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Raleigh businessman Robert Luddy was in Florida Thursday talking about efforts to improve education.

Luddy is founder of Franklin Academy Charter Schools.

Gov. Bev Perdue will speak at a Washington education summit on Wednesday.

The summit is hosted by the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which is led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

"We were honored to have Governor Perdue share ways she has helped North Carolina schools use technology to transform learning," Bush said in a release.  "North Carolina's public-private partnership to make affordable broadband access available to schools is a critical step to helping schools adopt digital learning and prepare for online assessments."

A live stream of the event is available on the foundation's website, and Perdue is scheduled to speak at 11 a.m.

A clash between State Auditor Beth Wood and the Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement over the auditor’s scathing report that top ALE officials misused state cars escalated Wednesday. As she arrived in the Legislative Office Building, Wood was served with a letter demanding she “cease and desist” from further disseminating the document. Read more here.

More political headlines:

--A day after a Republican runoff set the field in the 9th Congressional District, Democrat Jennifer Roberts Wednesday sought to draw distinctions with her new rival. Meanwhile, a new report shows she quietly raised more than $250,000 through June, most of it from Charlotte supporters.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is again hitting the campaign trail to help Pat McCrory's campaign for governor. Just leave the press badges, cameras and questions at the door if you want to attend the Asheville fundraising event on Thursday.

A previously scheduled press conference has been scrubbed and that reporters will have no chance to ask questions of Bush or McCrory, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times.

McCrory has recently been pressed by liberal opponents for not releasing his tax returns; Progress North Carolina Action plans to fly its plane with a banner reading “Who Pays McCrory.com” over the hotel on Thursday.

This is supposedly the dead time in politics. But if you were on the campaign surrogate trail this week in North Carolina, this is what it would look like.

You could have started Sunday afternoon in Asheville at the local Organizing for America office where Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz gave a pep talk to a group of women working a phone bank.

Then you could have headed to Charlotte where on Monday morning, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa accepted the keys to the Time Warner Cable Arena on behalf of the Democratic Party for the convention in September.

Pat McCrory will again be joined on the campaign trail by Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida.

Bush endorsed McCrory's bid for governor in May and has already hosted a dinner on his behalf, and the pair will meet again at a July 19 women's brunch in Asheville.

Bush will join the Republican July 19 at the Double Tree Hilton in Asheville for a women's brunch to support the former Charlotte mayor. The event runs from 10 to 11 a.m. and costs $35 to attend and $500 to host.

The calendar may still read spring, but there is a fall-like intensity in the air as both the campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have tried to set the tone early in North Carolina in a key battleground state.

More than $10 million have already been spent in general election ads in the Tar Heel State, more than any states except Florida, Virginia and Ohio. Campaign operatives have been pouring into the state. Dueling news releases are now the norm. News conferences are followed by counter-news conferences.

Other political news

--The fracking bill could clear the N.C. House this week.
 -- The  North Carolina Senate is looking to copy a Florida plan for requiring 3rd graders to read before being promoted. A story in Sunday's N&O looks at the pros and cons of one of former Gov. Jeb Bush's pet projects.

--In his Sunday column, Rob Christensen takes a second look at gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory's comment that back in 1967 “things were going well for our state.''

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised North Carolina legislators for advancing "bold, student-centered measures" to improve education in the state.

The Seante this week approved a package of education changes similar to a program Florida started about 15 years ago. Among tthe most significant is preventing most third graders who cannot read at grade level from advancing to fourth grade.

The Obama administration is joining a list of big-name Republicans who oppose a North Carolina bill designed to tighten regulations on dental practices.

Federal Trade Commission staffers analyzed Senate bill 655 and determined it "may deny consumers of dental services the benefits of competition spurred by the efficiencies that (dental service organizations) can offer, including the potential for lower prices, improved access to care, and greater choice."

The message -- oddly -- echoes the spin from lobbyists and a political group aligned against the bill who label the regulations akin to "Obamacare."

And it puts the FTC in the company of Republicans Jeb Bush, Bill Frist, Haley Barbour and Tommy Thompson, all of which have contacted House Speaker Thom Tillis' office recently about the bill, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is headlining a fundraiser for Pat McCrory's gubernatorial bid this afternoon in Raleigh, the latest in a string of GOP heavyweights to visit North Carolina to help the former Charlotte mayor.

The fundraising invite is a who's-who list of big names. Take a look below.