Ginger Brame had forgotten she was in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

The teddy bear maker, then known as Ginger Thomas, received the state honor after working as a summer intern for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences during Gov. Jim Hunt's second term.

"When the internships ended that year, we were all invited to the Governor's Mansion for a cookout or picnic as well as I can remember," she wrote in an e-mail to Dome.

She recently stumbled across the certificate in her attic and almost threw it out, not knowing what it signified.

"Looking at your list of notables, I think I'll hang onto my certificate a little longer, just in case I run into one of the celebrity members," she said. "Then I can honestly say we have something in common as members of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine."

In recent years, the Order has been awarded to retiring state employees with more than 30 years of experience, not necessarily to interns.

Janet Cowell received $663,403 in contributions by the end of June.

The Democratic nominee for state treasurer received $248,162 in contributions during the second quarter of the year, according to her most recent campaign finance report.

Major donors included N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences executive director Elizabeth Bennett, investment manager Leah Bergman, financial consultant Eugene Cahalan, Crandall Bowles, SAS co-founder John Sall and real estate developer Smedes York.

She also received donations from political action committees for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, UNITE HERE, the AFL-CIO, EMILY's List and the Conservation Council of North Carolina.

She also spent $71,890, leaving her with $197,133 in cash on hand. 

Sen. Janet Cowell says she does not expect every one of her spending bills to be approved.

The Raleigh Democrat, who is running for state treasurer, is sponsoring and cosponsoring bills totaling $76 million for the current budget. 

She said that signing onto an appropriations bill is a way for a legislator to signal that she thinks it is an important issue, but in tight fiscal years such as this one she expects only a few will make it into the final budget.

"When I sign onto a bill, I'm supporting the concept and saying that under ideal circumstances this would be a good idea," she said. "The debate will happen on all of these, but at least you've got some different approaches and ideas out there." 

Cowell does not have high hopes for the one bill she is sponsoring, which would provide $2.1 million for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences to expand an outdoor educational facility near the RBC Center in Raleigh. A similar bill did not make it into the 2006 budget either.

She said that Senate leader Marc Basnight is "intrigued" by the project because of the state's current focus on science education, but Gov. Mike Easley did not include it in his proposed budget.

"It's obviously a harder fight if the governor doesn't put it in there," she said. 

Sen. Janet Cowell is seeking nearly $76 million in state spending.

The Democratic nominee for state treasurer has sponsored one bill and co-sponsored 24 bills seeking appropriations in the upcoming state budget.

Cowell is the primary sponsor on a bill to give $2.1 million to the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences for an environmental education facility at the Prairie Ridge Ecostation.

Among the larger appropriations bills she is cosponsoring: $25 million for a school construction pilot program, $6 million for the Communities in Schools programs on dropout prevention, $5.8 million for the Center for Bioenergy Technologies, $5.6 million for the N.C. Museum of Art, $5.6 million for dropout prevention, $5 million for a strategic plan on biofuels, $5 million for public libraries.

Other large appropriations she is cosponsoring: $4 million for a statewide study on aging, $2 million for the N.C. Arts Council, $1.6 million for a pilot program on dropout prevention in Durham and Vance counties, $1.5 million for a pilot program on adult protective services, $1.4 million for water resource management, $1.2 million for teen pregnancy prevention and $1.2 million for Wake Tech Community College.

She is also cosponsoring bills less than $1 million: Support for caregivers of people with dementia, a statewide literacy program, Kids Voting, treatment of autistic children, services for the developmentally disabled, a legal mediation network, a youth golfing program and the African-American Heritage Commission.

In addition, she is cosponsoring a bill that would give state employees a 7 percent raise.

Update: Her Republican opponent, Rep. Bill Daughtridge, is seeking $19 million in spending.