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What’s U.S. Rep. Walter Jones up to?

The North Carolina Republican, easily re-elected to office in a newly drawn congressional district last year, is spending campaign money already.

The most recent reports show he raised $78,000 in the first three months of this year ($25,000 of it from political action committees) and spent $72,000 of it.

The spending included $10,500 on consultants.

Jones has been on the outs with House leadership since he was one of nine Republicans who voted for someone other than John Boehner as speaker. Boehner retaliated by removing Jones from the House’s financial services committee last year.

Roll Call reported at the time that the GOP Steering Committee dealt with members who had not voted consistently with the leadership.

Jones’s 3rd District stretches from Currituck County to Onslow County.

Holding was chosen by House Speaker John Boehner. He'll be joined by Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. They are traveling to London Tuesday morning.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones was one of nine Republicans who bucked party leadership and voted for other GOP members instead of House Speaker Rep. John Boehner. The Farmville Republican instead voted for David Walker, former head of the Government Accountability Office.

Boehner, R-Ohio, was reelected Speaker of the House for the 113th Congress with 220 votes over Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who received 192 votes.

The vote against Boehner was likely part backlash after Boehner pulled Jones off the prestigious Financial Services Committee.

Jones was not the only N.C. member to buck his party. Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton voted for fellow Blue Dog Jim Cooper, D-Tenn, instead of Pelosi.

Boehner needed 218 votes to win reelection. Fourteen members voted for other candidates or present.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican from Farmville, was kicked off the House financial services committee on Monday, according to Roll Call.

Speaker John Boehner initiated the action, targeting what Roll Call labeled "rebellious Republicans."

In profiles of the candidates for governor, two distinct men emerge:

On the stump, Walter Dalton invoked the names of famous Democratic governors: Jim Hunt, Terry Sanford and O. Max Gardner. But as he  tries to call up the ghosts of Gardner, Sanford and Hunt, he is shackled by the more recent past. After 20 straight years of Democratic governors, his party’s brand has been tarnished by controversies and scandals. Full profile here.

Pat McCrory's second run for governor looks and feels different than his first. “What happened in between 2008 and 2012 was the tea party insurgency,” says Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College, McCrory’s alma mater. “McCrory has had to make some philosophical adjustments.” McCrory insists he hasn’t “moved a bit” in his positions or beliefs. But he and his party have made mutual accommodations. Full profile here.

Many more political headlines below.

House Speaker John Boehner told about 140 Republicans at state GOP headquarters Saturday morning that the election is about jobs and President Barack Obama doesn't understand the economy.

No Republican has spent more time working with the president on economic issues, Boehner said.

 “Let me tell you,” Boehner said. “He doesn't get it. As a result he doesn't understand how the economy works or how America works.''

House Speaker John Boehner will attend a Romney campaign event at state GOP headquarters on Saturday morning at 10:45 a.m. The headquarters is located at 1506 Hillsborough St.

Boehner will attend an event Friday at the Charlotte Victory Office on East Morehead Street at 4:50.

Saturday will be a busy day with Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president, expected to make a campaign swing through the state, including a visit to the Triangle.

UPDATED: House Speaker John Boehner will be in Charlotte on Friday to stump for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The Ohio Republican is scheduled to speak 4:15 p.m. at the local Romney campaign office on East Morehead Street in Charlotte on Friday and at 10:45 a.m. at GOP headquarters on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh on Saturday, according to an email sent out by Romney's campaign.

U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., joined House Republican negotiators and Speaker John Boehner this morning to call on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to appoint Senate Democrat negotiators to discuss the payroll tax extension.

“We have to do this,” Ellmers said. “As a mom, I care about those single moms out there who are going to be dependent on this especially tax extension. We can’t take money out of their pockets right now. Especially, during the holidays.

Ellmers was appointed to the eight member House negotiating team Tuesday after Representatives voted 229-193 against a bipartisan Senate plan to extend the current tax rate for two months.

It’s unclear whether negotiations between House and Senate members will occur. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, is not expected to call Senators back. He said Tuesday that he’s willing to negotiate a year long extension, but only after the House passes the two-month bipartisan extension similar to the one worked out by the Senate.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday that it’s important to have freshman members like Ellmers on the negotiating committee. He said Ellmers’ experience in the private sector and as a nurse as critical for understanding the complicated payroll tax debate.

“She may be a freshman, but she’s got more knowledge on some of those issues than members who have been there for a while.”

U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers of Dunn will serve on a joint Congressional committee formed today to resolve Senate and House differences on the payroll tax increase extension.

On Tuesday, the House moved to enter into negotiations between a one-year extension passed by the House and a two-month extension passed by the Senate. Ellmers was one of three freshman members House Speaker John Boehner named to the eight-member House committee.

Ellmers dismissed questions about her experience and said freshman make up a large portion of membership and needed a voice at the table.

"I am ready and willing to get this thing ironed out so that hardworking Americans won't see their taxes go up," she said.