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JINDAL TO GOP: STOP BEING THE STUPID PARTY: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday night challenged fellow Republicans to “go after every voter” and cautioned them to “stop being the stupid party.”

“It’s no secret we had a number of Republicans who damaged the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments,” he told around 200 members and guests of the Republican National Committee at the Westin hotel. Jindal, considered a possible 2016 presidential candidate, said Republicans can beat Democrats on their ideas while appealing to all Americans – beyond Washington.

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James O'Keefe, the conservative activist who became known for his undercover investigations of ACORN, voter fraud, Medicaid, and National Public Radio, will be the keynote speaker later this month at a “N.C. Watchdog Training” conference in Raleigh.

The two-day conference is scheduled for July 27-28 at the DoubleTree Raleigh Brownstone Hotel in Raleigh. It is being sponsored by the Civitas Institute, a conservative advocacy group based in Raleigh and the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton is leading in latest poll in the Democratic primary for governor.

Dalton has 32 percent, compared to former Congressman Bob Etheridge with 27 percent, and state Rep. Bill Faison with 4 percent, according to a Civitas Flash Poll. Receiving less than 3 percent were Gary Dunn, Gardenia Henley, and Bruce Blackmon.

A large bloc of voters, 27 percent, remain undecided. This is the second poll during released during the past week that shows movement towards Dalton, who has been advertising most extensively on television.

State lawmakers took their first look today at a proposal to repeal North Carolina’s estate tax.

Advocates for the poor say doing away with the tax would only help a small sliver of the state’s wealthiest people. But conservatives, who historically oppose the “death tax” in the first place, say steps must be taken because more estates will be taxed beginning in 2013 due to a change in federal law.

The state and federal governments currently tax estates valued at more than $5 million. That amount drops to $1 million in 2013, exposing more families to the tax on a relative’s assets when they are transferred upon death.

All of the estate taxes paid to the state in a graduated rate are currently allowed as a credit against the federal tax. But if North Carolina repeals its tax, then that money would go to the federal government.

Legislative staff has estimated that the full impact of that change would amount to a loss to the state of about $170 million by the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, a school choice advocacy group that successfully lobbied to raise the public charter school cap in the 2011 legislative session, recently added two new staffers.

Katie Trout, the former communications director at the conservative Civitas Institute, joined the organization as a communications associate, where she will serve as an editor and writer as well as augment the group's online presence.

Bill O’Donnell, the former government liason for the N.C. School Boards Assocition, is a new education policy and research specialist. He is also a former Wake County public school teacher.

Who is the highest ranking elected official in North Carolina that nobody knows? The award goes to Beth Wood, the state auditor. 

A National Research poll commissioned by the Civitas Institute looks at voter's thoughts on the nine elected Council of State officials and found only two -- Attorney General Roy Cooper and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall -- who were known by more than half the voters.

Wood topped the "never heard of" list (75 percent of voters), followed closely by State Treasurer Janet Cowell (74 percent), Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin (73 percent) and Superintendent of Education June Atkinson (61 percent).

Among Council of State officials, voters had the most favorable opinions of Cooper (30 percent), Marshall (29 percent), Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler (21 percent) and Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry (21 percent).

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton won the curious designation as the top elected official who voters knew but didn't know how they felt about (54 percent).

North Carolina voters remain in a sour mood as they head into the new year, worried about a troubled economy, according to a new survey.

Only a third of the voters think the state is heading in the right direction, while 57 percent think it is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new survey conducted for The Civitas Institute, a Raleigh-based think tank with Republican leanings. Ten percent were not sure of the state's direction.

The largest group of voters (36 percent) thought the economy was the biggest issue facing the state. Other issues on people's minds were education (17 percent), the state budget and government spending (16 percent) illegal immigration (9 percent) health care (8 percent) taxes (4 percent) crime and drugs(4 percent), government corruption (4 percent) and the environment (4 percent.

The survey found that voters are divided on the job that president Barack Obama is doing with 46 approving of his job performance and 52 percent disapproving.

A strong majority(65 percent) said they favored a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Seventy-seven percent said they would back cutting taxes even if it required additional cuts in government spending if it encouraged job creation.

The survey of 600 voters was conducted Dec. 15-16 by Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria Va. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Voters appear more interested in casting early ballots this year than they have in previous mid-term elections.

By Sunday evening, more than 347,000 people had voted at one-stop sites, according to the State Board of Elections.

In the 2006 general election, about 375,000 people cast one-stop ballots. Voters are on track to easily surpass that number by the time early voting ends Saturday.

So far, ballots from registered Democrats outnumber Republicans'. Democrats are responsible for about 44 percent of the turnout so far. Republicans are 38 percent and unaffiliated voters about 17 percent. 

Nearly 7 percent of white registered voters have cast early ballots, and about 5 percent of black voters have voted at one-stop sites.

According to an early voting site sponsored by Civitas, more women than men have cast one-stop ballots. In the first few days of early voting, men were leading.

The average early voter's age has dropped to 60 from 61.

Participation is heaviest in Mecklenburg, but Wake, which expanded its one-stop sites late last week, has jumped to second place.