Ferrel Guillory says the "Seaboard South" is different.

The head of the Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill says that Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida have moved away from the rest of the South in recent years.

He said the increased focus on high-tech jobs in Research Triangle Park and banking in Charlotte as well as the strengthening of the state's university system has led to a demographic shift that made the state more open to Democrat Barack Obama.

"Economically and demographically, the South has split in two," he said. "The 'Seaboard South' states — with the exception of South Carolina — have been growing robustly. They have moved more speedily into the newer economy and their metropolitan areas are burgeoning."

He said Obama found a pool of "persuadable voters" in the metro suburbs of North Carolina.

"Obama campaigned on a theme of change, but it was the change that was already here that put him over the top," he said.

Guillory made a similar argument in the biannual "State of the South" report in 2007.

Ferrel Guillory figures GOP Sen. Richard Burr ought to get crackin’ now for his own re-election bid in 2010, saying this week that Democrats will be infused with new energy with the wins of both Barack Obama and Kay Hagan, who defeated incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole on Tuesday, Barb Barrett reports.

"Kay Hagan winning certainly will send a signal that Sen. Burr is going to have a strong Democratic opponent," said Guillory, a longtime political reporter now at UNC-Chapel Hill. "Sen. Burr will be on notice the next two years that he’s got his work in front of him, both to be a productive senator and a good campaigner. Certainly he’ll learn some lessons from Sen. Dole too."

Among those lessons, he said, is to come back in North Carolina on a regular basis. That shouldn’t be as much a concern for Burr, who returns home to Winston-Salem most weekends to be with his wife. Dole lives in the Watergate apartments in Washington with her husband, former Sen. Bob Dole.

Gov. Mike Easley has named his e-mail panel.

Easley announced today that the panel, which he has asked to review policies concerning the retention of e-mail messages under the state's public records law, will hold its first meeting Thursday morning.

Easley had previously announced that Franklin Freeman, one of his senior aides, will lead the panel and that Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at UNC-CH, will serve on the panel.

Other panel members announced today:

Ned Cline, former managing editor of the Greensboro News & Record.

DeWitt F. "Mac" McCarley, the city attorney for Charlotte.

Staci Meyer, chief deputy secretary for the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

George Bakolia, the state's chief information officer.

Bryan Beatty, secretary of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.

David Lawrence, a professor at the UNC School of Government and an expert on public records laws, will serve as an advisor to the panel.

The first meeting will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the Council of State meeting room on the 5th floor of the Administration Building at 16 W. Jones Street in Raleigh. Easley said meetings of the panel will be open to the public.