* U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, former N.C. GOP chairman Bill Cobey have endorsed Tom Fetzer for state chairman.

* Readers of The Washington Post's Fix blog name Under the Dome, BlueNC as the best political blogs in North Carolina.

* New data from South Now: 44 percent of North Carolinians are moderate, 37 percent conservative and 17 percent liberal.

* Due to budget cutbacks, Charlotte Observer reporter Lisa Zagaroli no longer works for the McClatchy D.C. bureau. Dome wishes her well. 

There has been a shakeup in the Senate campaign of GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

J. Sam Daniels, the campaign manager, has been shifted into the role of a top fund raiser, Rob Christensen reports. He will be replaced by Marty Ryall, who until recently ran the gubernatorial campaign of Bill Graham.

Daniels is a former executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party and he had also worked in the 2000 gubernatorial campaign of Bill Cobey.

There was no immediate reason given for the shuffle. But recent polls have shown that Dole has a much closer race against Democrat Kay Hagan than many had anticipated.

No immediate word from the Dole campaign.

Jack Sawyer is officially running for secretary of state.

Sawyer now works as an attorney and Realtor in Burlington. He also serves as the director of Alliance Mutual Insurance Company in Greensboro.

He has served as the Alamance County chairman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Cobey in 2004. That same year he was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in New York City. He also has worked for several candidates as a volunteer, fundraiser and campaign treasurer.

Sawyer's political career began while he attended UNC-Chapel Hill. As a student, he was a summer intern for Sen. Jesse Helms in Washington, D.C.

He's been rumored to be running since early December.

Democratic incumbent Elaine Marshall, who has been in office since 1996, is running for re-election.

Will the endorsements of two former governors help Pat McCrory?

History suggests some reason for doubt. Both former Republican governors Jim Holshouser and Jim Martin endorsed George Little in the 2004 Republican primary, and Holshouser served as co-chairman of his committee.

Little was a longtime Republican fundraiser and Moore County insurance broker who was the most moderate candidate in the field. He supported the lottery and was widely considered one of the few Republicans who could win Democratic votes in the general election.

He came in last, after state Sen. Fern Shubert, Davie County Commissioner Dan Barrett, former state GOP chairman Bill Cobey, former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot and and the eventual nominee, state Sen. Patrick Ballantine, who lost the general election.

"Endorsements rarely matter," Rob Christensen wrote afterward. "Candidates work very hard to get the blessings of well-known political figures. But the primary results suggest there are better ways to spend their time."

McCrory stressed that he did not seek out their support and would not rely on endorsements.

Republican Mike Huckabee, riding a wave of success in recent presidential polls, drew around 400 supporters—including hundreds of home-schoolers and their children—to uptown Charlotte this morning.

Supporters clutching kids and signs crammed into a 27th floor restaurant in Charlotte Plaza, crowding elevators and creating temporary gridlock in the building's lobby, reports The Charlotte Observer's Jim Morrill.

The Charlotte stop kicked off a two-day swing through South Carolina for the former Arkansas governor. He'll visit Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Columbia and Greenville.

Two recent polls show Huckabee leading his GOP rivals in South Carolina. A new Associated Press poll released Friday shows he has surged to second in the GOP field behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. And a Des Moines Register poll this week showed him leading in Iowa, whose Jan. 3 caucuses kick off the presidential nominating contests.

Read more after the jump.

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Mike Huckabee couldn't be coming to North Carolina at a better time.

The former Arkansas governor had long ago scheduled a fundraiser at the Greensboro home of longtime Republican activist Mary Elizabeth Irvin on Thursday.

But state campaign director Bill Cobey says they're planning for a lot more people, now that Huckabee is surging in the polls in Iowa.

"All of a sudden we're getting a lot of phone calls and e-mails," he told Dome. "A lot more people are interested in coming."

The $100-a-plate dinner is not Huckabee's first visit here. He had a low-key fundraiser in North Raleigh in March and came to the state GOP convention in New Bern in June of 2006.

He also spoke at the GOP convention in 2000, when he first met Cobey, then the state chairman.

"People thought I was crazy backing Governor Huckabee," he says. "But I knew him and how well he connects with people, and I knew what kind of candidate he would be."

The N.C. Republican Party has hired a new chief of staff.

Chris McClure, who started Monday, previously served as finance director of U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry's campaign and executive director of the state party's Victory 2006 program.

A native of Clyde, McClure graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a bachelor of arts in political science in 2002. He served as political director for Bill Cobey's 2004 campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and Joe Knott's 2004 campaign for attorney general.

He has also worked as the coordinator of communications and government relations for the N.C. Technology Association, a high-tech trade association.

"I am excited to be joining the N.C. GOP team at this important time in the life of our party and our state," he said in a statement. 

The N.C. Republican Roundtable has a round-up of presidential endorsements.

Here are the highlights: 

Mike Huckabee: Former U.S. representative and state party chairman Bill Cobey, among others.

Rudy Giuliani: Political donor and former state Rep. Art Pope.

Fred Thompson: National Republican Party committee member Linda Shaw of Greensboro. 

Sen. John McCain: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, former Gov. Jim Martin, former state party chairman Ferrell Blount, among others.

For the complete list, go here.