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The brackets are in.

After the success of last year's gubernatorial March Madness, we at Dome asked all of North Carolina's statewide elected officials to submit brackets.

Several turned them in, while others said they ran out of time.

* Gov. Beverly Perdue picked Carolina over Louisville, 88-81, in the men's tournament, and Carolina over Connecticut, 84-83, in the women's tournament.

* U.S. Sen. Richard Burr picked Carolina over Memphis, 84-78, in the men's tournament.

* Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton picked Carolina over Memphis, 92-84, in the men's tournament.

* Secretary of State Elaine Marshall picked Carolina over Connecticut, 86-81, in the men's tournament.

* Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler picked Pittsburgh over Memphis, 72-68, in the men's tournament.

* Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin picked Carolina over Louisville, 84-81, in the men's tournament.

Previously: Obama picks Carolina over Louisville.

Correction: Perdue's bracket picks from last year were mistakenly listed in an earlier version of this post.

Update: In radio interviews today, Sen. Kay Hagan picked Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke and Connecticut for the Final Four, with the Tar Heels winning the championship.

What did Holden Thorp do in Atlanta?

A schedule provided to Dome shows the UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor was pretty busy up through this morning.

On Wednesday, he flew to Atlanta on a state jet with his wife, two kids and three staffers. (One of the staffers then rode the plane back to Raleigh.)

That afternoon, Thorp toured CNN's headquarters, though a similar tour of the ABC News headquarters was canceled due to breaking news. That night, he was the guest speaker at an alumni reception.

On Thursday, Thorp toured The Westminster Schools, had lunch with philanthropist Charlie Loudermilk, met with the president of the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation and then the CEO of SunTrust Banks, and went to a dinner party hosted by the CEO of the Marcus Institute and his wife.

This morning, he attended a three-hour meeting of heads of the other Atlantic Coast Conference schools, the last event on his schedule.

Thorp and his family return Sunday.

The chancellors of UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University are in Atlanta, but university officials say it's not just for the basketball.

Along with attending the Atlantic Coast Conference men's tournament, UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp met with the CEO of a bank, gave a speech at an alumni reception and schmoozed with university donors.

N.C. State Chancellor Jim Oblinger has a similarly busy schedule.

Stephanie Parker, a spokeswoman for Oblinger, said many college events are scheduled around the basketball tournament, which draws college boosters from around the country and substantial media attention.

The heads of the ACC schools and their athletic directors also hold a three-hour annual meeting, alternating between the men's and women's basketball tournaments.

Thorp flew to Atlanta on Wednesday on a state jet usually used by the governor and other top state officials. Also on the flight were his wife, teenage son, pre-teen daughter and three employees who work in fundraising and university relations.

More after the jump.

A spokesman for President Obama took a timeout from politics today.

Opening up a press briefing shortly before 2 p.m., White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a graduate of N.C. State, called on Charles Babington, an Associated Press reporter who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill (and used to cover Washington for the N&O).

"Mr. Babington, start us off?" he said. "Let the record reflect that an N.C. State alum has asked a Tar Heel to start the questions."

Babington made reference to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Atlanta.

"Very kind of you," he told Gibbs. "And good luck tonight."

Gibbs added: "In the spirit of what can only be said is bipartisanship."

The brief exchange drew laughs from the roomful of reporters, though the question Babington then asked — about a missile strike in Pakistan — quickly turned the briefing in a more serious direction.

Who needs the federal government? We've got football.

Though the U.S. Census Bureau does not define the Southeastern region in its reports, another major — more important? — agency does: The Southeastern Conference.

The college athletic conference headquartered in Alabama has its own roster of states it considers to be in the Southeast:

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.

It does not include North Carolina or Virginia, which are part of the Atlantic Coast Conference but are undoubtedly in the Southeast. It also skips West Virginia, a borderline case.

The definition is important because a recent political ad compares tax rates in the Southeast, which obviously differ depending on which states you include.

State Sen. Kay Hagan was not as bipartisan in the previous session.

With the Democratic Senate nominee touting her bipartisanship in the legislature, Dome decided to take a closer look at the number of Republicans who signed on to her bills.

In the 2005-06 session, the Greensboro Democrat was the primary sponsor of 37 bills. Of them, 16 had no cosponsors, eight had only Democratic cosponsors and 13 had Republican cosponsors.

A few of the Republican-cosponsored bills had more than one GOP senator on board. Overall, her 76 cosponsors included 56 Democrats and 26 Republicans, or about a three-to-one ratio.

The most frequent Republican cosponsor was Sen. Stan Bingham of neighboring Davidson County, who signed on to seven Hagan bills on funding for the ACC Hall of Champions, the Natural Science Center and the N.C. Science Competitions center; phasing out video poker; amending wine-making laws; building an addition at Guilford Community College; and boosting grants to public libraries.

Hagan also had Republican cosponsors on a pilot program on teaching new foreign languages in school, special licenses plates for the N.C. Wildlife Habitat Foundation and the Guilford Battleground, more library grants, training for 911 call centers, and making technical corrections on state laws on nonprofits.

Previously: Hagan's 2007-08 track record. 

John Edwards asked for the right to continue to purchase tickets to Carolina games when he was negotiating to create an anti-poverty center in Chapel Hill.

The request was disclosed when The Associated Press asked for the e-mail messages surrounding the creation of the Center on Poverty Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina law school. Edwards created the center in early 2005 and headed it until he began his presidential campaign, Rob Christensen reports.

Edwards, who has been a season ticket holder for Carolina basketball games for many years, included a "ticket wishlist" when an aide was negotiating the creation of the poverty center.

UNC released Edwards' contract and related information but declined to release the part of the e-mail referring to the wishlist. Leslie Strohm, the UNC-Chapel Hill general counsel, said the information was withheld because it involved contract employment negotiations and because it included information on a man seeking admission to the law school.

More after the jump.