The N.C. Republican Party's top legislative leaders asked party officials not to block independents from voting in the Republican primary.

Republican candidates have to form a coalition with independents to win races in the state, wrote Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger, of Eden, House Republican Leader Paul Stam, of Apex, and the party's Joint Caucus Leader, Sen. Eddie Goodall, of Charlotte. The trio dispatched a memo Thursday to their party's executive committee explaining that independent votes are critical to winning a majority in the legislature next year. The executive committee is expected to vote on a closed primary tomorrow.

The legislative leaders highlighted a recent Civitas Institute poll that showed unaffiliated voters favor Republicans in legislative races.

"All of us know at least one Conservative Republican – and probably many more – that have switched to Unaffiliated out of frustration with the national or state Republican Party," the three lawmakers wrote. "Are we sending these Conservatives the right message and encouraging them to return to the Republican Party by telling them they cannot participate in a Republican Primary and can only participate in the Democratic Primary?"

Will Sen. Tony Rand's departure from the legislature mean that the bill seeking to limit local government's use of eminent domain will have a big Senate shoe lifted from its neck?

Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republiican and House minority leader, hopes that with Rand gone, the bill might have DOA erased from its margins.

How much would it matter?

Tyler Mulligan, an assistant professor of public law and government at the N.C. School of Government, writes that the amendment wouldn't much change current practices.

You can read Mulligan's post on the topic on the School of Government blog.

The departure of state Sen. Tony Rand has a lot of people wondering how the Senate will operate without the powerful master of rules, legislative maneuvers and hard-ball politics.

It even has state Rep. Paul Stam wondering if he'll finally get a favorite bill passed in the Senate. Stam, an Apex Republican and the chamber's minority leader, told Dome the other day that this could be the year that he gets a hearing in the Senate on a proposed constitutional amendment that would limit the government's use of eminent domain.

Stam just happened to have a copy of the bill with him, leading Dome to wonder if he carries it wherever he goes. The bill, which would prohibit the use of eminent domain if land would then be sold for economic development, didn't clear the House this year, but Stam said the Senate, and particularly Rand, have been the major obstacle in past years.

Dome asked whether Rand was the impediment or whether Rand was carrying out the wishes of the Democratic majority.

"That's what we'll find out," Stam said.

State Reps. Paul Stam and Nelson Dollar want to know why the state is in such a hurry to release 20 inmates who have served 30 or so years of a "life" sentence.

Stam, an Apex Republican and House minority leader, and Dollar, a Cary Republican, sent a letter to Attorney General Roy Cooper and N.C. Correction Secretary Al Keller urging the officials to slow down on releasing the inmates.

One of the inmates, Bobby Bowden, successfully argued to the N.C. Court of Appeals that he has served his time. When he was convicted of a double murder in Fayetteville, the state defined a life sentence as 80 years and the court found that Bowden had earned enough credit to be released.

The Correction department has calculated that Bowden is one of 20 inmates that must be released this month. Stam and Dollar said that no court is ordering the release.

We are concerned with the haste with which the potential release of these felons is being considered. Only inmate Bowden has filed a motion. His case has been remanded for a hearing to determine sentence reduction credits that he is eligible to receive and how those credits are to be applied. It is premature to consider releasing other prisoners.

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Sens. Julia Boseman and R.C. Soles Jr. spent the most of any competitive legislative candidate to win their seats.

Boseman, a Wilmington Democrat, spent $871,500 in her race and Soles, a Columbus County Democrat, spent $839,500, according to an analysis of campaign spending by the Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The list of top spenders did not include candidates who ran unopposed and therefore excludes spending by Senate Leader Marc Basnight, $1.3 million, or House Speaker Joe Hackney, $744,000.

The top spenders in the House were Randy Stewart, a Nash County Democrat ($382,000) and House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat ($354,000).

Democrats control the House and Senate and have powerful fundraising machines in place. On the Republican side in the House, top spenders were Rep. David Lewis, a Dunn Republican ($232,000) and House Republican Leader Paul Stam, an Apex Republican ($196,000).

Among Senate Republicans, top campaign spenders were Sen. Neal Hunt, a Wake County Republican ($813,000) and Richard Gunn, an Alamance County Republican, who spent $386,000, but lost the race to Sen. Tony Foriest, a Democrat.

In an interview with his hometown paper, the Burlington Times News, Allred had few kind words for anyone associated with the incidents that led to his decision to quit his seat in the House.

Allred's political career was upturned one night when he was pulled over by a state Trooper for driving more than 100 miles an hour on Interstate 40. At the time, Allred flashed his legislative ID and told the trooper he was racing to go vote in the General Assembly. The trooper let Allred go. Later when the stop became public, Allred was cited. He pleaded guilty to the speeding charge, but apparently still believes he was in the right.

Police and emergency workers "break the speed limit for the public good," he said. "What I was trying to do was for the public good."

Allred, a Republican, said the only reason he got a speeding ticket at all is because House Republican leader Paul Stam overheard Allred talking about the stop.

Allred said he got the speeding and reckless driving ticket only because House Republican Leader Paul Stam of Wake County overheard him tell Deputy GOP Whip Fred Steen II of Rowan County about the trooper stopping him on the way to the April 27 session. Stam, whom Allred called a "self-righteous hypocrite," then "directly or indirectly" told House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange.

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House Republican leader Paul Stam said the decision to admit illegal immigrants to community colleges ignores some costs state residents will have to bear.

Undocumented students would be denied financial aid and would have to pay out-of-state tuititon rates. Stam said a study of the financial burden of educating illegal immigrants was flawed. And Stam said the policy does not account for illegal immigratns who take unaccredited courses at taxpayer expense.

"This decision to admit illegal aliens to our community colleges is an affront to the people of our state who value the rule of law," Stam said. "The board has defied Governor [Beverly] Perdue and the majority of North Carolina citizens. We have no objection to those of other nations studying at our colleges, if they have a proper visa. But the state cannot ignore the law."

GOP leaders went to Rocky Mount on Monday to whip up support for a challenge to Democratic Rep. Randy Stewart.

Party chairman Tom Fetzer and House Republican leader Paul Stam asked Republicans to put up money, give time or even run against Stewart, the Rocky Mount Telegram reports.

Fetzer told the small crowd at Gardner’s Barbecue Restaurant he believes the Democratic Party is on its heels after passing an unpopular tax package in the General Assembly and said the timing of the national health care debate could lead to an influx of conservative voters for the congressional mid-term election.

"This health care bill is very, very bad for senior citizens," Fetzer said. "If this bill passes, it will end health care as we know it, and it will be the end of the Democratic Party."

Republicans are targeting seats they believe will be vulnerable in 2010 as part of an effort to try to win a majority in the legislature, which has been dominated by Democrats for all but a few of the last 100 years.

A House committee Monday evening approved a new and unfamiliar funding mechanism to help small life science companies expand or open shop in North Carolina.

The bill would create the nonprofit N.C. Life Science Development Corp. that would use private money to make loans to, for example, pharmeceutical or medical device companies looking to expand or open new operations that would produce commercially-viable products.

What concerned some lawmakers was that the state is on the hook to investors if the companies default.

More after the jump.

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State legislative leaders recently passed on putting an end to the practice of paying UNC administrators all or part of their administrative salaries as they transitioned back into the faculty.

A provision in the House's version of the budget would have largely prevented anyone in state government from holding on to a higher salary as they moved into a lesser position. The Senate's budget did not have the provision, and when both sides negotiated a final budget that passed last week, the provision was replaced with a study of the practice, Dan Kane reports.

"It was agreed upon by all of us that we would not go forward, and the study would be a good thing," said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat.

House Minority Leader Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, and Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican, chastised budget writers on Monday for dropping the provision. Both cited The News & Observer report on Sunday showing that these transitional payments had cost the state more than $8 million over the past five years.

More after the jump.

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