The N.C. Republican Party wants to see what public records exist that might link Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue to two campaign contributors involved in a corruption scandal.

Party officials said today they're filing a request for public records from Perdue's office. Among other things, they're looking for communication between the office and four individuals, including Barry Lee Green and Ricky Wright, David Ingram reports.

The two campaign contributors were investors in an ethanol company that is at the center of a bribery scheme. Boyce Allen Hudson, a former state official, has said he made a deal with the ethanol company in which he would help with the environmental permitting process in exchange for $100,000 cash and a consulting contract worth almost $100,000.

Hudson was sentenced last week to three years in federal prison. Republicans said they want records related to him, too.

Perdue is the Democratic nominee for N.C. governor. Last week, her campaign returned two contributions from Green and Wright.

Green and Wright have not been accused of wrongdoing.

A top state official and a long-serving mayor weighed in four years ago on behalf of a proposed ethanol plant that has recently emerged at the center of a federal corruption investigation.

Records subpoenaed by federal investigators — and released to The News & Observer in response to a request under the state’s public records law — show that in September 2005, Norris Tolson, then the head of the state revenue department, and Tom Richter, the long-time mayor of Washington Park, called the head of the state environmental agency to urge speedy approval of permits for an ethanol plant in Beaufort County.

Both men said in interviews that they were unaware of Agri-Ethanol Products’ plans to bribe a different state official and that they were only asking the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources to give the permit fair consideration. Neither Tolson nor Richter were named on a subpoena delivered to the state environmental agency.

Boyce Allen Hudson, a former official with the state agency, pleaded guilty last week to extortion and money laundering charges arising from the case.

An e-mail message produced in response to the subpoena shows that Tolson and Richter got the attention of Bill Ross, secretary of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Ross sent an e-mail message to a subordinate, asking her to update Tolson and Richter about the project.

A federal prosecutor said during Hudson’s plea hearing last week that investigators got wind of Hudson’s actions when company officials began boasting to potential investors that they had political connections. Officials at the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources have said that Hudson had no influence on the permits, which they say were decided on the facts.

More after the jump.

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U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge is promoting North Carolina ethanol.

The Lillington Democrat was in Raleigh today, visiting a lab at N.C. State's Centennial Campus that aims to produce the biofuel from poplar trees.

Currently, corn is the most cost-effective source, but Dr. Vincent Chiang believes that by genetically modifying the trees, he can make them competitive.

Etheridge said that that cellulosic ethanol could help reduce dependence on foreign oil.

"The young drivers are more likely to accept it," he said. "But as it becomes more available, I think all drivers will accept it because Americans want to wean themselves off the Middle East."

On his way out, Etheridge told Chiang that he is "as important as our top generals" to national security.