If this is Friday, this must be ... Colorado?

Democratic National Committee head Howard Dean's tour of Southern states must be wearing him out a little, since he made a brief slip this morning.

"We want not just Barack Obama to be president of the United States, we want Bev Perdue as the next governor of the state of Colorado," he said.

Dome missed the slip at the time, as did most of the cheering crowd.

Hat Tip: Matt Willoughby

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean speaks at the party headquarters in downtown Raleigh today as part of a voter-registration drive. (Staff photo by Juli Leonard) 

Democratic National Committee head Howard Dean said North Carolina will not be ignored.

Speaking in front of a crowd of about 100 at the state Democratic headquarters in Raleigh this morning, the former Vermont governor said that the party will reach out "to a lot of people that we haven't reached out to in a long time."

"The Democratic Party has changed a lot in 30 years, and so has the South," he said. "There is no reason for us ever to pass over a state anywhere."

The 15-minute speech was part of a "Register for Change" tour to boost presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama as well as gubernatorial nominee Beverly Perdue and Senate nominee Kay Hagan.

Touring the state in a biodiesel-fueled bus, Dean will also make stops in Greensboro and Charlotte today, aimed at signing up volunteers for voter registration efforts here.

The chairman of the Republican National Committee is expected to come in the next few weeks.

Dean, who has led a "50-state strategy" aimed at building the party around the country, told reporters afterward that the party will have a "significant effort" in North Carolina, but he would not give specifics.

"I think you'll see us play here heavily," he said.

Even more out-of-state money is headed here.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plans to spend $1.6 million to attack U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, according to the liberal blog Talking Points Memo.

The ads would be designed to boost schoolteacher Larry Kissell's chances in a rematch.

The Cook Political Report ranks the race as a "Toss Up" and Hayes took the unusual step of attacking Kissell in a TV ad in mid-June.

The outside money could even the money playing field. According to the Federal Election Commission, Kissell had $231,583 in cash on hand at the end of June, while Hayes had $1.2 million.

But the real winners may be North Carolina TV stations.

Already, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is committing $6 million, the Democratic National Committee is raising money for the N.C. Democratic Party to use, and the Republican Governors Association is talking about spending here.

North Carolina politics just got another cash infusion.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has announced that his campaign and the Democratic National Committee will have joint fundraising agreements with 18 state Democratic parties, including North Carolina's.

The agreement would allow the parties to pay for field operations that could help Obama and Democratic candidates in other races, the Associated Press reports. It will also make it easier for out-of-state donors to give more money to influence the elections here.

In North Carolina, the money would likely be spent on joint get-out-the-vote efforts for Obama and Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan as well as Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.

During the primary, Perdue sent a mailer to black voters featuring a picture of herself and Obama, although Democratic gubernatorial candidates typically stay away from their party's presidential nominee here in the general election.

The Senate race seems like a better fit. Hagan's campaign has said it will hold some joint events with Obama, although she missed his first post-primary visit due to scheduling conflicts.

U.S Rep. Bob Etheridge may not be that close to Barack Obama, but his former staffers are.

Two former staffers for the Lillington Democrat are now working for the Democratic National Committee, according to the Washington Posts' The Fix blog.

Brad Woodhouse served as a policy aide and then press secretary Etheridge's for nearly five years before leaving to work for Erskine Bowles' 2002 campaign against Elizabeth Dole. He previously worked for Gov. Jim Hunt's administration.

He will now share communications duties at the national party with other staffers.

Woodhouse has a close relationship with Robert Gibbs, a spokesman with Obama's campaign. Gibbs worked as Etheridge's press secretary, leaving to join John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and later the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

When he left that job, he was replaced by Woodhouse.

More than 20 North Carolinians will be on the bus to Washington.

A group of Hillary Clinton supporters plans to leave on a chartered bus at 2 a.m. to rally outside the Rules & Bylaws Committee deciding the fate of delegates from Michigan and Florida tomorrow morning.

Garner resident Almedia Cruz, a Clinton volunteer who organized the caravan, said the idea came from local supporters, though the national campaign found them a nicer bus after it got wind of the trip. The new bus, which seats 55, is normally used for sports teams.

The bus will make two stops to pick up more supporters along Interstate 95. Separate buses from Charlotte and Greensboro organized by backers there are also heading to D.C. tonight.

Supporters will pay $25 to cover the cost of gas and a driver. They're bringing their own signs and T-shirts and plan to come up with some chants during the five-hour drive.

"We haven't been given any instructions at all," Cruz said. "This is not being organized by the campaign. It was organized by our people here."

She said the group is a "united front," with all members agreeing that Clinton should get the delegates she won in Michigan and Florida and fight onto the convention.

"I believe that she has suffered in the press and been terribly disrespected," she said. "I've never seen this happen before, and I think it's because of the fact that she's a female. I'm just really disheartened with our country."

A group of Triangle-area Hillary Clinton supporters are going to D.C.

Catherine Evangelista, a full-time political volunteer who helped set up the Clinton Meetup group before the May 6 primary, said a number of Clinton supporters will leave on a chartered bus at 2 a.m. tomorrow morning to attend the Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting.

The 30-member committee will decide what to do about delegates from the Michigan and Florida primaries. The two states moved their election date up in defiance of the Democratic National Committee, which originally stripped them of all delegates.

Evangelista, 45, of Cary, says the group believes — along with Clinton — that she should receive the delegates from those states, even though no Democratic candidate campaigned in them and Barack Obama's name was not on the Michigan ballot.

"Obama talks about having judgment," she said. "He tends to focus on the fact that he didn't vote for the war, but it was his judgment to pull his name off the ballot, and my understanding is that was political positioning prior to the Iowa caucuses. ... I think that shows a little more vision and planning on her part."

She also noted that Obama aired ads in media markets neighboring Florida, so some Floridians would have seen those ads.

Evangelista, who took a year off from a job in marketing to work on political causes after a car accident, said she does not see any reason for Clinton to concede the race until Aug. 28 — the last day of the Democratic national convention.

National Democratic Chairman Howard Dean took a swing through North Carolina Tuesday, holding fundraisers and meeting with his old presidential rival, John Edwards.

Dean held a luncheon in Charlotte and then attended a reception at the home of David Kirby, a Raleigh trial attorney and former Edwards law partner, reports Rob Christensen.

“He was just an incredibly nice, kind-spirited person,” Kirby said. “Howard Dean up-close-and personal is a gentler, kinder Howard Dean than what some of us have seen on television.”

Among the 30 people attending the Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Raleigh were Attorney General Roy Cooper and state Senate candidate Josh Stein. The cost of the event ranged from $500 to $5,000 per person.

Later, Dean had dinner with Edwards at Crook’s Corner Restaurant in Chapel Hill. Edwards and Dean were rival for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.

Hillary Clinton reportedly met with U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre today.

MSNBC reports that the Democratic presidential candidate met with undeclared superdelegates at a townhouse near the Democratic National Committee this morning.

The Lumberton Democrat previously said he would not make any endorsements before the state primary.

He is one of two state Democrats whose Congressional districts were won by Clinton. The other, U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, said he will cast his superdelegate vote for Clinton because she won his district.

Clinton won the Seventh Congressional District, 49 to 48 percent.

Update: McIntyre told the Associated Press he would wait to see how the primary process plays out before making a decision. He also noted that his district went for Clinton, while the state went for Obama.

"I think we should give the primary process every opportunity to work," McIntyre said in a phone interview. "Our job (as superdelegates) is to really to broker a final determination" if the primary doesn't do that."