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ON TAP TODAY: Gov. Pat likes his new digs. The new Republican governor starts his term with a cabinet meeting Monday morning at his new home, the Executive Mansion. McCrory had the cabinet to lunch at the mansion Saturday, too. The event is closed-door but McCrory will give a press conference later in the morning before heading to the mountains for his first stop on his statewide introduction tour.

Worth noting: McCrory's "open house" events require advance tickets. Free tickets but nonetheless.

***Welcome to the new DOME MORNING MEMO. This daily feature will serve as a tipsheet for the day in North Carolina politics -- previewing the next day's big story, breaking news that drives the political agenda and reviewing the latest dispatches from the state's political scribes. Consider it a nod to Dome's favorite D.C. morning briefings from the likes of Politico, NBC and TPM. It's an evolving product, so send tips, ideas, thoughts or even a better name to dome@newsobserver.com. And thanks for reading. Much more below.***

Gov. Bev Perdue's looming decision about whether to pardon the Wilmington 10 is getting more national attention. A New York Times editorial called on the outgoing Democratic governor to "finally" pardon the group who became an international symbol in the civil rights movement after being wrongly convicted for a fire during a racial disturbance in Wilmington 40 years ago.

The Sunday editorial noted the newly discovered documents from the prosecutor that suggest he racially profiled potential jurors.

"Anger over this case has continued to fester in the black community. At a 40th anniversary commemoration last year in Wilmington, civil rights leaders rightly decided that the wrongly convicted warranted a pardon from Ms. Perdue. By providing it, she can finally bring a close to one of the more shameful episodes in North Carolina history," the editorial concludes.

One thing Nate Silver got wrong on election night: Wake County.

"Almost all of Mr. Romney’s advantage can be explained by one county, Wake County, in North Carolina’s Research Triangle," wrote Nate Silver, the New York Times' superstar statistician, at 9:59 p.m. Tuesday.

The problem: Silver apparently didn't notice that the Wake County Board of Elections still hadn't posted early voting results hours after the polls closed. 

American Research Group released a poll showing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney leading President Barack Obama in North Carolina by 4 percentage points, 50 percent to 46 percent.

The poll of 600 likely voters was taken from Sept. 28-30 and has a 4 percentage point margin of error.

Meanwhile, statistician and New York Times blogger Nate Silver has moved the race in North Carolina back to "lean Romney" status. Silver briefly had the state favoring Obama.

New York Times political blogger and polling aggregator Nate Silver puts North Carolina as favoring President Barack Obama for the first time this year, based on what he calls a streak of stronger polling for the president here.

Still, Silver expects the numbers to shift by election day, and forecasts that Mitt Romney will edge him out in NC in November.

Silver's blog, FiveThirtyEight, gives Obama a 52.5 percent to 46.5 percent lead in the total U.S. popular vote, based on current measures. He forecasts the final vote at 51.5 percent versus 47.4 percent, giving Obama 319.3 electoral votes and Romney 218.7.

North Carolina policies received another mention from The New York Times this weekend with an editorial calling on Gov. Bev Perdue to veto the bill that weakens the Racial Justice Act.

If she does veto it, both the House and Senate would have enough votes to override. The 2009 law allows death-row inmates to use statistics to show racial bias in prosecution or sentencing. If successful, their sentences are converted to life in prison without parole. The new bill limits the use of statistics, making them largely worthless.

The N.C. Conservation Network is asking supporters to send Perdue email asking her to veto the bill legalizing fracking. T

The New York Times editorial board is piggybacking off a recent News & Observer story that revealed the emergence of a independent expenditure group in the race for the N.C. Supreme Court. The editorial starts:

"The North Carolina Judicial Coalition is a new tax-exempt organization, known as a super PAC, supported by wealthy conservative Republicans who are determined to make this year’s race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court ideological and expensive. This kind of influence in judicial elections is a direct result of the Citizens United decision, which allows corporations and unions to make unlimited so-called independent expenditures in campaigns."

The group supporting conservative Paul Newby isn't the first super PAC in North Carolina, but the NYT's editorial board calls it "yet another example of the devastating harm caused by Citizens United."

The New York Times has a profile of Bob Page of Replacements Limited and the consequences of opposing the constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and civil unions.

The company lost customers. The article suggests that's why Fortune 500 businesses headquartered in North Carolina did not get involved, even though a few executives said they personally opposed the amendment.

The amendment passed in a landslide, and is now part of the state constitution.

Business support was critical to the New York legislature legalizing same-sex marriage. The article says that big-name businesses based in Washington State are publicly opposed to an effort to repeal its new law allowing same-sex marriage.

The New York Times on Tuesday published a report on corporate-funded scholarship programs allowed in some states and that the group Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina wants here. 

Several states have passed laws allowing corporations to make donations for 100 percent tax credits to state-approved non-profits that use the money to offer private school scholarships. According to the Times article:

"While the scholarship programs have helped many children whose parents would have to scrimp or work several jobs to send them to private schools, the money has also been used to attract star football players, expand the payrolls of the nonprofit scholarship groups and spread the theology of creationism, interviews and documents show. Even some private school parents and administrators have questioned whether the programs are a charade."

Coincidentally, Parents for Educational Freedom on Tuesday held a march and rally in Raleigh trying to get such a program started here.

The New York Times broke down the swing states in the presidential race -- and one notable absence: North Carolina.

The newspaper's analysis Sunday concluded that North Carolina is "leaning Romney" and not a toss-up. "The state is reliably Republican, even though the demographics are steadily shifting in favor of Democrats," it stated. The nine swing states: Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire.

Take a look at the newspaper's electoral map here -- and check out how North Carolina gets shuffled around in the eight different scenarios.