Some staff changes were announced this week.

Colleen Flanagan, press secretary for U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, will leave to serve as communications director for the Democratic Party in her home state of Connecticut.

Meantime, Rep. Bob Etheridge has hired a new press secretary, Don Owens.

Owens previously worked as a legislative assistant for Rep. David Price and as director of public affairs for the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

A North Carolina native, he formerly lived in Raleigh and is a graduate of Elon University.

He replaces Joanne Peters, who now works for the Democratic National Committee.

Looking for work?

Sen.-elect Kay Hagan's hiring.

A Charlotte Observer story notes today that many unemployed North Carolinians are seeking public sector jobs, especially in political posts.

U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan's office has received hundreds of resumes, spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said. Hagan's staff likely will be similar in size to the roughly 50-person staff of Sen. Elizabeth Dole, whom Hagan defeated in November, Flanagan said.

You may already be too late, though.

In a conservation with Dome earlier this week, Flanagan said that Hagan plans to make her announcements on hiring in the next two weeks or so.

The U.S. Senate does not set any rules on how senators set up their offices, instead giving each a budget for their total staff. That means Hagan had to decide how to hire, as well as who to hire.

For now, Hagan's top staffers are mostly women, including many of her female-friendly campaign staffers who stayed on.

That was in contrast to Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, whose campaign — and administration so far — did not have many women.

The endless Minnesota Senate recount is affecting Sen.-elect Kay Hagan too.

As Sen. Norm Coleman and Sen.-maybe-elect Al Franken dispute the validity of ballots, they're not just holding up the Senate seat, they're holding up the offices too.

Because Senate offices are distributed by seniority, they cannot be distributed until it's determined whether Minnesota will be represented by a first- or second-term senator.

That's put Hagan on hold too.

Spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said the senator-elect will move into expanded temporary office space in the basement of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

"They've expanded it to give us a little more room — not a whole lot," she said. 

Sen.-elect Kay Hagan will also hold a lottery.

Spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said the Greensboro Democrat received more than 2,000 individual e-mails, all asking for more than one ticket to Barack Obama's inauguration.

"I would guess that it was somewhere in the range of 4,000 individual ticket requests," she said.

Hagan will take "a very limited number" of tickets for friends and family from the 393 she received as a senator-elect. The rest will go to a lottery of the requests sometime in the next two weeks, Flanagan said. 

Sen.-elect Kay Hagan has named her senior Senate staffers.

The Greensboro Democrat chose to keep several of her campaign staffers on board as she moves in to her new Washington office.

Campaign manager Crystal King will be Hagan's new chief of staff; deputy campaign manager and political director Muthoni Wambu will be state director; deputy finance director Melissa Midgett will be deputy state director; and scheduling director Forest Michaels and spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan will continue in those roles.

"I am ecstatic that these staff members, who were such a huge part of my victory, have chosen to continue on with me in my U.S. Senate office," Hagan said in a statement.

The group includes North Carolina natives — Midgett and Michaels — as well as D.C. veterans — King, Wambu and Flanagan. 

Additional staffers will be hired in the next few weeks.

After the jump, where staff worked before.

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan this afternoon dismissed her lawsuit against the woman she defeated, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, over an advertisement that Hagan said attacked her personal faith.

Dole, a Republican, had launched an ad in the last week of the campaign tying Hagan to a political action group called "Godless Americans" that promotes the separation of church and state. The advertisement ended with a photo of Hagan and another woman’s voice saying, "There is no God."

Hagan, a Democrat, attended a fundraiser in August at the Boston home of a couple who is active in the group. The fundraiser also was hosted by U.S. Sen. John Kerry. Dole's campaign staff later said the advertisement was meant to highlight Hagan's judgement.

Hagan, an elder in her Presbyterian church, responded with her own ad. She accused Dole of attacking her Christian faith, and she filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court.

She dismissed that suit today.

Spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said Hagan wanted to focus on solving problems and working across party lines.

"This lawsuit would just continue the focus on a very personal and negative attack against Kay, instead of focusing on the people of North Carolina," Flanagan said in a prepared statement. "We need leadership now more than ever, and Kay is prepared to get down to work with (Republican Sen.) Richard Burr and the rest of the North Carolina delegation and help the people of this state."

Kay Hagan has filed a lawsuit against Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The Democratic Senate candidate announced this afternoon that she will sue her Republican opponent and the Elizabeth Dole Committee over a television ad that criticizes her for attending a fundraiser hosted by the founder of an atheist group.

"In filing this suit, we've made clear that these kind of despicable tactics will not be tolerated, and our campaign is moving forward with the most important task at hand: defeating Elizabeth Dole, and giving North Carolina's families a voice in the U.S. Senate that they've been sorely missing," said Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan.

The Wake County Superior Court issued an order allowing Hagan to file a formal complaint within 20 days.

Update: The Dole campaign said the lawsuit is a "courtroom gimmick."

"This lawsuit is frivolous and we will file a motion to dismiss," said spokesman Dan McLagan. "Kay Hagan knows that the Dole Campaign ad is accurate and she is trying to confuse voters until Election Day."

Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan's husband belonged to a country club that was de facto segregated.

Charles "Chip" Hagan III opposed the policy at the Greensboro Country Club, but remained a member for years before it admitted its first black member in 1995, a Hagan spokeswoman admitted Tuesday.

But she added that Hagan was never a member of the club herself.

"Chip supported broadening the membership to include African Americans and others," spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said. "Though it took longer than it should have, Greensboro County Club fully desegregated in 1995 and remains so today."

Greensboro was one of the last clubs in the area to integrate, although African-Americans make up about 35 percent of the local population. Chip Hagan inherited the club membership from his father.

The head of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign criticized Hagan for not demanding that her husband leave the club earlier. (Politico)

Sen. Elizabeth Dole said Thursday she would support the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, as long as it was based on ground conditions and had the support of the the military.

Dole, a long-time supporter of the war, said it was "reasonable" to have a phased withdrawal starting next year, Rob Christensen reports.

She said she liked the idea of "bringing troops out of the cities by 2009 and out of the country completely by 2011."

But Dole said any withdrawal would have to be "condition-based" because "you have to have faith in the generals on the ground."

"The concern has been if you rip them out precipitously, then you end up back in there again and that is the last thing we want," Dole said in a meeting with The News and Observer's editorial board.

Her opponent, Democrat Kay Hagan, has been a critic of U.S. involvement in Iraq.

Dole was also asked to assess the presidency of George W. Bush, who had been a political ally, but whose unpopularity may be hurting her.

"I think in terms of the country not being attacked again after the terrible 9/11 situation, a lot has been done to make sure we were protected and that we were safe," Dole said. "It depends on what you are talking about specifically. I think mistakes were definitely made, no question about it in terms of the first part of the war."

"Only history can record over time, where he comes out," she said. "Certainly I have disagred with him on many things."

Update: Hagan could not be reached for comment.

But Colleen Flanagan, Hagan’s spokeswoman, said Dole's skepticism about Iraq was being voiced rather late.

"Senator Dole's six-year record in Washington stands in stark contrast to Kay's stated goals of increased accountability for the money we spend in Iraq, forcing the Iraqis stand up for themselves and take control of their government, and responsibly bringing our troops home," Flanagan said. "She can say what she wants three weeks before an election, but North Carolinians know the truth about her record of support for George Bush and this war."

Democrat Kay Hagan raised $2.6 million in her Senate campaign since the beginning of summer, her campaign said.

The $2.6 million she has raised since July 1 is in addition to the $3 million she had raised previously.

No word yet on how much Republican Elizabeth Dole has raised this summer. She had raised $11.2 million prior to July.

But Dole's big edge in fund raising has been countered by a multi-million TV advertising campaign by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee which has been airing commercials attacking Dole.

Colleen Flanagan, Hagan’s campaign spokeswoman, said that 85 percent of Hagan’s contributions during the past three months has come from individuals. She has also received 10,000 contributions online.

"It's an incredibly strong fundraising haul and indicative of the confidence folks across the state have in Kay and her ability to fix what’s broken in Washington," Flanangan said.