Walter Dalton received $1.5 million in contributions by the end of June.

The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor received $255,305 in contributions during the second quarter of the year, according to his most recent campaign finance report.

Major donors included Crandall Bowles, Greensboro executive Joseph Bryan Jr., Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Franklin Street Partners executive Robert Eubanks, Capstrat CEO Ken Eudy and developer Mack Pearsall. 

He also received contributions from political action committees such as the Bank of America PAC, the Baxter Healthcare PAC, the N.C. Home Builders Association, DominionPAC, the N.C. Restaurant Association, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Wal-Mart's PAC and the N.C. Trucking Association.

He also spent $637,602 in the second quarter, leaving him with $177,357 in cash on hand.

Ken Eudy is one of Barack Obama's key supporters in North Carolina.

According to a 2005 profile by Rob Christensen, the Raleigh public affairs consultant is the "full-service, behind-the-scenes political Mr. Fixit" in state politics.

A former political reporter for The Charlotte Observer, Eudy first worked as a lobbyist for the N.C. Press Association, gradually shifting to more general lobbying work. 

In 1994, he and public relations consultant Steve Meehan started Capital Strategies, a strategic communications firm in Raleigh. They renamed the firm Capstrat in 2004.

The company has helped promote state bond issues, a Raleigh convention center, a constitutional amendment that legalized tax-increment financing, a campaign to reduce teen smoking, among other things.

In recent months, he's given informal advice to the Obama campaign in North Carolina. 

The full profile after the jump.

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David Plouffe was in town today.

The campaign manager for Barack Obama said he was helping organize and raise money for the upcoming May 6 primary, Rob Christensen reports.

"North Carolina could end up being very important in the nomination fight," he told Dome.

Interviewed at a fundraiser in the law offices of David Kirby in Raleigh, Plouffe said that the primary is only nine weeks away and Obama campaign needs to begin organizing in the state as soon as possible.

He said the trip today was not about courting John Edwards, although he acknowledged the campaign is interested in the former North Carolina senator's endorsement.

Plouffe said that there is a very good chance that North Carolina could be in play in the general election as well, if Obama is the nominee. No Democratic presidential candidate has won North Carolina since 1976.

He also had an organizational meeting at the headquarters of Raleigh public relations firm Capstrat, which is headed by Ken Eudy, an Obama supporter.

Steve Lerner, an investor and friend of Eudy's, was escorting Plouffe today.

The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research has added three new board members.

Ken Eudy, chief executive officer of Raleigh public relations firm Capstrat; Natalie English, senior vice president of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce; and Betty Craven, president of the Warner Foundation, were elected to the center's board of directors.

The 23-member board also includes N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Wanda Bryant and state Sen. Jean Preston, among others.

Board members serve three-year terms.