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In this column, Rob Christensen explores the undercurrents fueling the state Democratic Party scandal. No. 1: The current train crash at Democratic Headquarters on Hillsborough Street has been made worse by the disconnect between the governor and the party. No 2: Part of being a battleground state is that North Carolina is now hard-wired into Washington, D.C., politics – which means it is hard ball and fast. Any allegation of misconduct becomes fodder for the opposition, which can be counted upon to do it’s best to make a photograph of a penis into Weinergate. Read the full column here.

In other weekend headlines:

--Here's a primer for the John Edwards trial, which is scheduled to start Monday with all the trappings of a Greek drama.

--The Democratic candidates courted black voters Saturday in a Durham forum. The reliable Democratic voting bloc could help determine the May 8 primary outcome.

--At the same time, black voters are splitting with Democrats on the marriage amendment -- and helping to boost polling numbers showing the constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions is likely to pass next month. Read more from The Charlotte Observer here.

In an extraordinary act of political theater, the state Democratic chairman described and dismissed outright the sexual harassment claims against the party’s former top official and refused to immediately relinquish his post Thursday, despite intense national political pressure.

David Parker stood behind a podium, pale in the TV lights, speaking for 35 minutes using prepared notes and pausing long enough before answering questions to allow the laughter of children on the school playground next door to fill the cavernous room. Read the full story about the controversy paralyzing the Democratic Party and learn more about his investment in a Charlotte area development that put him in the public eye.

In other headlines this morning:

--Activities for and against the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions have drawn more attention than the primary campaigns so far. The marriage campaigns have been working for months on their messages, but now that early voting has started and with less than three weeks until the May 8 primary, the pace and intensity of the efforts are increasing. Read about the competing campaign's efforts here.

Supporters of the proposed constitutional marriage amendment say that more than $10,000 worth of their billboards and yard signs have been destroyed in the past few weeks. And, in a fundraising email sent out Tuesday, they blame it on their opponents.

Their opponents cry foul.

Jeremy Kennedy, manager of the opposition campaign Protect All NC Families, said both sides denounce sign vandalism, and he doesn't think it appropriate for Vote for Marriage to use it in a fund-raising email. 

"We would never encourage our supports to do that," he said. 

He’d rather talk about something else – say, the economy or education. But press Pat McCrory about gay marriage, and the presumptive Republican nominee for governor will say this much – and little more: On May 8, he plans to vote for the proposed N.C. constitutional amendment reaffirming the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

That puts him in line with evangelical Christians and other parts of the GOP’s conservative base, who back the so-called marriage amendment by large margins.

But it sets him apart from some leaders in Charlotte’s business community and from many moderate voters – the very groups that formed McCrory’s base during his many years as mayor of Charlotte. Read more from The Charlotte Observer's Tim Funk.

One of the most passionately fought campaigns of this year’s primary season is the slugfest between former federal prosecutor George Holding and Wake County Commissioner Paul Coble, who are vying for a seat in Congress.

The race has produced North Carolina's first super PAC. It ranks No. 9 as the most active super PAC playing in a congressional race in the nation. And like other super PACs in this new world, how The American Foundations Committee is permitted to operate is somewhat controversial and sometimes unclear. Click here to read more, see a list of donors and get a primer on super PAC rules.

To get your political fill, here are more big headlines from this weekend:

--Newt Gingrich tries to keep GOP race alive. In stumping across the state, Gingrich mainly ignored Romney, but stepped up his criticism of Obama, describing him as "a Chicago-machine politician dedicated to Saul Alinsky’s radicalism." Here's a dispatch from his statewide tour, including stops at a tea party rally in Greensboro and Raleigh. He also visited the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.

Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers was the keynote speaker at a business breakfast this morning. He opened it up for questions and I asked him for his take on the marriage amendment on the May 8 ballot.

Rogers hesitated, but then couldn't stop himself from telling the crowd of 300 or so how he felt, reports Charlotte Observer opinion writer Taylor Batten. If North Carolinians put the gay marriage ban into the state constitution, Rogers said, "You're sending a message to the world about what kind of community this is; that we're not inclusive."

Rogers emphasized that he was sharing his personal view and was not speaking on behalf of Duke Energy. He said "I believe we're all children of God," and that it's wrong to pass measures that discriminate against individuals.

"If this amendment passes, we're going to look back 20 years from now, or 10 years from now, and we're going to think about that amendment the same way we think about the Jim Crow laws" that discriminated against African-Americans. North Carolina is competing with the world for business, he said, and "we have to be inclusive and open." Read more here.

The Vote for Marriage NC campaign released a comment today on Gov. Bev Perdue's videotaped statement opposing the amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. Perdue released the video Thursday.

Vote for Marriage said Perdue repeated "myths" about potential harms that may result if the amendment passes.

Update: (The statement appears to refer to a Civitas poll from March that had support for the amendment at 61 percent and opposition at 32 percent.)

"North Carolinians support the Marriage Protection Amendment by a 61 percent margin," the statement says. "For that reason, Governor Perdue and our opponents are using myths about domestic violence protections, child custody laws, and health benefits to distract voters from the real issue at hand: preserving marriage as the union between one man and one woman in our state constitution."

State lawmakers made their presence known Tuesday in two different contexts: a move to overhaul the UNC Health Care system and another to require the legislature's authority to sell Dorothea Dix Hospital. The UNC Health Care bill was rushed through a legislative committee but Senate Republicans are suggesting its dead on arrival. The plan for the Dix property is a blow to Raleigh and Gov. Bev Perdue, who is pushing for its sale.

In other headlines:

--John Edwards repaid $2.1 million in public matching funds he received after dropping out of the 2008 campaign amid a sex scandal.

--Rick Santorum's exit from the GOP presidential race recasts the N.C. primary May 8, political observers say.

--A Republican congressional candidate in the hotly contested 9th District race announced his opposition for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, striking out on unfamiliar territory in a campaign for conservatives' support.

--Condoleezza Rice told a Duke University crowd that one of the biggest regrets of her tenure in the Bush administration is the failure to pass immigration reform.

Rick Santorum's exit from the race essentially gives Mitt Romney the Republican presidential nomination -- or does it?

Newt Gingrich is spending Tuesday campaigning in North Carolina. As today's N&O headline said: "Newt Gingrich says he's not going away."

Avery County's commissioners became the seventh local board in North Carolina to endorse the constitutional marriage amendment Monday, passing a resolution to support the effort. "Across North Carolina, boards of commissioners are taking strong stands for marriage," said Tami Fitzgerald, chairwoman of Vote for Marriage NC, the leading pro-amendment group. "The outpouring of support for the Amendment proves that the people of North Carolina should have their voices heard on marriage."

Other counties boards include: Wake, Brunswick, Stanly, McDowell, Union and Lincoln counties, according to the organization. The amendment will codify a current state law in the constitution banning gay marriage and civil unions from being recognized in North Carolina.