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Eddie Davis is running for schools superintendent.

In an e-mail to supporters. the president of the N.C. Association of Educators said he will run against Superintendent June Atkinson in the Democratic primary.

"I strong believe that my candidacy will bring excitement, hope, and the joy of learning to citizens from Murphy to Manteo," he wrote. (Adverb mistake his.)

Davis said he will campaign for more "respect, responsibility, and vision" for schoolteachers. He stressed his 30-year teaching career and his experience in advocacy.

Like Atkinson, Davis will participate in the public campaign financing program recently created by the legislature.

Update: Davis corrected the mistake in a follow-up e-mail. 

Previously: Davis considers a run, gets angry over a blogger's comment.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole is looking for money.

In an online pitch, the Salisbury Republican says that she is looking for donations before the end of the month to help boost her campaign's "financial strength."

In the one minute, 27 second video, Dole personally asks for donations before Sept. 30, noting that they will show up on her third-quarter campaign finance report to the Federal Election Commission.

"All the newspapers and the Democrats will be watching like hawks," she said. "They use these reports to measure a campaign's financial strength and you can understand why I want to make a strong showing."

The video is posted on Brightcove.tv, a competitor to YouTube.

Update: The video has since been pulled, though its listing is available here. 

John Edwards refuses to take lobbyists money.

His campaign hands out forms to would-be donors, who have to check a box that they are not a lobbyist. (Some check yes, but give anyway.)

His staff then runs names through a federal lobbying database to weed out other lobbyists.

Some slip through anyway. In the first six months of the year, he had to return more than a dozen contributions, including one who registered a couple months after giving the money.

"Nearly 10 years ago, I made the decision that I would never take a dime from a Washington lobbyist -- I wasn't going to work for them, and I didn't want their money," Edwards said.

Sen. Barack Obama has a similar policy, but Sen. Hillary Clinton does not. (Char-O) 

June Atkinson is running for re-election.

The state superintendent of public instruction, who has been in office since 2005, said her campaign will focus on increasing the state's graduation rate, which is 69.4 percent.

"We are educating the millennials, young people who have grown up with technology," she said. "To engage them in learning, we have to take advantage of the tools they consider second nature."

She said she would also focus on improving professional development for teachers.

Atkinson will participate in the state's new public campaign financing for her office and two other statewide posts.

She could face Eddie Davis, president of the N.C. Association of Educators, in the Democratic primary. Davis has said he is considering a run, but has not publicly decided yet.

Correction: An earlier version of the post misstated the graduation rate.

Rep. Mary McAllister has been fined $16,294 by the State Board of Elections.

The Fayetteville Democrat was charged $7,000 for the cost of on an investigation into her campaign finance reports and ordered to pay the $9,294 to the N.C. Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund.

In June, the State Board found that McAllister made improper loan repayments, failed to report campaign contributions and deposited some donations into a personal account.

After the hearing, McAllister said she didn't do anything intentionally wrong.

In a letter sent Thursday, board chairman Larry Leake ordered McAllister to pay the full amount or contest the fine within 30 days of receipt of the letter.

Investigator Kim Westbrook Strach said the delay in assessing the final amount of the fine was because the board had to re-check McAllister's amended reports.

Rep. Thomas Wright's answering machine must be getting full.

The State Board of Elections suspended the Wilmington Democrat's campaign Tuesday for failing to respond to a letter asking for his most recent campaign finance report.

But the board is not the only one Wright doesn't call back.

Even for a state legislator, Wright has been in more than this fair share of news stories this year for his role in bills recognizing the Wilmington race riots, his campaign finance troubles, a Supreme Court ruling on his district and other issues.

Each story dutifully notes that he did not respond to interview requests. Wilmington Star-News reporter Mark Schreiner has been the most spurned, but Wright has also failed to call back The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer in recent months.

In fact, the last time he was quoted was on June 7 — more than 50 stories ago — and that quote was not much more than a "no comment."

Here's a quick round-up of August news from the Republican gubernatorial campaign trail:

* Bob Orr told the Asheville-Citizen Times that it's "inconsistent" to have a state lottery but outlaw video poker. "Let’s face it, the public wants to do a certain amount of gambling in various ways, and the state just needs to reasonably and fairly regulate it and enforce those laws strictly," he said.

* Fred Smith told the Wilson Times that he is prepared to open his own pocketbook to raise the $12 million he thinks will be necessary to defeat the Democratic candidate. "I can promise you this — I will not lose because of money," he said.

* Bill Graham told the Lexington Dispatch that he would work with the legislature to stop spending transportation money on "pork-barrel" projects. "(I will) tell politicians to keep their hands out of the Highway Trust Fund," he said.

The State Board of Elections will investigate unreported special interest money.

The board has assigned three staffers to look into a Charlotte Observer analysis that showed more than $60,000 in contributions reported on political action committee reports was not also on lawmakers' reports.

Several of the legislators have already filed amended reports, and the N.C. Democratic Party has stepped in to help Rep. Pete Cunningham with his books. But elections director Gary Bartlett said he wanted to make sure the reports were "done right."

"It will not be slipped under the rug," he said.

Bartlett said he hoped the work would be done by the end of September. (Char-O)

Rep. Julia C. Howard has also not filed her campaign finance report.

The State Board of Elections sent the Mocksville Republican a late notice on Aug. 14, warning that if it did not receive her 2007 mid-year report within 20 days her campaign would be shut down.

Hat Tip: Chris Hayes

How big a hill are the Republican candidates for governor going to have to climb in 2008?

Carter Wrenn, in his Talking about Politics blog, says the Democratic candidates already have a huge financial advantage over their Republican counterparts. Wrenn notes that the two Democratic candidates have raised $8.4 million, compared to less than $500,000, combined, for the three Republicans.

The contrast is even starker when you look at the cash on hand in the campaigns: The Democrats enjoy a thirty-three to one advantage. 

This leaves Republicans facing a harsh reality: Unless one of our candidates writes his campaign a check for, say, ten million dollars, our chances of winning the governor's race are all but nonexistent.