As of 2:15 p.m., 13 precincts in Wake County had reported early turnout numbers at the polls.

Precinct 1-15 had the highest percentage at 27 percent. The district is 90 percent white, 57 percent female and is located in a liberal enclave near Meredith College and N.C. State and not far from Whole Foods.

Precinct 1-29 had a turnout of 26 percent. It's 97 percent white and 53 percent female. The site is located in a middle-class neighborhood near the North Hills mall.

The precinct reporting the lowest turnout, 1-23, had received 7 percent of its voters at 1:30 p.m. The site is on the corner of Hillsborough Street and Pullen Road, mainly a neighborhood of college students. The district is 56 percent male.

The average turnout percentage for all reporting precincts was 16.8 percent. The highest number of voters at any one precinct so far was 698.

The numbers don't account for absentee and one-stop votes, which will be released at 7:30 p.m.

Richard Moore will not be sending Eliot Spitzer's donations back.

At a press conference today, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate was asked if he would return the $4,000 from the former New York governor and his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer.

He responded by noting that his rival, Beverly Perdue, has not returned contributions from former Board of Transportation member Thomas Betts.

"I would love to talk about returning campaign contributions when the lieutenant governor returns all of the DOT bundling money that she's been taking," he said.

He was then asked about his thoughts on Spitzer, who once held a fundraiser for him and had praised Moore at an event in Asheville.

"I feel very sad for his family," he said. "I think most of you know that Silda has a lot of connections to North Carolina as a native and a graduate of Meredith. I really feel for she and their three daughters. It's a sad time."

New York's (likely) next governor is a fan of Beverly Perdue's.

With Gov. Eliot Spitzer weighing a resignation in the wake of a prostitution scandal, Lt. Gov. David A. Patterson is set to become the chief executive of the Empire State.

According to campaign finance records, Patterson gave $2,500 to Perdue, a fellow lieutenant governor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate here.

She also received a donation from Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor.

Other local connections: Spitzer's wife, Silda, graduated from Meredith College in Raleigh; and Spitzer gave the keynote speech at the N.C. Bar Association meeting Asheville in June.

Spitzer once hosted a New York fundraiser for Perdue's rival, Richard Moore, according to the Charlotte Observer. According to campaign finance records, Spitzer and his wife each gave Moore $4,000 last May.

In Asheville, he praised Moore for using his position as state treasurer to fight investment firms.

"In a world where there was no enforcement," Spitzer said, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times, "we had to step in to ensure the integrity of the marketplace."

Moore was frequently compared to Spitzer for his Wall Street crusades, but both Moore and political reporters will avoid the comparison now.

Fred Smith knows about roads first-hand.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate took over as chief executive officer of Raleigh-based paving company C.C. Mangum Co. in 2004.

He recently told Dome the company gets about 30 percent of its business from public contracts.

Since 2004, the state Department of Transportation has paid C.C. Mangum about $42.4 million for 16 completed and ongoing projects in Wake, Granville, Durham, Orange, Chatham and Johnston counties.

The most expensive project is still being finished. C.C. Mangum bid $35 million for work on N.C. 54 in Durham and Wake counties and has received about $15 million for work so far.

More after the jump.

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Robin Anderson will run for Labor Commissioner.

The Raleigh attorney, who is currently chairwoman of the State Personnel Commission, announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination to face incumbent Cherie Berry.

"If elected, I pledge to work every day to help businesses and employees thrive in a safe, healthy and productive work environment," she said in a statement.

Anderson was appointed to the commission in 1999 and became chair last year. She has previously taught business law at Meredith College's MBA program and served in leadership positions at the N.C. Bar Association.

A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill's law school, she served as a clerk for state Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Meyer. 

U.S. Rep. David Price said that the primary system is in trouble.

In a speech at Meredith College today, Price spoke about his participation in two commissions aimed at revising the rules for Democratic presidential nomination.

He said the front-loaded contests have devalued some experienced candidates "in the face of big money and celebrity." He said the same would be true with one suggested reform, a national primary.

"There's something to be said about a decision that's strung out over a few months," he said.

Price advocated for a bipartisan solution that would keep smaller states earlier in the season with the big states at the end. He said the plan would keep states such as South Carolina and Nevada close to Iowa and New Hampshire in order to provide access for divese voters.

"It's what we were working toward with the four small states we chose," he said about the revisions in place this season.

What's the most complicated way to pick a president?

Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, will speak Monday about the intricacies of the presidential primary process at Meredith College's Jones Chapel.

The convocation, "Is This Any Way to Elect a President?," is part of Meredith's speaker series on ethical leadership. The speech is open to the public and will begin at 10 a.m.

Melyssa Allen, Meredith's assistant director for marketing and communications, said Price was selected because of his insight into the Democratic Party's primary procedures.

Price, a former Duke University political science professor, served as staff director of a commission led by Gov. Jim Hunt that revised the rules for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination.

As co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling, Price recently helped revise the party's timeline for the 2008 primaries.

Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff will speak at Meredith's next convocation on April 23.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience at Meredith College in Raleigh this afternoon that she was disappointed that Congress had been unable to move troops out of Iraq, but that it would be irresponsible to cut off funding for the troops.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the House will continue to push for an end to the war, looking to have combat troops out of Iraq by the end of next year, reports Lynn Bonner.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is coming to Raleigh.

The California Democrat will speak at Meredith College as part of its Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina Presidential Speaker Series on Friday.

In an e-mail to students at the women's college, President Maureen Hartford noted that Friday is also the date of the annual Cornhuskin' parade and intramural competition.

"I do hope that you will make time in your schedule that day to come and hear Ms. Pelosi," she told students.

Pelosi is the highest-ranking woman in government in U.S. history. 

New York's new first lady studied at Meredith College in Raleigh.

According to the spring issue of Meredith magazine, Gov. Eliot Spitzer's wife studied history and English at the women's college.

Silda Wall Spitzer graduated in 1980. She then went onto Harvard Law School, where she met her husband. After graduation, she was in-house counsel for Chase Manhattan Bank and co-founded Children for Children.

"My life has always been varied, full and challenging between pursuing professional interests, being engaged in our community and raising a family," she told the magazine.