Jack Sawyer is officially running for secretary of state.

Sawyer now works as an attorney and Realtor in Burlington. He also serves as the director of Alliance Mutual Insurance Company in Greensboro.

He has served as the Alamance County chairman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Cobey in 2004. That same year he was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in New York City. He also has worked for several candidates as a volunteer, fundraiser and campaign treasurer.

Sawyer's political career began while he attended UNC-Chapel Hill. As a student, he was a summer intern for Sen. Jesse Helms in Washington, D.C.

He's been rumored to be running since early December.

Democratic incumbent Elaine Marshall, who has been in office since 1996, is running for re-election.

At least two more Republicans are running in 2008.

According to a post on N.C. Republican Roundtable, Burlington attorney Jack Sawyer is seeking the GOP nomination for secretary of state and Tryon resident Joe Johnson is running for superintendent of public instruction.

The blog does not name any Republicans for commissioner of insurance.

A bill to essentially abolish the Electoral College continues to rankle Republicans.

On the N.C. Republican Roundtable group blog, Kat Haney compares a national popular vote to "American Idol," noting that the best candidate doesn't always win:

Since our President will now be 'elected' the same way Idol winners 'win' (popular uninformed vote), you can expect all sorts of good candidates to NOT be elected.

Meantime, Gideon comes up with a worse-case scenario in which four major candidates split the vote in North Carolina, but the state's electoral slate goes to the one who came in last.

THAT candidate would get ALL of North Carolina's electoral votes no matter how the people of North Carolina feel about that candidate ... All thanks to Sen. Dan Clodfelter.

The bill has passed the Senate and is in a House committee.

The N.C. Republican Roundtable apparently had second thoughts about a post last night.

Around 9:15 p.m., user Kat Haney posted a link to an article about the election law charge against a former aide to U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry.

But the post was gone by this morning. From caches on other sites, Dome has reconstructed the original post: 

Have you been following the controversy about Congressman Patrick McHenry's campaign staff? Well if you haven't, might I invite you to join in? (See article hyperlinked in the title above). It has more drama than "Days of Our Lives" and the story line won't be ending any time soon. In today's episode we learn that the main character (who is charged with committing felony election fraud) is now on the campaign staff of gubernatorial hopeful Bill Graham.

That tidbit isn't half as interesting as the decision to delete it.