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UPDATED: The Civitas Institute is requesting the North Carolina attorney general, state auditor, secretary of state and State Board of Elections investigate state election staffers for engaging in political activity, alleging possible criminal violations, in sweeping complaints filed Tuesday.

The conservative think tank also wants inquiries into the conduct of Bob Hall, the director and lobbyist for Democracy North Carolina, an advocacy organization that often butts heads with Civitas.

In the four letters, Civitas President Francis De Luca identifies three areas for investigation that it uncovered in more than 5,000 emails obtained through public records requests. (Read them below.)

Nearly half of the people asked in a recent survey weren’t sure what to make of new Gov. Pat McCrory yet. The Civitas Poll found 48 percent were either undecided or didn’t know.

But almost as many – 41 percent – approved of the job he is doing, according to the poll of voters taken Jan. 14 and 15. Eleven percent disapproved of the Republican governor, according to the poll by the conservative group.

Economist Art Laffer told state lawmakers that the movement to overhaul the tax code in North Carolina is crucial to the national "fight for a different sort of economics."

"You are wearing the white hat," he said. "Don't let them take the white hate off you. Go to the goal line."

Laffer, the conservative economist and trickle-down believer, gave the keynote address at a "training" for state lawmakers hosted by the Civitas Institute, a conservative political organization.

The event featured presentations from a number of state lawmakers from outside North Carolina who are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, known as a ALEC, a controversial group that pushes "model legislation" based on conservative ideology.

A conservative group has accused state elections director Gary Bartlett of lying in a comment he made to The News & Observer; Bartlett fired back, standing by the accuracy of his comment and characterizing the criticism is part of an ongoing effort to wrongly portray oversight of voter registration and early voting as broken.

Francis De Luca, a conservative thinker at the Civitias Institute, explores a question on the minds of many in the North Carolina political sphere after Republicans captured the governor's mansion, supermajorities in the state legislature and the likely the lieutenant governor's post.

Will Republicans become a lasting majority? DeLuca writes: "Republican leaders will have to work hard to make the change a lasting one, rather than just another bump in the road for NC Democrats like others over the last 30 years.

... How does this happen? The governor and legislative leaders will have to embrace bold policies that address the problems that have plagued North Carolina fiscally and educationally." Read his full column here.

Two Civitas Institute polls of primary voters show continued strong support for the constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage. 

Considering poll results, early voting trends, and anticipated turnout on May 8, Civitas projects the amendment will pass by at least 16 percentage points.

Separate surveys of Democrats and Republicans showed Democrats supporting the amendment 48 percent to 44 percent, and Republicans supporting it 78 percent to 15 percent.

The amendment would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.

The strongest support among Democratic voters is among black voters, who support the amendment by a 2-to-1 margin, according to the poll.

"While there is still time for a strong advertising or grassroots effort to change the outcome, it appears supporters of the amendment have the momentum," said Civitas President Francis De Luca.

The Civitas Institute stepped into the fray today by calling on the state Board of Elections to investigate where the money came from that was used in the N.C. Democratic Party sex harassment settlement.

The phone rings. The caller ID shows: J.W. Pope Civitas Institute. Except the voice you hear is a robocall from New York State Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder.

The Queens Democrat lists his endorsements (including New York U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer) and tells voters the polls open at 9 p.m. Except there's no election state legislative in New York right now.

Confused yet? So are the folks at The Civitas Institute, who have been inundated with curious callers.

North Carolina voters are very pessimistic about the direction of the state and the country, according to a new poll.

Sixty-three percent think North Carolina is on the wrong track, while only 23 percent think the state is headed on the right track, according to a survey taken for The Civitas Institute, a Raleigh-based conservative advocacy group. But even worse, 77 percent feel the country is headed in the wrong direction compared to 15 percent who think it is headed in the right direction.

The spin: “The numbers of North Carolina voters who think state is headed in the wrong direction is stunning, only exceeded by the numbers who think the nation is headed in the wrong direction,” said Francis De Luca, the institute's president.

The Civitas Poll of 600 likely North Carolina voters was conducted Oct. 17-18 by National Research Inc. of Holmdel, NJ and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

A conservative group has weighed in with a state-wide poll that suggests that elected leaders that continue the temporary sales tax could pay a price at the polls next year.

A poll conducted for The Civitas Institute found that voters would punish politicians who voted to raise their taxes $800 million. (Other polls have shown support for keeping the sales tax if it was a choice between that and laying off teachers.

The survey found that 73 percent were less likely to vote for a legislator in 2012 "who voted to raise taxes by over $800 million” and 75 percent opposed “a plan by Governor Perdue to raise taxes by over $800 million.”

Republican leaders have promised to allow the temporary tax increase to expire, but Perdue has pushed for it to continue to lessen the severity of the budget cuts.
The spin: “North Carolina voters overwhelmingly reject the idea of a tax hike,” said Francis De Luca, civitas president. “While those in support of new taxes now talk about education and 'devastating' budget cuts, voters in 2012 will only read and hear about legislators voting to raise taxes in mailers and on advertisements.”

The poll of  600 North Carolina voters was conducted May 10-11 by National Research Inc. of Holmdel,NJ and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.