"Which Republicans voted for the Democratic leadership in the legislature?" — Caller

Members of the state House of Representatives and Senate select their own leaders on the first day of session.

The majority, which is Democratic in both chambers this year, typically votes for one of its own, while the Republican minority puts forward its own candidate.

Still, legislators can cross over to vote for the other side.

This year, Republican Sens. Fletcher Hartsell of Concord and Richard Stevens of Cary both voted for Democratic Sen. Marc Basnight as president pro tem on the first roll call.

Before the votes were totaled, however, Republican Minority Leader Phil Berger, who was also running, moved to elect Basnight by acclamation — essentially a unanimous voice vote.

This next part is a little tricky. In order to prevent anyone from calling another vote in the future and toppling Basnight, his chief lieutenant, Sen. Tony Rand, asked for yet another vote, known as a "clincher."

Twelve of the 20 Senate Republicans voted for Basnight on that vote: Sens. Austin Allran, Stan Bingham, Harris Blake, Debbie Clary, Don East, James Forrester, Hartsell, Neal Hunt, David Rouzer, Bob Rucho, Stevens, and Jerry Tillman.

In the House no Republicans voted for Speaker Joe Hackney, a Democrat. House Republicans voted for the minority leader, Rep. Paul Stam.

A few more bills have been filed in the Senate:

S.B. 21: Organ Donor Awareness Month, Sen. Tony Foriest

S.B. 22: Ban Texting While Driving, Sen. James Forrester

S.B. 23: Restraint/Juvenile in Custody/Court's Discretion, Sen. Jerry Tillman

S.B. 24: Special Plate for the Given Memorial Library, Sen. Harris Blake

S.B. 25: Horton Independent Redistricting Commission, Sen. Pete Brunstetter

S.B. 26: Injury to Pregnant Women/Additional Offense, Sen. Brunstetter

How bipartisan has Sen. Kay Hagan been?

From 1999 to 2008, the Greensboro Democrat was the primary sponsor of 143 bills. Of them, 63 had no cosponsors, 36 had only Democratic cosponsors and 44 had Republican cosponsors.

Overall, her 366 cosponsors included 286 Democrats and 80 Republicans, for about a four-to-one ratio. She became more bipartisan during her time in the legislature, however, going from about a nine-to-one ratio of D-to-R cosponsors in the 1999-2000 session to about two-to-one in the current session.

The most frequent GOP cosponsors were Sen. Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County, who signed on to 14 bills; Sen. Stan Bingham of neighboring Davidson County, who signed on to 13; and Sen. Robert Shaw of Greensboro, who signed on to 10.

Sens. Hamilton Horton of Forsyth County and Richard Stevens of Wake County each cosponsored five bills; Sens. Virginia Foxx of Watauga County and John Garwood of Wilkes County, four; and Peter Brunstetter of Forsyth County and Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County, three.

Sens. James Forrester, Jim Jacumin, Jerry Tillman, Austin Allran and Harry Brown cosponsored two apiece, while Sens. Don East, Andrew Brock, Eddie Goodall, Harris Blake, Kenneth Moore, Fred Smith and Tom Apodaca each cosponsored one.

Previously: Hagan's Republican cosponsors in 1999-2000, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2005-06 and 2007-08 sessions.

What should the state lottery be called?

To promote the fact that 35 percent of the proceeds of the lottery go to a fund to reduce class sizes, build schools and give college scholarships, its creators christened it the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Now, some legislators want a name-change.

State Sen. Harris Blake, a Pinehurst Republican, has filed a bill to rename it the North Carolina State Lottery.

The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Pittenger, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor; Sen. Larry Shaw, a Fayetteville Democrat; and five Republican senators. For now, it is sitting in a committee on rules.

Incidentally, the lottery was given its name by Kevin Geddings, the former lottery commissioner who is currently appealing his federal corruption conviction.

He had run the campaign to pass a lottery in South Carolina, and came up with the idea of calling it the S.C. Education Lottery as a tactic to soften its image and get voters behind it.

Update: Blake said that the word "education" encourages children to gamble and makes the lottery sound more seemly — two things he disagrees with.

"It gives credibility to gambling if you use that word," he said. "If we take 'education' out of that name, it will clear that up."

Hat Tip: Andy Curliss

State Democrats are holding their cards close.

Asked for the Senate races they are most interested in, the North Carolina Democratic Party declined to put Dome in touch with its experts.

Spokeswoman Kerra Bolton wrote that the "biggest surprise" is District 22, where Moore County Commissioner Cindy Morgan is running as a Republican. In the primary, she faces Sen. Harris Blake, a commercial real estate agent from Pinehurst now in his third term.

Her husband, Richard Morgan, a Republican, was considered a turncoat by many in the GOP for a 2002 deal that made him co-speaker with Jim Black.

She said the party also expects the race for state Sen. Walter Dalton's seat in District 46 will "prove to be the most competitive."

"There may be opportunities out there to pick up seats," she writes. "But as a matter of strategy, I will not illuminate what those are."

Fred Smith has also given donations through his campaign.

The Friends of Fred Smith committee, formed for his first Senate run in 2002 and closed in 2007, gave $100,400 in donations to other Republican candidates.

The biggest beneficiaries were the N.C. Senate Republican Committee, which received a total of $41,800 in 2004, and the Johnston County Republican Party, which received a total of $7,000 that year.

Smith's committee also gave $4,000 apiece in 2004 to several Republican Senate candidates, both successful—Jim Jacumin, Harris Blake and Neal Hunt—and unsuccessful—Margaret Carpenter, Harold Frazier, Harry Brown, Chuck Tyson, Tony Moore, James Testa, and Jack Swann.

Also that year, he gave $2,000 to Senate candidates Beverly Moore and Dennis Nielsen and state Auditor Les Merritt; $1,000 to John Odoom and Ron Toppin; $1,000 apiece to Rep. David Lewis, a Johnston County commissioner candidate and a judicial candidate; $500 to a school board candidate; and $100 to the N.C. New Majority Republican Council.