The State Employees Association of North Carolina has made its endorsements.

The group's Employees Political Action Committee, also known as EMPAC, made 16 endorsements in statewide races after meeting Saturday.

"We're thrilled to support candidates who support the state's working families and the retirees who dedicated their careers to serving North Carolina's citizens," said SEANC President Linda Rouse Sutton.

Although most are Democrats, there is one Republican: State Auditor Les Merritt.

They also endorsed several other incumbents: Attorney General Roy Cooper, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson and Appeals Court Judges John Arrowood, Doug McCullough, Linda Stephens and Jim Wynn.

The others: Beverly Perdue for governor, Walter Dalton for lieutenant governor, Wayne Goodwin for insurance commissioner, Ronnie Ansley for agriculture commissioner, Mary Fant Donnan for labor commissioner, Suzanne Reynolds for Supreme Court and Kristin Ruth for Appeals Court.

SEANC, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, has 55,000 members.

State judges may be nonpartisan in North Carolina.

But that doesn't mean a few aren't in the audience at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner tonight.

After N.C. Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek recognized several U.S. representatives, Democratic members of the Council of State, House Speaker Joe Hackney and various legislators, he gave a shoutout to state Supreme Court Justices Robin Hudson, Sarah Parker and Patricia Timmons-Goodson and state Appeals Court judges John Arrowood, Linda Stephens and Jim Wynn.

Jim Neal would be the second openly gay Senate nominee of a major party.

The first was Ed Flanagan, who unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat in Vermont in 2000, losing to then-Republican Jim Jeffords.

In North Carolina, state Sen. Julia Boseman of Wilmington became the first gay person elected to the Senate in 2004. In August, Gov. Mike Easley appointed Judge John S. Arrowood to the N.C. Court of Appeals, making him the first openly gay statewide official.

Nationally, the number of openly gay elected officials has risen from 49 to 380 since 1991.

Still, homosexuality can be divisive in the South. In 1990, U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms attacked his Democratic opponent, Harvey Gantt, for holding fundraisers in "gay and lesbian bars." (N&O)

Thosetactics can also backfire. A Wilmington newspaper withdrew its endorsement of Boseman's opponent when he attacked her sexual orientation. (Char-O)