Leroy Towns is not impressed with the Mary Easley press conference.

The UNC-Chapel Hill journalism professor writes on his Talk Politics blog that a press conference led by a "mouthpiece" will only fuel the controversy:

Can’t this woman speak for herself? Apparently not, given the sad performance at Thursday’s news conference. It was lawyer talk. Schiller deflected questions about details of how she got the job and raise by falling back on the fact she has a contract that should be honored. While it might have been an adequate legal presentation, it failed miserably as a media relations/public relations/political communication performance.

* Conservative blogger Katy Benningfield writes that former Lee County commissioner Chad Adams appears to be running for chairman of the N.C. Republican Party.

* Republican state Rep. Ric Killian files a bill that would give a hunting and fishing license exemption for members of the military on active duty. 

* UNC-Chapel Hill journalism prof Leroy Towns thinks the "hand wringing" over the N&O's new health care newsletter is unwarranted; liberal blogger Adam Linker disagrees.

* Greensboro News-Record reporter Mark Binker writes that a bill to extend legislators' terms to four years is not likely to gain much traction in either chamber. 

Leroy Towns thinks the Washington Post got it wrong.

The UNC-Chapel Hill professor says a recent post by blogger Chris Cillizza that called Sen.-elect Kay Hagan's the best Senate campaign in the country was "flat wrong."

Democrat Hagan ran a terrible campaign in her defeat of Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole. She won because the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ran a brilliant campaign, placing more than $11 million in TV ads. The DSCC ran three of the best ads in the nation: the Rocking Chair series that painted Dole as old and out of touch. 

Towns also notes the old saying that "when you win you are considered brilliant." 

Leroy Towns thinks it'll be a change ticket.

The UNC-Chapel Hill journalism professor, who maintains the Talk Politics blog, predicts Barack Obama will win North Carolina, Pat McCrory will win the governor's race and Kay Hagan the Senate race. 

Still, he cautions against taking his predictions too seriously. 

"When races are as close as they are this year in North Carolina, there are no pundits," he writes. "Only people who guess."

"Fibber Kay" and "Status Quo Bev."

Two top Democratic candidates this year have been given nicknames by their political opponents in negative ads.

Senate candidate Kay Hagan has been tarred "Fibber Kay" by Sen. Elizabeth Dole, while gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue went from "Negative Bev" in press releases from Pat McCrory to "Status Quo Bev" in a series of ads by the Republican Governors Association. 

So far, Dole and McCrory have not been similarly nicknamed, although the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has used "Liddy Dole" in two ads.

(The line — "That's not the Liddy Dole I knew" — is meant to imply familiarity and to give voters who may have supported her in the past some psychological cover to oppose her.) 

UNC-Chapel Hill professor Leroy Towns says he can't recall similar nicknames being used in the past, except for "Slick Willie" Clinton in Arkansas.

Prolific blogger Ed Cone, for his part, says the practice "reeks of campaign consultants." 

Leroy Towns says "push polls" are oftentimes not.

On his Talk Politics blog, the UNC-Chapel Hill journalism professor writes that polls designed to spread misinformation about an opponent are "rather sleazy tactics."

But he says that there are legitimate reasons for candidates to ask negative questions, including testing arguments for use against opponents.

Push polls have such a bad media reputation that when voters hear the "push" question in a legitimate poll, they call the newspaper and complain candidate A is push polling. Reporters fall for it almost every time.

Towns says political reporters (including Dome) have an obligation to "sort out" sleazy poll questions from legitimate ones and provide evidence calls were made.

Note to Towns: That's why we asked readers to record the calls. 

A UNC-Chapel Hill professor says John Edwards' staff tried to kill a student's story.

On the journalism school's Talk Politics blog, retired political reporter Leroy Towns writes that the Edwards' campaign demanded a student journalist take down a video she had posted on YouTube about Edwards' campaign headquarters in Southern Village.

The segment had been produced for the school's Carolina Week television program, but student Carla Babb posted it online as an entry in an MTV contest.

Edwards staffers then tried to convince the professor to kill the story. He declined.

Towns writes the experience was instructive:

The Carolina Week staff learned the importance of standing their ground against a disgruntled source, even when that source is a candidate for president. PR students saw firsthand how a public relations mistake can turn a small non-story into a potential national story. Very instructive.