Reaction from the capitol pundits on the State of the State:

* Conservative columnist John Hood said he appreciated Gov. Beverly Perdue's "call for fiscal conservatism" and an end to "business as usual" at the legislature, but wonders if state lawmakers are ready to follow.

* Liberal columnist Chris Fitzsimon said that Perdue didn't say anything about raising taxes to "protect vital services" and predicted that "market fundamentalists" were gleefully anticipating devastating cuts to the state budget.

* Conservative advocate Francis De Luca said that he appreciated Perdue's creation of a Web site with information about how the state is spending stimulus money and her remark that the state will have to cut programs.

* Liberal blogger Greg Flynn said that he "read the speech twice" to find specifics, but he'll have to wait for the budget to see the "big cuts" on the spending side, instead of revenue reform to broaden the tax base. 

* U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick delivered the opening prayer at a closed-door meeting between President Obama and House Republicans on the stimulus package.

* Conservative commentator John Hood gives suggestions for the legislature to really cut spending and make government more transparent.

* Liberal commentator Adam Linker wonders whatever happened to the second of two promised audits of the State Health Plan from former Auditor Les Merritt.

* Greensboro News-Record reporter Mark Binker rounds up what to expect from the upcoming session, notably the budget, the budget and the budget.

Bobby Jindal will speak in Raleigh on Feb. 4.

The Louisiana governor, a rising star in Republican circles, will be the keynote speaker at the John Locke Foundation's 19th anniversary celebration.

Jindal was touted as a possible vice presidential candidate during the recent election and is considered to be a potential presidential candidate in 2012.

"In his first year in office, he already has helped Louisiana state government recover from the bureaucratic mess associated with its poor response to Hurricane Katrina," said President John Hood. "He also has called special legislative sessions focusing on ethics reform and on eliminating burdensome taxes that deter investment and limit growth."

He will speak during an evening reception and dinner at the Marriott Crabtree Valley.

Past speakers include conservative columnists George Will and Peggy Noonan, former independent counsel Ken Starr, and former Weekly standard editor Bill Kristol.

Tickets are available online or by calling 919-828-3876. Individual tickets cost $60.

Beverly Perdue's campaign reform plan drew praise — and attacks — in broad strokes.

N.C. Voters for Clean Elections, a coalition of about 30 campaign reform groups and nonprofits, released a statement today applauding the Democratic gubernatorial candidates plan to provide public funding to gubernatorial candidates who pledge to run positive campaigns.

Chase Foster, coordinator of the coalition, said Perdue is showing "important leadership," but he would not discuss the feasability or details of the plan.

"I'm not commenting on the details of the proposal," Foster replied when asked about the feasibility of the plan. "What's important here is that the proposal raises the problem of current privately financed campaigns."

Bob Hall, executive director of coalition member Democracy North Carolina, said also he would not "quibble with the details," as did field organizer Jonathan Peterson.

"There may be more intricacies that need to be worked out but we recognize that this is a positive step of  gubernatorial candidate supporting public financing of elections," he said.

Meantime, John Hood of the conservative John Locke Foundation also described the proposal in broad strokes.

"It makes no sense, it solves no problem and it'll never happen anyway," he said.

John Hood has surveyed the state's pollsters.

In a column in the Carolina Journal Online, the head of the John Locke Foundation takes a closer look at the polls by the Civitas Institute, Public Policy Polling, Elon University, Survey USA and Rasmussen Research.

He says that Public Policy Polling uses a tight screen, sampling registered voters who have participated in either the 2004 or 2006 primary elections and requiring unaffiliated voters to state which primary they will vote in.

Civitas, meantime, samples registered voters who have participated in the 2004 or 2006 general elections and asks both Democratic and Republican primary questions to independents.

That has meant more unaffiliated voters in Public Policy Polling's results.

"That’s probably one reason why Civitas polling tends to yield more undecideds than PPP does. You’ll find more undecideds among independents than among partisans," Hood writes.

He says Public Policy Polling may be more accurate in the primary if turnout is similar to the past, but if trends from other states hold here, Civitas may be more accurate.

John Hood received a letter from William F. Buckley 20 years ago.

Then editor of his college newspaper, the president of the John Locke Foundation said he was inspired by the famous conservative who died earlier today.

"It was very brief but gracious and nice," Hood said of the letter. "It helped to cement my own career aspirations."

Hood credits Buckley, who is heralded as the founder of the post-World War II conservative movement, for where he is today. "I'm not sure I'd be doing what I'm doing if Bill Buckely had not blazed the trail," he said. "Buckley helped to create the post-war conservative consensus."

He also said Buckley influenced conservative organizations and magazines across the country, including in North Carolina.

"Organizations like The John Locke Foundation and publications like our Carolina Journal probably wouldn't exist in their current form if Bill Buckley had not created National Review in the 1950s," Hood said.

Hood met Buckley several times in Washington, D.C., but they were not close. Hood often writes for The National Review, the magazine founded by Buckley in 1955.

"I was shocked and saddened to hear the news today," he said of Buckley's death. "The conservative movement and American politics clearly bear his impact."

It's pop quiz time for North Carolina politicos.

In his Sunday column, N&O reporter Rob Christensen noted that high school students didn't do well on a civic quiz given by the conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

He also shared his grade: 88 percent, or seven out of 60 questions wrong.

On BlueNC, lefty blogger Anglico attacked the quiz as "dramatically tilted" in favor of "dead white men" and a "free-market extremist test." He also shared his grade: 83 percent.

WUNC reporter Laura Leslie scored an 85 and News 14 reporter Tim Boyum was in the high 70s.

In the interest of full disclosure, your chief Dome blogger also took the test and got an 88 percent. (The Monroe Doctrine tripped us up.)

At least one of the questions would be a favorite of John Hood et al. No. 26: The Declaration of Independence relies most obviously on the political thought of...

The answer: John Locke, natch.

The audience was not supposed to clap at the Republican gubernatorial debate today, but there's no rule against laughing.

The first came for Salisbury attorney Bill Graham, who noted that a friend in Louisiana had recently asked him why there was so much political corruption in North Carolina.

"When folks in Louisiana start calling in, you're in a bad way," he said.

The next came when moderator John Hood asked which bills the candidates would have vetoed from this past year. Former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr answered first.

"Where do we start?" he asked, getting a laugh.

He got another laugh when he explained that the Goodyear incentives compromise bill added money for Firestone Bridgestone and $10 million for an as-yet unnamed company.

"Then they added another ten, just in case somebody else wanted some," he said.

The final laugh came for state Sen. Fred Smith, who also spoke out against the Goodyear incentives.

"Even liberal Jennifer Weiss from Wake County said if we don't get out of here, they're going to add another $20 million," he said.

The GOP gubernatorial candidates will face off in High Point Saturday.

The three candidates — Salisbury attorney Bill Graham, former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr and state Sen. Fred Smith — will debate each other at High Point University.

The debate will be moderated by John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation.

The event, which starts at 2 p.m. in the Hayworth Fine Arts Center, is free and open to the public.

Dome will be blogging the, um, high points of the debate tomorrow.

A new study claims North Carolina's editorial pages skew conservative.

The study by Media Matters, a left-leaning media watchdog group, is based on syndicated columns run in the state's papers.

According to the survey, the Asheboro Courier-Tribune, The Dunn Daily Record, The Shelby Star and the Wilson Daily Times have the most conservative Op-Ed pages in the state. Each runs 100 percent conservatives, by Media Matters' calculation.

On the other side, only the Laurinburg Exchange runs 100 percent progressives, the group says.

The N&O runs 44 percent conservative to 33 percent progressive, while the Charlotte Observer breaks 46 percent conservative to 38 percent progressive. (The rest are centrist.)

As Laura Leslie points out on Hunter's Tavern, however, the study has some flaws, most notably that it lists John Locke Foundation head John Hood as a centrist.