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UPDATED (again): Brad Woodhouse made his original goal and now has increased it.

UPDATED: Dome was right about Dallas Woodhouse (read on to find out how).

Here at Dome, we've been wondering about the Woodhouse family holiday gathering. What is it like when Brad Woodhouse, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, gathers to carve the turkey with his brother Dallas Woodhouse, the North Carolina state director for the conservative Americans for Prosperity?

Does one accidentally spill the gravy on the other? Who wins the wishbone contest? Is there elbow jostling as they pull it?

We remember a few years ago their mother Joyce telling an N&O reporter that she tries to get them to not talk politics at the holiday table. But she also told The N&O that "they still love each other."

And apparently, they can still be proud of each other. The evidence came today in a message that Dallas Woodhouse forwarded to various media saying: "Here is a note from my brother … watch ABC News this week." 

Democratic National Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be in North Carolina Friday to campaign for the national ticket.

The Florida congresswoman will attend a Women for Obama grass roots event in the museum of contemporary art in downtown Raleigh Friday evening at 6 p.m.. On Saturday she will attend a kick off event for Women for Obama in Winston-Salem.

UPDATED: Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton gave a really brief greeting to Democratic National Committee delegates Thursday afternoon. It lasted a little more than a minute. 

Democratic Reps. G.K. Butterfield, David Price, and Mel Watt give abbreviated addresses, too. Dalton faces GOP nominee Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, in the race for governor. See what Dalton said below. It won't take long to read.

Democrats and liberal groups want to rain on Mitt Romney's parade during his three-stop bus tour of North Carolina this weekend.

When Romney visits Smokey's BBQ Shack in Morrisville on Sunday afternoon -- his first public campaign stop in the Triangle area this campaign -- he'll be met by Raleigh members of MoveOn.

The federal courtroom where John Edwards is on trial is not big enough for all the spectators. But those who are shut out can still get an insider’s view of exhibits being discussed. In an unusual move, Judge Catherine Eagles has asked the clerks to post exhibits already published to the jury on a public website. Read more here.

Other political headlines:

--The Democratic Party’s national chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, added her voice to the president’s by speaking out against North Carolina’s proposed marriage amendment. Prominent Democrats also want to put the legalization of same-sex marriage in the party platform.

--Christensen: When President Obama visited Chapel Hill last week, the theme running through national media stories was how difficult it is going to be for the president to win North Carolina again. Full column here.

As Charlotte and North Carolina take the national spotlight for this year's Democratic National Convention, one area will get particular scrutiny: the region's climate for gays and lesbians.

September's convention comes on the heels of a statewide ballot question in May, where voters will decide whether a ban on same-sex marriage should be written into North Carolina's constitution. The timing highlights a possible source of tension come DNC time: Will lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) visitors feel welcome here? And what impressions of Charlotte will they take back with them to the rest of the nation?

"There's the potential that we're going to be greeted to the state with another one of those heinous marriage amendments," said Jerame Davis, interim executive director with the D.C.-based National Stonewall Democrats, a grassroots Democratic gay-rights organization. "That's definitely not putting out the welcome mat to LGBT people coming to the state."

Jeremy Kennedy is campaign manager with The Coalition to Protect North Carolina Families, which is organizing a grassroots statewide campaign focused on defeating the amendment. With plans to open a Charlotte office by the end of January, Kennedy said the group wants to build a lasting movement. Read more from The Charlotte Observer here.

Even for a place that hosted four Super Bowls, a World Series and the Stanley Cup, next year's Republican National Convention is a big deal. "A Super Bowl on steroids," said Chuck Black, chairman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

The bay area is flexing its big-game muscles for an event expected to draw 50,000 people and a worldwide audience next August, a week before the Democratic convention in North Carolina, reports The Charlotte Observer's Jim Morrill. The cities are the smallest convention hosts since Atlantic City in 1964, but the sites aren't a coincidence. Florida and North Carolina are key tossups in next year's presidential race, and the conventions could boost each candidate's fortunes in the host state.

Beyond politics, both cities are counting not only on the exposure but on more than $150 million in expected economic benefits to lift areas still mired in double-digit unemployment. As in Charlotte, Tampa organizers are deep into planning for the four-day event that starts Aug. 27. And like their Democratic counterparts, the Republicans are mum about many details. Read more here.

Rolling Stone ace reporter Tim Dickinson posted a story this morning with dire predictions for mayhem when the Democratic National Convention comes to Charlotte next year.

His opening paragraph: "By all rights, 2012 ought to be a cakewalk for the GOP. Unemployment is pandemic. Riot police are confronting protesters in public squares and on college campuses.

"In an epic fail of foresight, the Democratic convention will be held in one of the world's banking centers, Charlotte, North Carolina – setting the stage for violent clashes not seen since the streets of Chicago, 1968. "I hope they keep this up," gloated Grover Norquist, one of the Republican Party's most influential strategists. "Hippies elected Nixon. Occupy Wall Street will beat Obama."

Read the rest of his piece, "The GOP's Crackpot Agenda," here.

The Democratic National Committee launched an effort Thursday to "protect the vote" as Republican lawmakers in a number of states tweak election laws.

Democrats contend the effort -- including here in North Carolina -- is aimed at disenfranchising voters who supported the president and Democratic candidates in 2008.

On a conference call, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz rejected the GOP argument that fraud pervades elections. "The truth is that every major investigation into voter fraud ... has arrived at the same conclusion: there is almost none," she said.

The call highlighted the North Carolina legislature's efforts to require a voter ID or curtail early voting dates, saying it fits a national patter of Republicans trying to restrict voting in 2012 battleground states. The Tar Heel state also gets prominent play in the DNC's report on the voting rights. Find the report here.

The Democratic National Committee debuted a new television advertisement to promote President Barack Obama's jobs plan.

The 30-second spot hit the airwaves today in the Raleigh and Greenville market as part of a larger national blitz ahead of the U.S. Senate's vote later this week on components of the American Jobs Act that give businesses tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans.

In the ad, Iraq war veteran Steve Gallucci says he just wants to "get his white-picket fence. This jobs plan is definitely going to do that."

As we reported previously, the DNC is spending big on North Carolina TV ahead of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. Party officials didn't release  information on the cost of this buy.

The full script is below.