The Pitt County Republican Party and a voter are suing over Democratic fundraising methods.

In a lawsuit filed this week, the plaintiffs allege that the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is circumventing a law barring corporate money from being used in state campaigns, the Associated Press reports.

"The injunction sought in this lawsuit is essential to the voters in North Carolina if we are to have a fair and honest election conducted on a level playing field," said Kieran Shanahan, the plaintiffs' lawyer said in a news release.

Matt Compton, a spokesman for the DLCC in Washington, said the lawsuit would be dismissed.

"We feel that this is a classic publicity stunt lawsuit," he said. "There's nothing to it."

The GOP and voter Kimberley Hendrix allege that the DLCC accepts corporate contributions and transfers it to the DLCC North Carolina Political Action Committee.

The State Board of Elections is also investigating the PAC.

A Democratic strategist says Barack Obama is clearly favored in North Carolina.

In an interesting piece in The Democratic Strategist magazine, UNC-Chapel Hill grad Matt Compton says the Democratic presidential candidate is doing well in the polls, endorsed by a number of political leaders and well-served by the state's changing demographics.

He predicts Obama will do well in Congressional districts where at least 20 percent of the population is black — the 1st, 2nd, 8th, 12th and 13th — as well as the 4th, which is home to UNC, Duke and N.C. State. 

Hillary Clinton, meantime, will do well in older communities in the Appalachians.

Mechanically, unless there is some sort of seismic shift in the current dynamic of the race (bigger than Jeremiah Wright -- the results of which, it appears, haven't done lasting damage to his candidacy), North Carolina favors Obama.

For that reason, however, he argues that might make the state attractive to Clinton, since a win here would be "so dramatic."

Hat Tip: Tom Jensen