Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton raised $2.5 million by the end of the year.

According to campaign finance reports submitted to the State Board of Elections, the Rutherfordton Democrat raised $145,000 in the final quarter of the year.

Major donors during that period included Carolina Crossroads event coordinator Elizabeth Branham, Greenville attorney Marvin K. Blount III, Chapel Hill developer Michael Cucchiara and former UNC-Wilmington Chancellor Jim Leutze.

The political action committees for BB&T, the Carolina Asphalt Pavement Association, Caremark Rx employees, Dominion, the Eastern band of Cherokee Indians, John Deere, McGuire Woods, and the N.C. Association of Educators.

He also received donations from the campaigns of state Sens. Dan Clodfelter and Tony Rand, retiring Rep. Jim Harrell, Congressman Heath Shuler, among others.

In addition, Dalton received a total of $95,000 from the N.C. Democratic Party. 

N.C. Spin has heard some of the same gossip as Dome.

The weekly politics newsletter seconds some of the names we've heard tossed around for Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue's administration.

(Those would be Bryan Beatty and Scott Thomas for Crime Control; Crandall Bowles at Commerce; Clark Jenkins, Gene Conti and Lanny Wilson at Transportation; and Dempsey Benton, Bill Ross and Britt Cobb to stay.)

They also toss out some new names:

Cultural Resources: Kay Myers, wife of former state transportation board member and Democratic fundraiser Gordon Myers of Asheville.

Education: Howard Lee to remain chair of the board of education and J.B. Buxton to remain advisor to the governor on education.

Commerce: Former deputy Tony Copeland, now working for Longistics in Raleigh.

Environment and Natural Resources: Current assistant secretary Robin Smith, Richard Rogers and former UNC-Wilmington chancellor Jim Leutze.

Administration: Rep. Alma Adams of Greensboro.

Employment Security Commission: Current head Harry Payne to remain.

Office of State Personnel: Rep. Linda Coleman of Knightdale.

The usual caveat applies that the above names are just gossip. The Perdue transition team says the governor-elect has not made any decisions.

Metro magazine has gone, well, metrosexual.

In companion profiles in the March issue of the Raleigh magazine, editor-at-large Jim Leutze describes gubernatorial candidates Fred Smith and Beverly Perdue in terms fit for GQ. (Coincidentally, or not, it's also the magazine's Spring Fashion issue.)

"A clue to his individuality is his dress," he writes of Smith. "He appeared in the preppy uniform of blue blazer, regimental striped tie, khakis, topped (or bottomed) off with ostrich skin cowboy boots."

The profile of Perdue begins with the kind of language that drives political science professors studying female candidates up a wall:

"Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue looks like a cheerleader, but you have to combine those looks with what the military calls 'command presence,' which is not surprising since Perdue has had a lot of leadership experience."

He writes that Perdue has faced the challenge of all women candidates — "how to be strong, but not lose their femininity" — and says she can be a "steel magnolia."