North Carolina has the sixth-lowest cigarette tax.

According to research by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an anti-smoking advocacy group, only five states have lower cigarette taxes: Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina.

North Carolina's 35-cents per-pack tax is far below the $1.15 median rate of Arkansas and Delaware. The lowest is 7-cents in South Carolina; the highest, $2.75 in New York.

Gov. Beverly Perdue has proposed raising the tax by $1 per pack. The new rate of $1.35 would tie Pennsylvania for 20th highest rate. 

It would also be the highest among neighboring states of Georgia (37 cents), Virginia (30 cents), South Carolina and Tennessee (62 cents).

The tax rates are as of April 1 of this year. The federal cigarette tax will increase to $1.01 on April 31. In addition, a few cities and counties charge local cigarette taxes.

Is North Carolina ready for a Web 2.0 budget?

A grassroots group called Citizens Informed is pushing for the state budget and spending to be available online in a more searchable and linkable format.

For several years, the budget has been posted as a massive PDF — essentially an online printout.

Launched in November, the group is calling for the budget and spending to be "searchable, accessible and user-friendly," though it gives few details on exactly how that should work.

Director Laurie Onorio, a 24-year-old Garner resident who works in public affairs, said the group hopes the state will model similar sites in Texas, Missouri and Alaska. (Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue has also called for "Google transparency" on state spending.)

For now, the group has about 35 individual members and support from the conservative John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute. The Web site also makes some conservative critiques of the budget, noting that "$50 million of your tax money is allocated for 'open space.'"

But Onorio said the group aims to be bipartisan.

"We want to get anyone and everyone who supports this on board," she said. "This is not a partisan issue whatsoever."

Sen. Elizabeth Dole visited a number of states in 2006.

As head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee that year, Dole campaigned for Republican Senate candidates in a number of states, according to news reports:

Minnesota: In March, Dole traveled in Minnesota on behalf of Senate candidate Mark Kennedy, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. 

Montana: In April and August, Dole toured Montana with Sen. Conrad Burns, according to the Associated Press.

Washington: On Aug. 25, Dole appeared at a $100-a-plate luncheon with Washington Senate candidate Mike McGavick, according to The Columbian.

Tennessee: On Aug. 28, Dole toured Eastern Tennessee with Senate candidate Bob Corker, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Michigan: On Aug. 29, Dole went on campaign stops with Senate candidate Mike Bouchard, according to the Muskegon Chronicle.

Pennsylvania: On Aug. 31, Dole spoke at a press conference at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Arizona: On Sept. 22, Dole headlined an entourage of female senators at the Arizona Inn in Tuscon, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

New Jersey: On Oct. 11, Dole traveled in New Jersey, according to The Hotline.

Ohio: On Oct. 16, Dole traveled to Ohio, according to the N&O.

Missouri: On Oct. 18, Dole headlined a breakfast for Sen. Jim Talent, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Virginia: On Oct. 31, Dole appeared with Sen. George Allen at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.

In addition, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee says an official e-mail from Dole shows she traveled to Nebraska in August.

As if a political wormhole has opened up between Raleigh and Jefferson City, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt has been sued over his administration's alleged deletion of e-mail backup tapes to avoid releasing messages concerning the wholesale destruction of public records and the firing of a whistle-blowing state employee.

The story should sound vaguely familiar to North Carolinians who have seen a flap over e-mail destruction arise in the wake of the firing of a state employee, Michael Biesecker reports. Here, it was a group of newspapers that sued the Gov. Mike Easley, and not a special investigative team that sued Missouri's governor, according to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The suit was filed in Cole County Circuit Court by the special investigation team set up by Attorney General Jay Nixon last November to probe allegations that Blunt's staff were destroying office e-mails in violating of state laws governing open-records requests and preservation of public documents.

The suit is filed against Blunt and Dan Ross, the state's custodian of records who works in the Office of Administration and oversees the computer system that handles and preserves e-mails for most of state government.

The suit says the order to delete was made on Oct. 31, less than a week after news broke about the firing a month earlier of Blunt's former deputy counsel, Scott Eckersley. The lawyer maintained that he was fired after raising concerns that the governor's staff was intentionally destroying e-mails that should be preserved as public records.

Blunt has maintained that Eckersley was fired for unrelated reasons.

Former Sen. Jean Carnahan says John McCain is out of touch.

In Hendersonville to speak on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the former Missouri senator focused her arguments on the Republican nominee.

She said that McCain will not do as well in November among moderate Democrats and independents because he is too closely tied to Bush administration's policies. 

"He's sort of wrapped himself around George Bush," she told Dome. "He's already done that with his economic policies, and he wants to make the war last 100 years if it has to. I just don't think most thinking people are going to go along with that."

McCain has said that he could see U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years, but only if they are not being attacked, comparing it to the military presence in Japan and South Korea. 

Carnahan had little to say about Hillary Clinton, predicting that Obama would do better than expected in Pennsylvania and come to North Carolina to "wrap it up."

"I'm cautiously optimistic that he'll make a good show there," she said. 

Ten party leaders from across the country said today John Edwards would do more than any other candidate to help get Democrats elected in their states.

In a conference call organized by the Edwards' campaign, elected officials from six states touted the former N.C. senator's chances not only to win but to help other Democrats on the ballot, Jim Morrill reports.

The call is part of the campaign's effort to sell the electability of a candidate trailing Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois in money and polls.

"For the Democratic Party to nominate a candidate who will not win the general election is obscene as far as I'm concerned," said Oregon Senate President Pro Tem Margaret Carter.

Democrats have recently all but written off many so-called red states, which include virtually the entire South. Nominees campaign instead in states where they've had more of a chance.

Connie Johnson, minority whip of the Missouri House of Representatives, said another candidate besides Edwards at the top of the ticket would cause her party to continue losing seats in the state.

"This state has been hemorrhaging," she said. "If Hillary comes to a state like Missouri, we can write it off."