Kay Hagan seems to be getting some family support.

The Democratic Senate nominee has received more than $48,000 from donors with the last name of Hagan or Ruthven, her maiden name, according to her most recent campaign finance report.

Her immediate family are among the major donors.

Her husband, Chip, a Greensboro attorney, gave $4,600, as did her daughter, Carrie, and her son, Tilden. Her other daughter, Jeanette, a graduate student at U.C. Santa Barbara, gave $2,300.

Her father, Joe. P. Ruthven of Lakeland, Fla., has given, as have J.G., Jerry, Judy B., Karen L., Kim and Lisa Ruthven of Lakeland, and Zachary Ruthven of San Diego.

She also received $1,500 from Rhea Chiles, her aunt and the wife of former Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles.

Her in-laws haven't been stingy either, with her husband's father, Charles Hagan Jr. of Greensboro, giving $4,600. She's also received donations from likely in-laws John C. Hagan and David B. Hagan of Greensboro, Henry G. Hagan of Lutherville, Md., and Anne B. Hagan of Winchester, Mass.

Are soccer moms making a comeback?

State Sen. Kay Hagan, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, has co-sponsored three different bills related to soccer in the past two years.

One 2007 bill honored the UNC-Chapel Hill women's soccer team's 2006 national championship. Another bill invited the women players to the legislature for recognition. And a third bill filed this session would create special "Support Soccer" license plates.

Hagan, a 54-year-old mother of three, has been described as a "soccer mom from Greensboro" by both the N&O and the Charlotte Observer, as her daughter Carrie plays the sport. And in 1999, she led a fundraising effort for new soccer fields in Greensboro.

When Republicans proposed a redistricting plan that would have put her in a heavily Republican area in 2001, then state Sen. Brad Miller jokingly noted how it would affect her.

"I think under this plan, it would be easier (for you) to make it to your child's soccer games," he said.

Her Republican opponent, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, is no slouch in the soccer department either, co-sponsoring a 2007 resolution commending Wake Forest University's men's team.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated Miller's position at the time.

Kay Hagan has started a Virtual Phone Bank.

The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate has started an online effort to allow volunteers from anywhere in the United States to call North Carolinians about volunteering for the campaign.

The technique was key to the success of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, as described by a recent Time magazine article:

In state after state, the campaign turned over its voter lists — normally a closely guarded crown jewel — to volunteers, who used their own laptops and the unlimited night and weekend minutes of their cell-phone plans to contact every name and populate a political organization from the ground up.

Hagan's college-aged daughter, Carrie, is spearheading the effort through the Carolina for Kay group on Facebook, which so far has 104 members, mostly students at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"It is very important for us to contact as many people as possible and we need people like you to help us do that!" she wrote in a message to the group today.

Update: Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan says the campaign's County Captains are recruiting virtual phone bankers as well and have already made calls.