A Politico article says Kay Hagan is playing hardball.

The story contrasts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's "Southern charm" with her Democratic rival's attacks on Dole's effectiveness and Washington connections.

Speaking at an agribusiness forum, Dole runs through her accomplishments on immigration, tobacco and biofuels, making homespun, folksy jokes along the way.

Then Hagan steps to the mike and blasts away, sounding more like a candidate for the New York City Council than the Carolina native that she is. 

The article notes that Hagan is trying to nationalize the race, connecting Dole to President Bush and using tactics honed by Sen. Charles Schumer, while Dole is trying to keep her distance from national politics.

But the story gives Dole perhaps too much credit for not fighting back.

At a debate before the N.C. Bar Association, Dole lit into Hagan on taxes with a rat-a-tat closing statement and her recent ad compares her to a yappy dog. 

That's a little more steel than magnolia. 

State Sen. Kay Hagan, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, said she supports a program that helps sheriff's deputies work on immigration, but criticized the cost to the state at a debate today.

What she said: "The 287(g) program is an unfunded federal mandate. Immigration is a federal issue. It is not a state issue."

The background: Since 1996, the federal government has offered a pilot program for sheriff’s deputies to investigate illegal immigration.

Though immigration enforcement is typically handled by the federal government, the goal of the 287(g) program is to start deportation proceedings on illegal immigrants who are arrested for crimes like drunk driving and other non-immigration related offenses.

In North Carolina, a handful of local sheriff's offices, including Wake County, have signed up for the program, which has been promoted by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The federal government pays for the cost of training deputies in immigration enforcement and grants sheriff's offices access to immigration records.

In 2007, the state legislature gave the N.C. Sheriffs' Association $750,000 to pay for additional support for the 287(g) program. Hagan, as a leader on the Senate budget committee, was instrumental in getting that funding in the state budget, according to her campaign.

This year's proposed state budget includes an increase to $1 million, although the association did not spend its entire allocation last year.

The Sheriffs' Association is a private professional organization that provides training and support services and lobbies on behalf of the state's 100 sheriffs.

Although Hagan supports enrolling all 100 North Carolina counties in the 287(g) program, her campaign argued that the federal government should pay for immigration enforcement, not the states.

"Immigration is a federal issue — the onus is on the federal government to find a solution that will be implemented across all 50 states instead of a few select counties," Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said in an e-mail.

Is the claim true? No. The 287(g) program is voluntary, so it is not a federal mandate.

How bipartisan has Kay Hagan been?

At a debate in Atlantic Beach today, the Democratic Senate nominee said that she had worked with Republicans in her time in the state legislature.

"I've gotten results here in North Carolina by working across party lines, by ending the partisan bickering," she said.

Afterward, Greensboro News & Record reporter Mark Binker asked Hagan about the Senate Democratic leadership's recent decision to cut off debate on the state budget before Republicans could offer their comments.

"The budget was an opportunity that people had a lot of time to make changes, to make recommendations in subcommittees, and I just don't think there was a lot of participation at the time when a lot of changes could take place," she said.

Hagan said she has worked closely with Republican Sen. Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County on judicial issues and layoffs in Kannapolis and Sen. Jim Jacumin of Burke County on "furniture-related issues."

She said she also had a good relationship with Republican Sen. Stan Bingham of Davidson County. 

Beverly Perdue made a play for the media.

Talking about the economy at an N.C. Bar Association debate today, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee went over the heads of the lawyers and judges and gave a nod to the reporters in the back row. 

"This morning's papers talked about the unemployment rate continuing to go up in North Carolina," she said. "We all know that and see that. Even the News & Observer and Charlotte Observer are having employment layoffs." 

Appropriately enough, Perdue then talked about worker retraining programs. For former reporters, those usually involve several years at a law school.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole criticized Democratic rival Kay Hagan's record on illegal immigration at an N.C. Bar Association debate in Atlantic Beach on June 21, 2008.

What she said: "My opponent has voted to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get North Carolina driver's licenses."

The background: In an effort to encourage illegal immigrants to get car insurance, the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles decided in 1998 that applicants establishing residency for a driver's license could submit a broad range of forms of identification, including papers issued by the Mexican government.

The looser standards led to reports that immigrants from other states were getting North Carolina IDs, then using those to get licenses back home.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, concerns about fraud and national security led state lawmakers to toughen standards for driver's licenses. Republican legislators sponsored bills that would have required a Social Security number, making getting a license impossible for illegal immigrants.

But Democratic leaders in the state Senate sent those bills to die in committee, so neither Hagan nor any other senator voted on them. Instead, they opted to require applicants provide either a Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which is given to all U.S. workers regardless of immigration status.

The measure, which Hagan supported, did not make it impossible for illegal immigrants to get a license, though it did make it more difficult. Over the following four years, the number of licenses issued without proof of citizenship dropped by roughly half.

Measures to toughen standards further also died in committee over the next several years. Then, in 2006, the legislature ordered the DMV to stop accepting taxpayer ID numbers, essentially making it impossible for illegal immigrants to get a license. Hagan supported that measure as well.

A Dole spokesman, Hogan Gidley, argued that the state Senate should have adopted the tougher standards earlier, and said it was still easier to get a driver's license in North Carolina than in other states after the 2001 vote.

"Social Security numbers should be the standard, and anything less than that is making it easier," he said.

Is the claim true? No. In 2001, Hagan voted to make it harder for illegal immigrants to get licenses, and in 2006 she voted to make it impossible. It's fair to say that Senate Democrats — Hagan included — could have backed stronger standards, but that's not the same thing as voting to "make it easier."

The jury was seemingly deadlocked after today's debate.

Although some lawyers at the N.C. Bar Association debate today had favorites already in the races for governor and U.S. senator, a few who spoke to Dome said neither side won their case outright.

Bryan Collins, 47, a public defender in Raleigh, favors Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan over her Republican rival Sen. Elizabeth Dole, but he wasn't blown away.

"There were no 'wow moments' in this debate," he said. "They both played it safe and said things you'd expect them to say."

He said the debate did make clear what lines of argument the two sides would be using in the coming months: high gas prices and the Iraq war vs. high taxes and illegal immigration.

Andrew Walsh, 47, a Charlotte law professor who also leans Democratic, said he wasn't ready to decide.

"I had never seen Hagan before," he said. "She didn't have the polish that Dole did, but the flip side of that was that she came across as more genuine."

Beverly Tate Beal, a Superior Court judge from Caldwell County, said Dole and Hagan, who both have law degrees, did better than gubernatorial candidates Pat McCrory and Beverly Perdue, who do not. He said McCrory made need to "do more homework" on his claim that plea bargains are becoming nonexistent.

He said he still had questions about all the candidates.

"I would not make a final judgement based on what I heard today," he said.

Pat McCrory's not a fan of Andy Griffith's ads.

After critiquing TV crime procedurals at a debate today, the Republican gubernatorial nominee said that though he is a fan of "The Andy Griffith Show" and the North Carolinian's acting and his comedy albums, he's not big on his political activity on behalf of state Democrats.

"There is one political reality in North Carolina, and that is every four years about a week or two before the gubernatorial election, Andy Griffith the actor recommends one of the candidates," he said.

In the famous "Mayberry Miracle," Griffith backed Gov. Mike Easley in TV ads in 2000, and again in 2004. He also appeared in an ad for Beverly Perdue in the recent Democratic gubernatorial primary.

But McCrory said he wondered what Griffith's character would do today. He said Sheriff Andy Taylor would speak out about the "revolving door" in the criminal justice system, low pay of judges and prosecutors, and problems with gangs in small towns.

He even argued that Taylor would have a hard time with Otis, the town drunk, who used to sleep in the Mayberry jail.

"If he jailed Otis right now, Otis would have to go into a cell with maybe 15 or 20 other very, very dangerous people," he said.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole ended playing offense.

Though both Dole and her Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, criticized each other throughout the 45-minute debate in Atlantic Beach today, neither went on as sustained an attack as Dole did in her closing remarks.

After noting Hagan's criticisms, Dole defended her years of experience in Washington, citing bipartisan legislation that she has worked on and her visits to all 100 of North Carolina's counties. Then she turned to Hagan's record.

"I want to say that my opponent has a long history of increasing North Carolina taxes across the board — whether it's sales tax, income tax, food tax, liquor tax, tobacco tax, tax on the wealthy, tax on the middle income, tax on the low income," she said. "I believe taxes are too high."

She then argued that Hagan has "turned a blind eye" to immigration enforcement and voted to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get a driver's license. (More on that later.)

"My opponent claims she has a quote energy plan unquote but the only octane is in the rhetoric," she said. "It offers nothing that would lower the price of a gallon of gasoline."

As a result of a coin toss, Dole went last, so Hagan had no chance to rebut the claims during the debate.

The Senate debate today was not entirely humorless.

But there were not as many quips as at some political debates. One brief laugh came for a quip by Democratic nominee Kay Hagan, who argued that she would work across the aisles if elected, citing a classic North Carolina rivalry.

"Let me tell you, having had a son at Duke and a daughter at Carolina, I know how to work through partisanship," she said.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole got a few nervous giggles for what turned out to be a straight line. Just before kicking off her opening remarks, the Salisbury Republican said she was going to fight back against attacks from Hagan.

"Since my opponent has taken a rather hard line, I will follow suit," she said.

She then proceeded to attack Hagan on taxes, illegal immigration and energy.