News-Record.com

Members of the House appropriations committee will be busy today looking at the first public drafts of that body's budget. (Yeah, yeah, the transportation subcommittee met yesterday. If you drive I-95, they're looking at tolls for that road again.)

This is the part where the honorables try to figure out how to spend the money that they agreed to raise earlier this week. The House gave final approval to a tax package Thursday, which now goes to the Senate.

In case you didn't see it in the paper, House Speaker Jim Black has promised to resurrect the proposal to hike the minimum wage. If you remember, that died during the crossover rush. But nothing the leaders in the House really like is ever dead, and apparently the "Living Wage Act" will, um, live...if not this summer then in next year's short session. Update: Find that story here.

Oh, and I spent some time at a party Thursday. All I can add is that the shrimp looked marvelous, although it's hard to eat and take notes at the same time so I can't say for sure.

I'll check back in later this afternoon.

Just a few notes to get you through your Friday:

This isn't exactly a state item, but:

Jim Cain, President Bush's pick for U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, is scheduled to go before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Monday.

Cain is an attorney and partner with the Kilpatrick and Stockton law firm, but chances re you know his name for one of two reasons:

This story from the AP Wire caught my attention this afternoon:

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A teenager accused of burning an American flag on the Fourth of July was released on his own recognizance after spending nine days in jail.

Blount County General Sessions Judge Hugh DeLozier on Thursday ordered Andrew Elisha Staley, 18, freed pending an Aug. 2 trial on six counts, including desecrating a venerated object.

The case could test Tennessee's statute against flag-burning, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is protected speech under the First Amendment.

It got me to wondering if North Carolina had a flag burning statute. As it turns out, we do:

GS 14-381. Desecration of State and United States flag.

It shall be unlawful for any person willfully and knowingly to cast contempt upon any flag of the United States or upon any flag of North Carolina by public acts of physical contact including, but not limited to, mutilation, defiling, defacing or trampling. Any person violating this section shall be deemed guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.

The flag of the United States, as used in this section, shall be the same as defined in 4 U.S.C.A. 1 and 4 U.S.C.A. 2. The flag of North Carolina, as used in this section, shall be the same as defined in G.S. 144-1. (1917, c. 271; C.S., s. 4500; 1971, c. 295; 1993, c. 539, s. 253; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).)

In fact, according to the the First Amendment Center, there are 47 states with flag burning prohibitions.

I haven't found any cases of this law actually being enforced, but there has been some local discussion of the federal flag burning issue.

Not state government related, but:

If you're interested in the nomination of Judge John Roberts to be the next Supreme Court justice you might want to check out the Washington Post blog on the subject.

Democracy North Carolina published today the results of a survey on youth voting. The survey asked 18-24 year olds a variety of questions about registering to vote.

I'm struck by this finding:

"More than 1 out of 3 respondents, 34%, agreed that the process of registering to vote is inconvenient."

Really? I have to wonder about this finding based solely on my own experience.

It might have taken me all of five minutes to fill out my voter registration form the last time I changed address, and two of those minutes spent trying to find my new zip code. By contrast, when I moved to North Carolina I stood in line for more than four hours to get a driver's license that apparently isn't all that secure anyway.

In my pantheon of cumbersome, bureaucratic government processes registering to vote really never ranked. (Try getting a database out of a city that uses 40-year-old technology to store its data.)

So am I off base here?

Next year's partisan elections might end up with one less party on the ballot. From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Libertarians could lose their official status as a political party in North Carolina because they failed to get at least 10 percent of the votes cast in last year's gubernatorial and presidential races.

The State Board of Elections has scheduled time during a teleconference meeting Monday to discuss the party's standing. Sean Haugh, the party's executive director, said Friday he and party Chairman Thomas Hill will participate from Raleigh.

Along with the missed vote totals, the party has gathered only 25,000 of the nearly 70,000 signatures it needs to stay alive. Only Democrats and Republicans would be entitled to appear on ballots in partisan elections.

Haugh conceded that the party has failed to meet the state requirements, but said he hopes that the elections board will use its discretion to allow the party to remain on the ballot.

"It's simply in their best interests," he said. "If they did de-certify us they would have to send a mailing to all 13,000 members of the Libertarian Party.

"It would be very expensive and time-consuming."

Libertarians have appeared on ballots in North Carolina continuously since 1996. About a half-dozen municipal leaders belong to the party, along with several members of county soil and water district boards and a county surveyor.

Elections board chairman Larry Leake, a Democrat from Asheville, said Libertarians have used up their grace period.

"They either have the petition signatures," Leake said, "or they don't."

I'm about to toddle off and watch the governor sign the lottery bill. He's then expected to do the political equivalent of a touchdown celebration, being that this has been a centerpiece of his education policy for five or six years now. More on that here if it's interesting.

News of the day can be found right here. Be sure to click on all the nifty bells and whistles like our Q+A.

Here are some other lottery tidbits and musings from my e-mail box and around the web:

• Sen. Phil Berger is none-to-happy about the lottery's passage. He wrote in this release: “North Carolina is currently 42nd in the nation in high school graduation and 42nd in SAT Scores. If this is truly an “education lottery,” we should see measurable improvement soon. Based on the hype we’ve been hearing, the only thing keeping our students from academic success was the failure to jump on the gambling bandwagon.”

• The state Democratic Party can't seem to decide whether to blame the Republicans for blocking a lottery or blame the two Republicans who weren't in the chamber yesterday for not going on their honeymoon and getting sick earlier.

  “Whether it was by voting against a lottery or by choosing not to vote, the bottom line is that the Republicans refused to stand up for our schools and our children by supporting an education lottery,” said NC Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek in an e-mail. I've copied it into a word file you can access by clicking here.

But wait, there's more. The web is alive with the sound of lottery musings:

• The News and Record's Doug Clark is mad about how the lottery vote came to pass and let's us know it in this post. The comments are worth reading too.

• NC SPIN has some interesting lottery chatter, but I can't find a perma-link to it.

• Local blogger Guarino is none to happy about the lottery.

• The folks who hand out on this website, however, are very happy. I'd call them lottery enthusiasts.

Late last week, the spokesman for the state Democratic party sent around an e-mail asking reporters to compare the North Carolina Democrats' web site to the North Carolina Republicans'. The point he was making was that:

• The NC Dems site has information on how to help Hurricane Katrina victims, but
• the NC GOP site does not. (This is still the case as of Tuesday at 10 a.m.).

Is this a valid criticism of just a cheap shot? Does lack of web savvy amount to lack of caring? Or is it even appropriate for the Dems to be using their political infrastructure in this manner?

Our lines comments are open.

Update: GOP has a Red Cross link up now.

I will post a link to my story on the race for NAACP president between Melvin "Skip" Alston of Greensboro and the Rev. William Barber of Goldsboro when I get a chance. However, there's a little box on the story directing readers here to discuss, and I wanted to make sure there was a thread for them to use.

(Update: Click here for the story.)

I've been calling around on this story for a few weeks and waited to write it until I could visit with both men in person. In the mean time, there has been other coverage.

Ever since I first started covering elections, I've had people ask me why voters aren't required to show some sort of photo identification when they come to the polls. The worry has been, I think, that anyone could show up and claim to be someone else.

My understanding from speaking lawyers has always been that a person's right to vote shouldn't hinge on them being able to afford or get a government identification card of some sort. Those who are especially disposed to flowery language would say things like, "Voting is a right that must be as unfettered as possible."

Well, it turns out at least one federal court agrees, striking down Georgia's effort to require identification for voting. From our friends at the Associate Press (after the jump):

One of the more aggravating things for a reporter is to spend time on a story that never gets published. While it's not exactly a "waste" of time, it is time that, in the end, probably could have been better spent.

I bit into one of those stories this week in regards to a follow up on the elections for North Carolina NAACP state office. I'm writing about it here for a couple reasons: There have been allusions to it on our letters page, and I think some other folks might run with it this weekend. (And if they do, well, good for them.)

If you don't remember, this was the election during which County Commissioner Skip Alston lost his post as president of the N.C. NAACP to Rev. William Barber of Goldsboro. Carolyn Coleman, another county commissioner, won a seat as first vice president from Gladys Shipman, who is the president of the local Greensboro branch of the group.

I just got an e-mail from the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute announcing that they've broken down some child welfare data by legislative district.

If you're curious, click here. Then plug in your legislative district and the website will spit back a two-page summary.

If you do take a look at the report for your district, I'd be curious to know what you think it's telling you. Comment via the link below.

How does someone griping about a $1,000 contribution lead to a story on the GOP escalating its warfare against Richard Morgan, a fellow Republican? I'm going to make you wade through a pretty long post to find out:

I got a phone call yesterday from someone upset that Ed McMahan, a North Carolina national committeeman for the Republican Party, had given a political donation to Democrat and State Treasurer Richard Moore. (A short profile of McMahan from the state GOP can be found here. Click on this link and then scroll down two spots.)

When asked about it, Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Marcus Kindley said the move amounts to treason against the party. Moore was running against a Republican from Guilford County (who has now moved out of state).

Folks who had talked to McMahan said yesterday that a clerical error sent funds from his personal campaign committee rather than a PAC that gives to bipartisan causes that he controls for his company. (That's the same account he gave the News & Observer as well.) The people who are upset about that are upset about that. Those who are not, say it's a simple mistake.

(I think the bigger discussion here might be that there are folks involved in politics who can miss-send $1,000 from a campaign treasurery and not know it goes missing until a campaign finance report comes out. But that's for another day.)

After a few conversations about the McMahan thing, it became apparent why this $1,000 donation was being talked about in the first place.

Click here for the story it lead to.

It's no secret that the GOP party establishment and Richard Morgan, a Republican of Moore County, don't get along. Moore infamous in GOP circles for forging power-sharing arrangements in the state House with Democratic Speaker Jim Black. Morgan was elected co-Speaker in 2003 and serves this session as Speaker Pro Temp, a less powerful but still influential post.

The story that ran in today's paper tells how the Republican Party is set to openly intervene in a Morgan's GOP primary. Messing with primaries is something generally considered beyond the pale for parties - something that leads to too much bad blood. (To be fair, in this case, the bad blood is present in abundance already.)

The GOP party chairman has sometime spoken out on a race, as he did when Republican-turned-Democrat-turned Republican Mike Decker ran for re-election in Forsyth County. But putting the full financial and human resources of the party up against someone in a primary seems to be something of a different animal.

Because he called back late in the day, I didn't get a lot of Morgan's comments to me in the paper - except to show that he was defiant. Here are a few others sentiments that he relayed:

• He called the potential for party interference in his primary as "very dangerous precedent to set."
• He blamed the party move on "extreme" elements of the party, singling out Art Pope, a wealthy GOP operator.
• Of the executive committee members that decided to take action against him, Morgan said: "They have only heard from a folks who are very disgruntled, untruthful, and misleading...They are looking for some sort of revenge. Revenge does no good for the Republican Party."
• He points out that he won election as co-speaker in 2003 and Speaker Pro Temp this year with the votes of Republicans in the House.
• He said he wasn't worried about his re-election chances because his fund-raising organization was just as robust, if not more so, than the state party's.

For Guilford County folks, one of the biggest beneficiaries of a House without Morgan would be John Blust. Blust has not been shy in his criticism of Morgan. And from an observer’s vantage, it doesn't look like Morgan has been shy against using his influence to make Blust's life difficult. Blust didn't get a bill passed before the "cross-over" deadline, meaning that most legislation that he has proposed is effectively dead. And when Morgan is in control of House meetings, I can't think of an instance where he has allowed Blust to debate a bill or resolution during the past year.

Okay Republicans and other political watchers, I've had my say. Now you have yours. Comment below.

(Update: If you're dying to know more about the McMahan thing, click here for the Charlotte Observer story. (Registration required, if you haven't already.)

I am shocked, SHOCKED, that more people haven't used some play on that phrase in headlines for stories regarding House Speaker Jim Black (a Democrat) and party-switching former House member Michael Decker (now a Republican) of Forsyth County.

Well, those inclined will have the opportunity tomorrow.

A relatively new website publisher, www.JimBlackMustGo.com, dedicated sent around an e-mail today that read in part:

Raleigh – Joe Sinsheimer, creator of the Jimblackmustgo.com website, today questioned why state House Speaker Jim Black sent a large campaign contribution to former State Representative Michael Decker in February 2005 after Decker had lost his 2004 re-election effort in the GOP primary. Decker closed his campaign account the next day, apparently pocketing the leftover funds.

What the website was writing about was recorded on this campaign finance report by Decker's now closed campaign committee.

Well, I should have guessed, but it wasn't too long before my fax machine began rattling off something from NCGOP headquarters.

(RALEIGH) – Ferrell Blount, Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, issued a harsh response after learning that Speaker Jim Black gave former Rep. Michael Decker $4,000 one day before Decker drafted a check to himself and closed his campaign account.

...

“First we learn that Jim Black got Michael Decker a sweetheart $48,000-a year state job in return for switching political parties and keeping Jim Black in power,” Sinsheimer said in the release. “Then we learn that Black helped Decker’s son, Michael Decker Jr., get a job as a ‘research associate’ in the General Assembly. Now we learn that Black is rewarding Decker with campaign cash. There seems to be no end to Jim Black’s influence peddling. I am sick of turning my head while Jim Black rewards his political allies with campaign cash.”

Republicans, in case you haven't gotten the gist, really don't like Black. And the GOP leadership is still mad at Decker for his 2002 party flip-flop that lead to the Black-Richard Morgan co-speakership, rather than out-and-out control of the House by Republicans.

And in case you've missed it, the GOP leadership is holding a grudge against Morgan as well.

So is it unique for someone to get a campaign donation after they loose an election? Not really. Consider a local example provided by former Rep. Joanne Bowie, a Greensboro Republican, who received a $500 donation in February 2005, according to this report.(PDF)

Of course, there are those who would argue that Decker hadn't reported any debts that his committee couldn't cover so Black's contribution amounts to a pay off.

As always, feel free to discus via the comments link below.

I don't know many folks in state government who blog (a prominent local exception being Pricey Harrison), but there are some folks who work around state government that are catching the wave.

The latest by SEANC can be found by clicking here.

SEANC is the State Employees Association of North Carolina. In his first post, SEANC Director Dana Cope lays out his goals for the group:

• To become the number one Political Action Committee in North Carolina
• To promote greater member involvement
• To elect at least 10 SEANC members to the legislature
• To gain collective bargaining for public employees
• To gain a fully funded pay plan
• To recruit 65,000 members by 2010

By way of background, SEANC has a long-running battle to boost worker pay, mainly fought in the hall of the legislature. The group watched teachers get a pay raises a couple different ways this year while rank-in-file state employees received much more modest compensation.

Again, go ahead and check out the new blog on the block. And if you want, drop me a line and let me know who else up here in Cap City you think should be blogging.

North Carolina Women United, describes itself as "a consensus-based coalition of organizations committed to achieving full equality and empowerment for women."

As many groups do, they have recently put out a legislative report card to show what they think went right or wrong during the General Assembly session.

Click here for that report in PDF form.

Click here for that report as a MS Word document.

And Click here for group's news release on the topic.

Good Sunday morning. Here are a few updates from the world of state government. First from me:

• There is this story on local Democratic House members saying they still support Speaker Jim Black, despite his recent publicity problems. And let’s be real: as the story details, there’s so much of a paper trail between Black and local Democratic pols that they couldn’t really hide their ties even if they wanted.
• And the folks at ALE, the agency responsible for enforcing the lottery laws on retailers, say they can't hire all the folks they think they'll need to do the job by April 5, when the game is supposed to get going.

But wait there's more from our friends at the state's other newspapers:

• Raleigh's N+O had this story about retired pols using their left over campaign accounts for, um, non-political expenses.(Registration required if you haven't already.) It leads with former Guilford County legislator Joanne Bowie who bought herself a new car and new computer with the proceeds. Find the actual campaign finance report by clicking here.(PDF) (She also paid some taxes and invested some in a retirement account.)
• Okay, it's not from this weekend, but this Charlotte Observer story about a planned protest against Black in Ashville by former Democrats is interesting anyway.(Yeah, registration required there too.)

And finally, if you're a fan of our Inside Scoop column that runs in the newspaper, you'll want to know it's moving.

See you back here on Monday.

The Talking about Politics blog officially earned a spot on my permanent reading rotation today with this post on the tussle between the state GOP and Richard Morgan. Why? Anyone who can use the word "polecat" with a straight face when talking about politics is worth a read. (For more on the Morgan thing, click here.

Also, the following quote from this post made me laugh so hard Diet Coke came out my nose:

... with the lottery the politicians have found a way to make the people want to give the government money. That’s why the lottery is a truly awe-inspiring – and frightening – idea.

Conservative Greensblogger Guarino suggest North Carolina Republicans need a "Contract with North Carolina" a la the Contract with America that help Newt Gingrich and his fellow Republicans come to power on a national level in 1994.

Titled in homage to Sergio Leone's 1966 classic western, Democracy North Carolina put out its report on the "The Good, the bad and the ugly" in NC campaign finance news for 2005.

Click here to download the five-page MS Word File.

If you've been paying attention to state politics this year, you'll know a lot of what's here already. Although, if you for some reason you didn't think there was a connection between money, politics and legislative action you'll be shocked, SHOCKED I tell you. An example from the report:

Optometrists gave more than $125,000 to legislative and Council of State candidates in the 2004 election. Fellow optometrist Jim Black received the most – $59,750 – and was instrumental in getting a provision added to the 2005 budget that requires five-year-olds entering public school to receive an eye exam. School officials, pediatricians, and the N.C. Medical Society opposed the measure, pointing out that school children already receive eye tests and the cost of the test (at least $75 per exam) is a needless burden on parents and an annual windfall of $8 million-plus for optometrists.

Read the whole thing. You'll notice a reference or two to the beer industry's campaign giving, a subject I wrote about (with a data assist from Democracy NC) here.

Us scruffy press types spent some time this afternoon with Bill Graham, a Salisbury lawyer who has been bankrolling radio ads and a web site railing against the recent gas tax increase. (Click here for some background.)

Among other things, Graham has been circulating an online petition and now claims to have more than 22,000 "signatures" asking the honorables to come back to town and repeal the 2.8-cent per gallon gas tax jump that took effect Jan. 1.

(Click here to visit his web site.)

From an outfit called Public Policy Poling Inc. comes a survey that tells us, well, something. My favorite bits:

• North Carolinians, being an optimistic lot, seem to think they have a slightly greater chance of winning the lottery than getting hit by a meteor or finding buried treasure. However, we seem to think that we're more likely to get bit by a shark.
• 51 percent don't care which Hollywood couple break up.

Click here to read the whole thing. (It is a PDF.)

I don't know how much stock you should put in the results. Apparently their research methodology relies on people to not only have a phone and answer, and not only be willing to take a survey, but be willing to take a survey by way of push-button responses.

Me, I'm really waiting on the next Elon Poll.

Remember Britt Cobb? He was the temporary fill-in for disgraced Agriculture Commission Meg Scott Phipps, who is now enjoying the hospitality of a federal penitentiary. Cobb, a Democrat, ran unsuccessfully against Steve Troxler, a Guilford County Republican, to keep the job.

I mentioned yesterday that Gwynn Swinson had resigned as Secretary of Administration.

Since loosing the Ag post, Cobb has been hanging about the Department of Administration as Swinson's Deputy Secretary of Government Operations. Well, with Swinson leaving, he's going to get to run the show.

Gov. Mike Easley announced today that Cobb will take over at Administration Secretary.

Sure there are now cows or much livestock of any sort involved, but the job sounds, um, just darned exciting. From the release:

Created in 1957, DOA acts as the business manager for North Carolina state government. The Department oversees government operations such as building construction, purchasing and contracting for goods and services, managing state vehicles, acquiring and disposing of real property, and operating auxiliary services such as courier mail delivery and the sale of state and federal surplus property. In addition, the Department oversees the maintenance of state-owned buildings and grounds, and police security for state government facilities in Wake County. The Department also houses several advocacy groups including the Governor's Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities, the North Carolina Council for Women/Domestic Violence Commission, the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, the North Carolina Human Relations Commission and the North Carolina Youth Advocacy and Involvement Office.

I've got a great new party game. Tell me who said this Thursday:

“The General Assembly budget process often results in decision being made at the last minute and middle of the night without open debate.”

Now I know you might be thinking John Blust, the Greensboro Republican who has long-railed against the way the General Assembly puts together its budgets.

But think again.

It was Attorney General Roy Cooper, sounding one part like a candidate for governor (hey, the 2008 elections are just around the corner!) and one part like a member of the legislature's minority party (Blust's Republicans).

Cooper was pitching to the General Assembly - by way of a news conference - a series of reforms he said were aimed at "fighting public corruption." Most were typical prosecutor stuff: make it a crime to lie to state investigators, allow state prosecutors to empanel investigative grand juries like their federal counterparts, etc...

Fair enough.

But then he confused his audience - not hard when you’re dealing with us scrubby media types - and said he also proposed AS A CORRUPTION FIGHTING TOOL reforms to the state budget process.

When asked if he was inferring the stat budget process was, well, corrupt, Cooper issued the above quote. And indeed, it sounded a lot like Blust. (It didn't answer the question mind you...)

This is the second time Cooper a potential candidate for governor (correction on 1/28) has seemingly ripped off an idea that a member of the Greensboro delegation has championed.

I'm beginning to think these boys must be sneaking into town for Cheesecake and political advice.

I'll have a story on all this (at least the Cooper sounding like Blust thing) in tomorrow's (Friday's) paper.

From Public Policy Polling:

A majority of North Carolina voters do not think the Bush Administration has broken the law by utilizing wiretaps of American citizens without a FISA court order according to a Public Policy Polling survey. Fifty-three percent think the wiretapping policy is legal, while only 39% think the President is breaking the law.

For context:

When it comes to impeachment, North Carolinians think that President Clinton’s alleged transgressions, lying under oath about sexual relations with an intern, are worse than President Bush’s potentially illegal wiretaps. Fifty percent think that lying under oath about inappropriate relations with an intern is the more impeachable offense. Thirtythree percent think that authorizing wiretaps on Americans without a court order is more impeachable.

Click here for the full release and survey questions.

Discuss below.

Update: While a majority of poll respondents didn't question the program, the boys and girls at the House J committee do have a few things they'd like to know about. (PDF)

From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The State Board of Elections asked prosecutors Friday to investigate whether a former lawmaker and a leader of a political action committee violated campaign finance laws, but delayed making a decision about the campaign of House Speaker Jim Black.

More here, and apparently more to come in coming months.

UPDATE: Click here to link to today's story.

I'll have a story in tomorrow's paper (barring calamity) about the state Republican Party asking its membership to gather membership directories from churches.

This is not a new thing for the state party to do, but the practice caused quite the national ruckus during the 2004 presidential election. National political leaders said it was too much an invasion of politics into the pulpit.

As it turns out, the Catholic diocese of Charlotte (which covers Guilford County) and several local pastors I talked to don’t think much of the practice either. A flavor of the responses I got from one local Baptist pastor:

"I would say you're encroaching on sacred territory. When congregations inject politics into their congregational life, it will be bad for everybody . . . We wouldn't want our friends to be selling their personal directories to someone who is selling something. That would be an abuse of our friendship. I would think the same thing about giving it to a political party."

I suspect this will be one of the things that "people are talking about" tomorrow. For your information and discussion purposes, here is the e-mail that sparked this conversation (after the jump):

A couple more notes on the church directory story:

• Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Marcus Kindley phoned this morning to say that he did not endorse the practice of collecting directories from churches for use in GOTV efforts.

  “It’s not something we asked our members to do,” Kindley said of the Guilford Republicans. Kindley is a lay minister at his church and, if nothing else, is earnest whether speaking about religion or politics.

• These guys don’t seem to like the church directory idea either.

A recent survey finds a majority of North Carolinians support raising the state’s minimum wage.(PDF)

Update: (Click here for the story that ran Sunday.)

More on this will be in the paper over the weekend, but you can have your say here right now via the comment links below.

Previous posts on the topic here.

For today’s (2/21/2006) paper, I'll add to the cannon of stories on House Speaker Jim Black's campaign finances.

Update:(Click here for the story.)

In particular, this story looks at giving from chiropractors to Black's campaign during the July 1 through Dec. 31 (2005) time period. Chiropractors gave Black 33 contributions during those six months, 25 of which are recorded as having arrived on Dec. 7. The cash and in-kind total from the Chiropractors to Black during that time period was $38,779.87.

This came four months after Black helped make the following part of the state budget:

An insurer shall not impose as a limitation on treatment or level of coverage a co-payment amount charged to the insured for chiropractic services that is higher than the co-payment amount charged to the insured for the services of a duly licensed primary care physician for the same medically necessary treatment or condition.

That provision makes it cheaper for patients to go to a chiropractor. Instead of paying the co-payment one would for a specialists (like a plastic surgeon), patients pay the usually lower co-pay that goes with seeing a general practitioner.

Source material and credits:

• The state budget bill. (Section 6.29 is the relevant bit.)
  
• Black's campaign finance report. This is a large PDF file. An index of his campaign reports can be found here.
  
• Several papers noted the change for chiropractors around the time the budget bill passed in August. Here's the Google cash of the N+O's story from back then.

So why'd I get into this? A couple of reasons:

• There is somewhat of a Greensboro connection to this story, which is what got me interested initially. Four of the chiropractor-donors practice in Greensboro. Those donations were substantial, ranging from $500 to $4,000.
• I have written before about support from Speaker Black going to local candidates, but I hadn't written about local donors giving to Black. This was a good way to show the tide of political money flows both ways.

As always, feel free to leave your thoughts, suggestions and complaints at the comments link below, or e-mail me directly at mbinker@news-record.com.

This story from "The Hill" newspaper, a publication that mainly covers the scene around Congress, had me laughing this morning. (Via Romenesko.)

It covers the various things that press secretaries in Washington, D.C. do to deflect and absorb bad news for their bosses.

Most legislators here in Raleigh don't have press folks, the exceptions being House Speaker Jim Black and Senate Leader Marc Basnight. However, the list of tactics the Hill reporter came up with looked familiar. Legislators don't need a press secretary to do these all on their own.

• Say "I will call you back" and then don't.
• Repeat the same phrase over and over.
• Try to talk the reporter out of writing the story.
• Act brusque and distant.
• Don't return phone calls until the day after deadline.
• Talk in short sentences.
• Act as though you are in a hurry and need to get off the phone as soon as possible.

PR folks for the various executive and council of state agencies do some of the same stuff.

Let me add one or two others that I've run into over the years:

• Offer up what they think will be a more interesting story about something or someone else.
• Use language that is un-quotable, either by way of cuss words or by using such tortured syntax that a direct quote is impossible.
• Suggest that the reporter is stupid for even having to ask such a question.
• Suggest your reporting would be incomplete without talking to someone or getting a fact that they think would be hard for you to run down.
• Get "distracted" by an old friend/constituent/staffer who happens to wander by and get into a prolonged conversation hoping the reporter will get fed up and go away.

Now a quick disclaimer: Most of the legislators and other folks I deal with around here are delightful most of the time...really. They're nice folks who have normal lives and are all of a sudden thrust into this rather odd fish bowl. No one is ever happy to deal with bad news or a question that cuts too close to home, some are just more deft at dealing with them than others.

That said, neither anything on the Hill list nor mine has ever stopped bad news from coming down the track. As Brian Walsh, a one-time spokesman for Bob Barr (R-Ga.) said in the Hill piece:

"You have two choices," Walsh said. "Whether you like the story or you don’t like the story, you have to make the determination: Will it be less bad you telling it or your opponent telling it?"

For those who remember the story about the NC GOP collecting church directories, here's one cartoonists’ take on the issue. Via Cone.

The Elon Poll of political opinion in southeastern states is out today. Click here if you want to read the whole thing.

The focus this time around was on President Bush and his job approval rating. I'm still digesting the whole thing, but the headline seems to be this:

Question: Do you [approve or disapprove] of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?
Strongly Disapprove 36.0
Disapprove 16.1
Approve 23.7
Strongly Approve 19.2
Don't Know 4.2
Refused .8

The numbers for North Carolina:
Strongly Disapprove 39.2%
Disapprove 13.6%
Approve 23.3%
Strongly Approve 18.4%
Don't Know 5.2%
Refused .3%

You know the drill...read and then discuss via the comments link below.

Gov. Mike Easley is escaping Raleigh today and is scheduled to be in Greensboro.

According to the news release, Easley's supposed to show up at "7628 Thorndike Road" at 2p.m. Curiously, it doesn't say who Easley is coming to see.

Ooo, mysterious. Because no reporter (or say, anyone with an internet connection) would have access to a reverse-search directory.

Oh, wait, yes we do.

That address belongs to RF Micro Devices. Now that the local governments have pitched in, it's a safe bet that Easley is coming to town to deliver the state's goody-bag of economic incentive stuff.

I'm told our crack business team is all over this and will report accordingly for tomorrow's paper.

Update: Our biz team is on top of things.

I'm not usually one for press releases, but this one from Rep. Howard Coble's office just begs to be shared.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.)----The member of Congress who is so unfazed by Hollywood celebrities that a chance meeting with actress Melanie Griffith - whom he did not know - became the talk of Capitol Hill a few years ago, will have another opportunity this week to test his pop culture awareness. Actress, singer, TV reality star, and pizza saleswoman Jessica Simpson is scheduled to visit the office of U.S. Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) on Thursday, March 16.

Jessica Simpson will be on Capitol Hill Thursday as an ambassador for Operation Smile, which provides free surgeries for poor children with cleft palates and other facial deformities. Congressman Coble, a longtime supporter of Operation Smile in North Carolina, will meet with Simpson in his office in the Rayburn Building on Thursday at 10 a.m.

For the past three years, Jessica Simpson has been Operation Smile's International Youth Ambassador and traveled last October with a medical team to Kenya. Following her meeting with Rep. Coble, Simpson is scheduled to participate in a news conference for the charity elsewhere on the Hill.

Simpson, who is 26, will be visiting Rep. Coble just two days before his 75th birthday. No word yet if the pop singer will serenade the birthday boy or if he will be able to name any of her songs, movies or television shows.

Coble was given the nickname of Hollywood Howard a few years ago by his House colleagues when word leaked out that he met actress Melanie Griffith while she was on Capitol Hill. It was so obvious to the actress that Coble did not know who she was, that she sent a handwritten note to his office later that day giving him some additional information about her career. Obviously not offended by the chance meeting, Griffith signed her note with a large heart.

Day 2 of the the State Board of Elections hearings concerning Speaker Jim Black’s fund raising just got fun.

We’re hearing testimony that allies of Black were asked to donate to former High Point Rep. Steve Wood because Wood, in 2003, was going to support Black for Speaker that year. Wood, according to the testimony so far, backed out of that deal and the checks were never cashed.

And yes, Wood is in the house, apparently waiting to testify as of 3 p.m.

More to come later, but I have to pay attention now.

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.

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 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.

Greensboro has its own version of the pro-immigration rallies going on right now at the government plaza downtown. (Other activity on this front went down in Raleigh and elsewhere today.)

I was in town today and stopped to check it out, although I'd be hard pressed to report on what most of the speakers were saying…my Spanish is very poor.

But it looked to me like somewhere north of 1,000 folks turned up as of 4:45 p.m. A lot of them were holding placards and American flags. There were only two foreign flags in the crowd that I could see, both of them Mexican flags.

The Greensboro police were well in evidence, but didn’t seem to be terribly intrusive. I counted somewhere around 20 officers in uniform, including a trio on bicycle patrol and at least a couple guys on the roof-top of the Old County Courthouse.

All and all, there was music, there was cheering, it looked like a good time was being had by those in attendance when I left, right before 5 p.m.

My colleague Amy Dominello is compiling tomorrow’s report for the paper.

Oh, and I saw Ed Cone out there, so I expect he'll have a report too.

You'd be pretty naive to think that this sort of thing doesn't go on in governments at all levels. But people who do such things usually have enough sense to keep it to themselves. (Via Wonkette)

Our friends at the Associated Press report that U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick is not running for governor in 2008. From the AP:

The announcement by Myrick, who had the highest name recognition of any potential GOP candidate, creates a wide-open race for the party's nomination. The governor's office will be open in 2008, with incumbent Democrat Mike Easley barred by the state constitution from seeking a third term.

Myrick, 64, who faces Democrat Bill Glass in her bid this year for a seventh term in Congress, said she issued the statement to quell rumors of a gubernatorial run.

"My focus is on my current job and I want to end the speculation to the contrary," said Myrick, a former Charlotte mayor.

Unlike the Democrats who have three presumptive front runners – Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, AG Roy Cooper and State Treasurer Richard Moore – the gubernatorial picture is hazier for the GOP. Myrick was the Republicans’ best known potential candidate.

Myrick’s departure from the race may catapult Bill Graham to the front of the pack. Graham’s a name known among pundits and reporters as the driving force behind the public stop the gas tax campaign. The couple times I’ve heard him speak, he’s been coy about his gubernatorial ambitions. And with action pending to cap the gas tax this year, the issue may not have currency into 2007 and 2008.

Sen. Fred Smith has been mentioned as a potential candidate, but like Graham may lack a bit in the name recognition department, at least statewide.

Patrick Ballantine, who ran against Easley in 2004, doesn’t have his name mentioned by pundits as much as one might think. That may be due to getting beat pretty handily in a year when a presidential candidate from his own party (Bush) lead the ticket and won the state.

So who else is out there?

Now let’s see here...North Carolina governors over the past couple decade have tended to lean to the political center - or at least pragmatic - over the past couple of decades, whether they be Democrats or Republicans. They need to have and be able to raise a fair amount of campaign cash. Their names, for better or worse, need to be fairly well known. And some experience in the legislature graduate school of hard knocks doesn’t hurt either.

Anyone know a GOP pol who fits that bill who will have time on their hands in a few months?

I do, but the guy I’m thinking of would drive the more conservative, Art Pope-lead wing of his party nuts.

Richard Morgan.

You heard me.

Yes, I know he’s been in a running fight with fellow members of the GOP over his power-sharing arrangement with House Democrats. And yes, he just lost a costly primary campaign. And yes, I know that you usually need to win the activist wing of the party to win a statewide primary.

But still, the possibility was intriguing enough for me to give Morgan a call.

“There have been others that discussed that possibility with me, but my foremost concern has been the institution of the House,” Morgan said. “I don’t know what the future holds.”

Morgan continued that after his primary loss this month, he hasn’t had time to consider his political future.

“I haven’t been in the frame of mind to think about that.”

I take him at his word. Frankly, he sounded kind of tired on the phon