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From AP -- Former North Carolina Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton is poised to have a new job May 1 as president of his community college back home. The Isothermal Community College board voted unanimously Friday to hire Dalton as its next leader, replacing the retiring Myra Johnson. Dalton's appointment still must be approved by the state community college board.

Dalton is a Democrat who lost the governor's race to Republican Pat McCrory in November. Since then he's been teaching a class at Gardner-Webb University and working as a special assistant to the president there.

Dalton was one of six finalists for the Isothermal post. He lives in Rutherford County, one of two counties served by Isothermal. He was the college's board chairman prior to joining the state Senate in 1997.

HAGAN HIRES FORMER REID AIDE AS CAMPAIGN MANAGER: The 2014 U.S. Senate race is taking shape with Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan hiring Preston Elliott as her campaign manager. Elliott most recently served in the same role to help U.S. Sen. Jon Tester win re-election in Montana, one of the closely watched races of the 2012 campaign cycle. In 2010, Elliott worked as coordinated campaign director for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his re-election effort, another high profile race. The big hire signals that Hagan expects a big fight in 2014. "He has a proven track record of success, and with his help and the help of North Carolinians of all walks of life, I expect to cross the finish line with a victory in November 2014," Hagan said in a statement.

WHO WILL HAGAN FACE?: A new Public Policy Polling survey -- set for release later Tuesday and obtained exclusively by Dome -- shows its a wide open race among Republican primary voters. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest leads the field with 18 percent, according ot the Democratic polling firm. PPP added Forest's name to the potential field for the first time this month and he still managed to outpace Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (13 percent) and Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry (12 percent). The only announced candidate, tea partier Greg Brannon, gets 4 percent and at least a quarter of voters weren't decided on any of the nine names PPP tested. (More from the poll below.)

***Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo -- the source for North Carolina political news and analysis. Send news and tips to dome@newsobserver.com. Much more Memo below.***

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest will gavel the N.C. Senate to session Monday with new oomph.

House Speaker Thom Tillis surprised Forest and presented him with a new gavel (at right) made from heart pine during Saturday's Mecklenburg Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner. It is made from the same wood as Tillis' gavel.

On Tillis' Facebook page, he writes that the wood comes from the state tree, the Long Leaf Pine. "The tree was a sapling around the time of the founding of our nation. It was felled around 1825 and used to build a house near Speed, North Carolina. The house was "visited" by Sherman's troops during the Civil War but the house was not destroyed. 150 years later it was used to turn historic gavels now in the hands of the leaders of the NC Senate and NC House. I am proud to share that history with my friend and my Lt. Governor," Tillis wrote. Find more on the wood's origin here.

Dan Forest took office as the state's No. 2 in a private ceremony Monday at the Capitol.

In an interview after the event, the Republican lieutenant governor said he hopes to establish a better relationship with new Gov. Pat McCrory, noting that his predecessor wasn't too close to Bev Perdue.

Forest's main role is to preside over the N.C. Senate and serve on various boards and commissions. But the lieutenant governor is often delegated duties from the state's chief executive. McCrory told Dome that he expects Forest to play a role in drafting a 25-year transportation infrastructure plan, drawing upon his experience as an architect, and consult on education policy.

UPDATED:Incoming Dan Forest is holding an even more private swearing-in ceremony than Gov.-elect Pat McCrory.

The son of former Republican Congresswoman Sue Myrick will hold a family-only ceremony with about 20 guests in the old Senate chambers Monday at the Capitol. NC Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby will officiate. Hal Weatherman, Forest's new chief of staff, said only one reporter and one TV camera are allowed to attend even though the chamber includes more than 50 seats.

From AP: Outgoing Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton has a new job, although not the one he had hoped in November to land come January.

Dalton said Thursday he would teach a class on Southern politics starting next week at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, not far from his hometown of Rutherfordton. The attorney also said he would serve as special counsel for now to school president Frank Bonner.

Dalton was a state senator for 12 years before getting elected lieutenant governor in 2008. Dalton's successor – Republican Dan Forest – gets sworn in on Monday.

Democrat Linda Coleman has conceded the race for lieutenant governor to Republican Dan Forest.

With provisional votes in Coleman trailed Republican Dan Forest by 6,858 votes, according to the State Board of Elections. That put her within the range needed to request a recount but Coleman decided the numbers didn’t work in her favor.

Gov.-elect Pat McCrory remains guarded about what he intends to do after Gov. Bev Perdue's decision to set up a state-federal health exchange. In a statement Thursday, he said Perdue's decision gives him flexibility. Other Republican leaders blasted Perdue's decision. 

McCrory said he would talk to other Republican governors Friday. His campaign buddy S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley rejected a state exchange Thursday. More details here.

More political headlines:

--Erskine Bowles is reportedly saying -- again -- he would turn down any offer to become the next U.S. Treasury secretary, according to at least two media reports Thursday.

Linda Coleman's campaign to become lieutenant governor has turned from an effort to convince voters to choose her to trying to convince local boards of elections they should count more provisional ballots.

Her campaign produced a list of 500 voters Wednesday who cast provisional ballots that are in the "not counted" pile, but which the campaign says are registered voters who voted in their home counties.

The campaign has a team plowing through the list of more than 51,000 people who cast provisional ballots, looking for those whose votes they think are about to be improperly thrown out.

Coleman, a Democrat, is trailing Republican Dan Forest in the race, but she continues a full-on press to count votes that weren't part of the Election Day tally. She has closed the gap by more than 1,000 votes since election night, with some counties rolling in counts of mail-in and provisional ballots. According to the last unofficial count, she trails by 10,309 votes.