end of the year and the 15 that Glazier said his group has looked at.

So why am I so interested in all this? Other than the fact that government work done behind closed doors aggravates me? One of the opinions getting run through this meat grinder has to do with the legislative black caucus and questions about its foundation.

My guess is that if the caucus and the foundation are found to be in the clear, you'll see more legislators find a charitable zeal.

At least two Democrats say that want to challenge Congressman Howard Coble in 2008.

As Scoop reported last week, blogger, painter and local Young Democrat honcho Jay Ovittore says he's jumping in.

Next in line is Johnny Carter of Summerfield, also a Democrat. Carter is "the General Manager of a well established contracting firm in Greensboro, North Carolina" according to his web site. Update: Ed Cone says Carter's policies don't sound all that Dem-ish, but the FEC says it's so.

Who else is jumping in the pool?

After the education debate last week in Greensboro I pointed out that Republican candidate for governor Bob Orr had said that responsibility for education should rest with the governor.

And in my snarky way, I asked rhetorically what we should do with the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

It turns out, Orr has a not-so-rhetorical answer. There are too many players, he said, with some kind of responsibility and oversight for the state's educational system. That lets people hide from responsibility he said.

"There needs to be a consolidation of responsibility and the ultimate responsibility needs to rest with the governor," Orr said.

He also said that having the Council of State weighing in on things like land transaction is a "pretty inefficient" way to run a big government.

Click here to listen to his full answer on the education question. And then click here if you want to listen to us go off on the Council of State tangent. (There's a fade in and out on that second take because we got off on three minutes of chit-chat when a new person arrived at the table.)

From the e-mail in-box over the past few days, two notices of local honorables being honored:

• *Pricey Harrison has been named a recipient of Common Causes' Plot Hound Award. From the release:

  The annual honor recognizes individuals who demonstrate courage in strengthening democracy. The award’s namesake, the Plott Hound, is the official state dog, known for its strength, tenacity and courage.

  Harrison is honored for her work trying to repeal a recently-enacted tuition exemption for full-ride scholarships. The exemption lets athletic booster clubs pay less money toward the expenses of footballers, basketball players and the like.

  Harrison gets the nod along with County’s Representative George Cleveland, who co-sponsored the repeal measure.

  Read the whole release here.

• *Next up, Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican, has been nominated to the North Carolina GOP Hall of Fame. From the release:

  The North Carolina Republican Party's Hall of Fame was established in 1982 and became a biennial awards event in 1985. Since 1985, in odd numbered years, the NCGOP recognizes one individual from each Congressional District who has demonstrated a commitment to the North Carolina Republican Party through their years of work and service.

  Read the whole release here. The ceremony is Saturday, Nov. 17.

  No word on whether in the case of a Blust win they'll cast his red "no" button from the General Assembly in bronze.

  Also nominated is former Randolph County Sheriff Litchard Hurley.

Some wine was served before it's time with an earlier post. Please ignore it.

From a news release sent out by Gov. Mike Easley's office today:

Gov. Mike Easley today urged the Navy to take into account the overwhelming local opposition to an outlying landing field and develop alternative proposals following receipt of a report from Judge Sidney S. Eagles on the activities of the OLF Study Group. Easley sent a letter to North Carolina’s congressional delegation and Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter, along with copies of the report from Eagles’ who chaired the study group. Winter is expected shortly to announce sites, possibly in Virginia and North Carolina, that the Navy wants to explore further for the training facility.

Click here for the release and part 1 of the letter. And then click here for part 2.

I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to get the sense this whole idea of having big, noisey, fuel-guzzling fighter jets land in environmentally sensitive and/or residential areas isn't popular with folks around here.

Jay Ovittore, a Democrat, made his bid for Congress official today. You can click here to listen to his campaign kick-off speech. (4 min)

Afterward, Ovittore and I talked a little bit about what a tough race this is. Whoever gets past the primary will be challenging Howard Coble, who was first elected to the House in 1984. One state that is the most telling on what a challenge it is for anyone to unseat Coble: You have to go back to 1990 to find a race that Coble won with less than 70 percent of the vote.

Here's today's story on the race in the N.C. 6th Congressional District, a seat currently held by Republican Howard Coble. (They' yacking about this story at the Debatables blog as well.)) The more straightforward handicapping goes something like this:

• *Coble is a formidable incumbent. He's been in office since 1984 and it has been since the 1990 election that he has garnered less than 70 percent of the vote in the general election. He has a boat-load of money in the bank, fairly positive name recognition in the district and a district drawn to favor Republicans.
• *Taking out Coble will probably require three things: a strong challenger, some national political trends rolling against him (like anti-incumbent sentiment) and Coble shooting himself in the foot somehow.
• *Among the three potential challengers so far for 2008, Jay Ovittore probably gets front-runner status. That's because he's relatively well known by Greensboro's political community and us scruffy media types. He's been president of the local Young Democrats chapter and has worked for Rep. Pricey Harrison. He also has, by far, the most robust web presence and a ready-made online community that will help him out. (Of course, this being Greensboro, he has some instant detractors as well.
• *Johnny Carter, of Summerfield, seems earnest enough. He was the first person to officially announce they were taking on Coble this year. (He actually works for the company that does Coble's plumbing.) On the phone, he seems perfectly nice and capable. From his websites, some of his positions - like backing universal healthcare - will appeal to Democratic primary voters. Other positions, like his take on immigration and his thesis on religion in public life probably lose him votes, at least in the central-Greensboro part of the district.
• *David Crawford, registered to run in the City Council election against Mike Barber and then dropped out. I'll let you read his Myspace page for yourself.

So the early betting, unless someone else jumps in, would say Coble will most like face Ovittore come the general election. I know Jay a little bit and am convinced he will work like H-E-double-hockey-sticks. I also know Coble a little bit, and he does not plan on giving up his seat without a fight and right now the district's fundamentals favor him.

The question is whether any Democrat can overcome those fundamentals this year.

I had occasion to talk to Democratic U.S. Senate Candidates Kay Hagan and Jim Neal this week for a piece coming up this weekend. While on the phone, I picked up a couple of tidbits from the two of them that don't fit in the story:

• * Hagan has already said she plans to stay in her state senate seat as she ran for the U.S. Senate. She also serves as chairwoman of the appropriations committee, a post that means a lot of work in May or June.

  The 2008 session is the General Assembly's short session, which typically runs from May through sometime in July. Although the budget passed this year (2007) technically runs for two years, it gets a fair amount of adjustment in this off year. However, Hagan says she'll stay in her budget post.

  "In the short session, we're tweaking the budget and not starting from ground-zero. We shouldn't be going in and changing everything," Hagan said. She said that she anticipates opening a campaign office in Raleigh and split time between there and the legislature.

  No word on when or if she plans on sleeping.

  For those playing along at home, that would mean two high-profile members of the Senate's budget negotiating team will be involved in statewide election bids next year. The other is Sen. Walter Dalton, who is running for Lt. Gov.

• * In an interview I did with Jim Neal a while ago, I asked whether he was in a relationship. He answered this way:

  In response to that question, there is a firewall around my personal life. I think many people who are in elective office or running for elective office have done so. People who are close to me, my family, my children, my friends, whoever they may be, they're not running for office. I am. Not everyone is going to be comfortable being in the spotlight, is going to be comfortable getting a knock on the door or a phone call from you or another reporter. So, I won't respond to a lot of questions about my personal life.

  More than one person mentioned to me, and apparently to him, that this wasn't exactly the most straightforward or realistic way for a U.S. Senate candidate to answer a pretty basic biographical question.

  "I'm in a relationship with someone who is a very, very private person and I was just trying to protect his privacy," Neal said this week.

Good Sunday morning. Here are a couple of quick updates:

• *Here's my story on immigration as an issue in the U.S. Senate race. From the lede:

  Tar Heel voters have been telling pollsters that immigration will be an issue they weigh in choosing their next U.S. senator. That suits incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole just fine, say campaign consultants and others who study elections.

  "Not only is it going to play in her favor, she knows it's going to present a problem for any Democratic challenger," said Hunter Bacot, a political science professor at Elon University and director of the Elon University Poll.

• * Also on immigration, a story from the New York Times:

  THE Republican presidential candidates talk about illegal immigration as if they were in an arms race on toughness. The Democratic candidates have begun to tread more warily on the issue, as their debate last week in Las Vegas showed, but they still favor the language of accommodation over alarm.

  Each approach, political strategists and officials warn, could have costs next November. Pollsters on both sides agree there is widespread anxiety, even anger, about the impact of illegal immigration. But an increasingly influential Hispanic electorate could be turned off by a hard line from the party they turned to in increasing numbers in the last two presidential elections.

  Much will depend, strategists say, on how the candidates balance their statements.

• * Mark Johnson at the Charlotte Observer looks at what role Jim Neal's sexual orientation has played in the Senate campaign thus far. From the story:

  Schumer and the national Democrats, who boast of their party's inclusiveness, effectively ignored Neal, who is openly gay. After he announced his campaign in October, he telephoned Schumer. The call wasn't returned. Neal was the first Democrat to step up to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

• * And the N.C. GOP held their annual Hall of Fame awards banquet. In District 6, former Randolph County Sheriff Litchard Hurley was named to the hall, edging out other luminaries like Rep. John Blust.

  Also from the banquet: In a straw poll among the three GOP candidates for governor Sen. Fred Smith placed first, former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr placed second and lawyer Bill Graham placed third.

The Charlotte Observer served up this tantalizing tidbit this weekend:

Bill Caster, chairman of the New Hanover County commissioners, got a call from a pollster this week. He was asked about the three announced Republican candidates for governor and then asked several questions about McCrory. "It was all about the mayor," said Caster, who, like McCrory, is Republican.

How would McCrory stack up against Sen. Fred Smith, former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr and Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham?

In the favorable column: He's got a large geographic base to work from. Charlotte's not enough to carry you in a statewide general election, but it can get one a long way in the primary. He's a polished politician who has done well on the big stage when I've seen him speak. I also have the sense he's a known quantity among business leaders, something that will help with fundraising.

In the not so favorable column: He doesn't have all that much money in hand, though I suspect he could raise it PDQ if he needed to. History isn't friendly: Richard Vinroot, a former Charlotte mayor, twice lost the Republican GOP nomination for governor and lost the 2000 general election against Easley. And obviously he'd have some lost time to make up with grass roots supporters and the like that the three declared candidates have been courting.

That said, his entry would certainly stir the pot on the GOP side.

This is not funny...much.

I spotted an item in the latest edition of the N.C. Register that piqued my interest. Treasurer's Richard Moore's campaign had written to the State Board of Elections to ask about the proper reimbursement rate for flying on a 1982 vintage Piper PA-31T. (That rate was $575 per hour.)

Click here to read the ask and here to read the answer.

I e-mailed Jay Reiff, Moore's campaign manager, about the exchange. He explained that he was trying to make sure the campaign stayed on the path of the straight and narrow.

Most aircrafts, even small single-engine jobbers, are owned by LLCs or other similar corporate structures, even if the only thing the LLC does is own the airplane. And if a candidate flies on such an airplane on campaign business, they must reimburse the LLC for the operation of the airplane, otherwise it's an illegal in-kind contribution.

Reiff said the campaign has used a half-dozen planes and that Moore typically only flies to a campaign event two or three times a month.

The correspondence in question, he said, makes sure the campaign is reimbursing the appropriate rate and can't be flagged later on for taking unlawful contributions.

I haven't spied any similar correspondence from other gubernatorial committees or other statewide candidates this year.

Update: Lt. Gov Perdue's campaign says it has been following the guidelines laid out in this letter. A spokesman said that Perdue hasn't flown much so far but may be taking more flights "as we get closer to the election."

Lately the ol' e-mail bag has been overflowing with more junk than I can shake an electron at, so here's a quick round up of some of the stuff I've been ignoring:

• * Perdue has started fact-checking Moore. More has already been fact-checking Perdue. Perdue's fact-check site features a slickster with his fingers crossed behind his back, Moore' fact-check site features a weather vein.

  If I a smart-alec journalist I might use and image of Punch and Judy when writing about the Democratic contenders from here on out. Oh, wait:

  

  What do I mean "if?"

• * Democracy NC says Congressional Campaigns are getting more expensive. In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

• * Various officials with state of North Carolina remind you not to eat stuff that will kill you or buy toys that will kill your kids. Darned nice of them.

• * Your toys may poison you, that bird may be undercooked, but dag-nab-it some of us won't be able to watch the big game.

• * Rep. Grier Martin is among those veterans suggesting to Congress that it might be a good idea to conserve some oil since many of the places oil comes from tend to be regions where people are shooting one another.

• * Wake Forest is a back-up site for debates, I guess that's in case one of the primary sites has a rail strike or has its picture published in Playboy or something.

• * From the Associated Press: "A five-term Republican legislator from Transylvania County says she won't run for re-election to the state House. Representative Trudi Walend said in a news release Monday that she wants to spend more time with her family, including her five grandchildren. She says she plans to retire when her term expires December 31, 2008."

• * Hackney has appointed a gang of legislators to talk about, well, gangs. Locally, Reps. Nelson Cole, Alma Adams and Earl Jones are on board. All three are Democrats.

Taylor Sawyer, 15: "I had never met a congressman, and I wanted to."

There's something sweet and sad that it's news when a teenager is excited about meeting a Congressman.

For anyone who is sufficiently recovered from their turkey-induced coma and isn't nursing injuries from the outlet malls wars, here's a little political food for fodder this Sunday morning:

RALEIGH - From Polo Ralph Lauren's 1998 expansion in High Point to CitiCards' opening on Interstate 40 in 2004 to any number of RF Micro Devices projects, Guilford County and the Triad are home to some of the highest-profile economic development deals in the state.

If you give Bob Orr a few minutes, the Republican candidate for governor will try to convince you that deals such as the one that helped bring FedEx and Skybus to the airport and a Dell computer assembly plant to Forsyth County hurt the economy and long-term job prospects.

"That very well may be the issue that separates me," Orr said in one of his near-weekly sessions with reporters and all-comers over breakfast at a downtown Raleigh restaurant.

Although it has become his signature issue, political scientists and strategists say it will be difficult for Orr or anyone to translate the incentives issue into viable campaign fodder.

Exhibit A, some say, is Gov. Mike Easley, a popular two-term Democrat who has made frequent and enthusiastic appearances at incentive announcements such as one recently for Skybus in Greensboro.

Click here for the full story.

The Washington Post is reporting that U.S. Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi is retiring at the end of this year.

Does the average Tar Heel voter or politician care? Maybe more than you'd think.

First off, as The Fix notes, this likely would add one more senate campaign to next year's calendar. Republicans are already defending a bunch of seats and this is just one more for them to worry about.

Lott's resignation and the likely campaign to replace him will mean national Republicans will have that many fewer resources and a little bit less attention to throw at the North Carolina race. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole will be defending her seat, probably against either state Sen. Kay Hagan or Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal.

Secondly, the Post is reporting this is a case of burn-out in a guy was elected to the House in 1972 and won a Senate seat in 1988. Lott is walking away at the beginning of a six-year term he recently won. The Capitol Briefing post paraphrases and aid as saying:

"Fatigue has set in," said the GOP aide, requesting anonymity to speak freely about a decision that will not be formal until a noon press conference in Pascagoula.

[snip]

Lott grew tired of the political infighting in the Senate as Republicans have been forced into a position of merely blocking a Democratic agenda, the aide said, stressing that the decision was not connected to any health or ethical issues.

The same post notes:

Lott's departure is the biggest blow yet to Republicans who have been fighting the perception that they will remain in the minority in both the House and Senate for some time to come. While many of the retiring GOP lawmakers were former subcommittee chairs and senior members not happy with minority status, Lott is the first member of either chamber's leadership to announce he will walk away from the Capitol.

Being a U.S. senator - even in the minority - is a pretty sweet gig. You get office space, budget, salary and perks out the ying-yang, a fist-full of power to wield should you choose to do so, and definite "player" status no matter where you roam in your home state.

What kind of bad time does someone who has lived and breathed D.C. politics for 35 years have to have (or foresee) in order to give that up?

This is one more signpost that signals a hard year for Republicans nationally in 2008. Now, there are some fundamentals unique to North Carolina that says this state's mileage may vary quite significantly from the national. And anyone who is in their right mind handicapping the race still will tell you that Dole has some significant advantages.

But what those same folks will tell you that the Democrats can give Dole a good race and in a few particular situations unseat her. Common to those unseating scenarios is some mention of national tides breaking the wrong way for Dole. Lott's resignation isn't exactly a rip-tide warning, but it's one more sign the forecasters will look at.