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Welcome to Crossover Week on Jones Street. Think the action’s been fast so far? Well, hold onto our elephant ears, this week lawmakers will be shoveling as many bills as possible through committee and out to their floors for a vote to meet a Thursday deadline dubbed crossover.

The House and Senate rules say that bills that don’t raise or spend money or propose amendments to the state constitution must pass either the House or Senate by Thursday to be considered during the session. Of course, rules are made to be circumvented, so there are many ways to keep legislation alive. Dome’s favorite: Strip a bill that has already crossed over of its language and insert your bill of choice.

***Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo. Read more about the issues hanging in the balance this week at the legislature. And send news and tips to dome@newsobserver.com.***

Charlotte city leaders have announced that last year’s Democratic National Convention produced an economic impact of $163.6 million, with $91 million in direct spending.

Officials hired a private firm to compile the numbers, and the results are scheduled to be made public during an afternoon news conference.

Estimates before the event were that 35,000 visitors would come to Charlotte, and that it would provide a $200 million boost to the local economy.

While North Carolina experienced a predicted blockbuster political year in 2012, the details weren't as anticipated by some.

Charlotte hosted North Carolina's first-ever major party national convention. A proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in North Carolina passed by a whopping 22 percentage points. And although it wasn't shocking that former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory was elected governor, the ease of his victory was surprising, as was his Democratic rival - Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, not Gov. Beverly Perdue. Read AP's political year in review here.

More political headlines below:

--North Carolina’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund, which has spent nearly $1 billion to clean up polluted waters and protect untainted ones, will face a dicey future as legislators convene in January.

--The N.C. House’s new Republican majority whip believes he has the votes to stop North Carolina’s green-energy mandate – the first in the Southeast when it was enacted in 2007 – in its tracks. Rep. Mike Hager of Rutherford County views the mandate as the government unfairly “picking winners and losers” in the marketplace. As chairman of the Public Utilities committee, Hager would like to freeze it at the current 3 percent level.

Most of the minority entrepreneurs polled by an advocacy group said Democratic National Convention organizers controlled who would land work and who didn’t, despite a formal bidding process.

In an email poll sent to more than 400 people, 52 percent of respondents “felt that the DNC bid/contract process was rigged,” according to the survey from the Carolina Regional Minority Partnership Coalition. Full story here.

More political headlines below.

Saying “there’s no more important governor’s race in the America,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie touted fellow Republican Pat McCrory and bashed his opponent Thursday at a rally. Christie joined McCrory in front of around 250 people at Catawba College, McCrory’s alma mater.

The visit underscores the GOP investment in the North Carolina race. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley also are expected to campaign with McCrory in coming weeks. Read full story.

More political headlines:

--Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton sharply escalated criticism of his Republican opponent, Pat McCrory, on Thursday, portraying him as beholden to special interests, against public schools and likely to target state workers.

--Charlotte’s host committee paid for one of the biggest Democratic convention expenses – $5 million for use of Time Warner Cable Arena – from a fund that accepted cash from corporations, even though President Barack Obama had instructed convention organizers to not use business money for the actual convention.

Democrats on Monday dismissed a suggestion by the top pollster for Republican Mitt Romney that President Barack Obama’s campaign is “laying the groundwork for a stealth withdrawal” from North Carolina.

The dueling claims came four days after the Democratic convention in Charlotte – and 56 before Election Day – as both sides jockeyed for the upper hand in North Carolina, a state Politico called Monday one of nine remaining presidential battlegrounds. Read more here.

Other political headlines this morning:

--Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton on Monday offered a jobs plan that he said avoids “rigid ideology” but includes a series of practical ideas that he said would help address North Carolina’s high unemployment rate.

Get ready for an all-out brawl in 10 too-close-to-call battleground states as President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney begin a two-month sprint to Election Day.

They will deluge those states with personal visits, stacks of direct mail, automated phone calls and an unprecedented barrage of TV ads in tossup states Florida, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Michigan and Ohio. They'll probably all but ignore the rest of America. Read a breakdown here.

More political headlines:

--Young voters in North Carolina less excited than other age groups, poll shows.

Even with the venue change Thursday, a national Democratic Party official said the Obama campaign still scored a political coup.

The roughly 65,000 who were expected at Bank of America Stadium gave the campaign their email addresses and cellphone numbers -- which will allow the campaign to target them directly in the closing two months of the presidential race.

"The effort to have the stadium event will not be a complete waste," said Brad Woodhouse, the Democratic National Committee communications director, at the convention Thursday.

President Barack Obama closed his party’s convention in Charlotte on Thursday night by laying out a case for a second term and casting the election as a choice between “two fundamentally different visions for the future.”

Speaking to a national audience and an overflowing uptown arena, the president – joined by over 40 other Democratic speakers – offered a spirited defense of his record and a sharp contrast to Republican Mitt Romney on issues, from Medicare to mending the economy. Read the full story here.

More political headlines:

--Rob Christensen: Democratic convention showcases the new North Carolina.

--DNC wrap: What it's like to be the N.C. delegation. A final night photo gallery. Charlotte man arrested for Twiter threats against the president. Truth is the casualty at conventions. How did Charlotte do, compared to Tampa? Many at arena turned away. Sharp choice in campaign ahead. 10 protesters arrested in final day. DNC star sightings. Local candidates get a DNC boost, too.

Now the work begins. Democratic National Convention delegates who cheered their political heroes late into the night this week are headed home to try to turn their brimming enthusiasm for President Barack Obama into votes.

Convention-goers leave this city with marching orders to intensify their effort. They know it will be tougher this year and expect to encounter many more fence-sitters than in 2008. It would be a shame “if we come and are excited for a week and we don’t then go out and do the work,” said Lee Storrow, a Chapel Hill Council member.

That message made it into nearly every official convention speech. Read more here.