Can the GOP platform be like the Linux platform?

National Republican leaders, led in part by U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, today will unveil a website encouraging national participation in shaping the GOP’s 2008 party platform.

The site will create an online community allowing anyone with access to a computer to offer ideas, to comment on others’ ideas, and even to submit videos explaining their views, Barb Barrett reports.

"I feel certain we’ll get some great ideas," Burr said in an interview Thursday. "Will that be the majority? I have no way of gauging."

The Winston-Salem Republican is co-chairman of the Republican platform committee alongside U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California.

The all-inclusive online effort comes as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain continues his work to keep the party’s most conservative and religious members inside the GOP fold and engaged through the November election.

The site also will hand the Republican National Committee a ready-to-go database of contact names for future fund-raising. Users will be required to register in order to comment.

State Sen. A.B. Swindell won't return $300 in campaign contributions he has received from Boyce Allen Hudson, a former state official who admitted to soliciting a bribe.

Swindell, a Nashville Democrat, said he has known Hudson for more than 25 years and considers him a friend. Hudson's wife, Maureen Hudson, is an assistant in Swindell's senate office. Hudson pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to extortion and money laundering. The charges arose from a scheme in which Hudson promised to guarantee a permit for an ethanol company in exchange for cash and a two-year consulting contract.

"I certainly don't cast my friends in a ditch," Swindell said. "This plea was between him and the courts. Obvously, my relationship with him has been as a friend and a professional."

On Friday, the state Republican Party issued a news release calling on Swindell to return the contributions: $100 given in 2000 and $200 given in 2008.

"Though Sen. Swindell may not have known of Boyce Hudson’s illegal activity, he badly misjudged the man’s character. Sen. Swindell should return his tainted money immediately," state GOP chariwoman Linda Daves said in a statement.

More after the jump.

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Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was such a crowd pleaser when he spoke to the GOP convention in New Bern two years ago that he has been invited back for an encore performance.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, is scheduled to speak to the Republican Convention at their luncheon on June 7th at the Koury Center in Greensboro, Rob Christensen reports.

The last time he addressed state Republicans, Huckabee was a virtual political unknown. But since then, Huckabee ran a surprisingly strong — and underfinanced campaign for president — before eventually withdrawing in favor of Arizona Sen. John McCain earlier this year.

It's hard to fathom how big a number 21.5 billion really is.

Try counting it this way: $678 per second. That's the figure you get if you divide $21.5 billion by the number of seconds in a year. It's how the state Republican Party wants people to think about the $21.5 billion budget proposed by Gov. Mike Easley. The party has launched a site that ticks up the dollars by the second.

"When you see it in real numbers, I think that makes it come to life, just how much government has grown in North Carolina in the last five to 10 years," said Brent Woodcox, a spokesman for the state Republican party.

There are obvious problems with the math here. Not all of the state's revenue comes from tax dollars or from individual taxpayers. And not every North Carolinian pays the same amount. Nor does all the money come in at equal amounts over the course of a year.

More than 45,000 voters switched party registration this year.

According to figures provided by the State Board of Elections, 45,665 voters changed to or from Democratic, Republican or unaffiliated registration between Jan. 1 and the April 14 deadline. 

(Voters may still update their registration or register to vote during the one-stop voting period that ends on Saturday, but they cannot switch parties.)

Of them, 42 percent switched to the Democratic Party and 42.2 percent switched to unaffiliated. Just 15 percent became Republicans.

Unaffiliated voters in North Carolina can request either party's ballot or a nonpartisan ballot featuring local and judicial races.

The biggest jump this year was from Republican to unaffiliated, with 11,748, or more than a fourth of voters who changed their registration. The second biggest jump was from Republican to Democrat, with 8,704, or 19 percent of voters who changed.

The smallest group was unaffiliated voters who reregistered as Republicans, with just 3,300, or 7 percent of voters who changed. 

Still, the numbers are pretty small overall, representing less than 1 percent of the number of registered voters at that time.

A conservative blogger has called Richard Moore's radio ad "race-baiting."

Tar Heel native Mary Katharine Ham, who blogs on the national site Town Hall, writes that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate's barber-shop ad shows the North Carolina Republican Party "what a real race-baiting ad looks like."

"Moore's new radio ad takes place in a barber shop, and comes complete with exaggerated dialects," she writes, noting that Moore condemned the N.C. GOP's ad linking presidential candidate Barack Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"I wonder if Obama will call on Moore to stop running it. Ha. Enjoy playing the, 'Imagine if a Republican ran this ad' game."

The state Republican Party e-mailed a link to the column to reporters this afternoon. 

Dick Cheney stopped by Tom Fetzer's place Monday.

The vice president came for a fundraiser for the North Carolina Republican Party's political victory fund at the Raleigh political consultant's apartment on Hillsborough Street.

About 70 people came to the event, said Fetzer, a well-known consultant and former mayor of Raleigh. He said it was the first time he's hosted a major fundraiser.

"The White House and the Secret Service come in and they turn you upside down for about two or three days," he said. 

Cheney spoke for about an hour and a half about the war in Iraq, the state of the nation and his hopes to leave the presidency and the vice presidency "in good hands" next year.

Fetzer said Cheney was much different from his public image.

"He's different than most politicians," he said. "He's very reserved, very soft-spoken, but very knowledgeable, not bombastic in any way. I think that people here really enjoyed his remarks." 

he talked about the war in Iraq, a little bit of the state of the nation and he and the president were not coasting to the finish line but wanted to finish strong, but would hopefully leave the presidency and the vice presidency in good hands which I took to mean Republican hands.

The street outside Fetzer's apartment, above the offices for Fetzer Stephens, was closed during the visit, which was from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Previously: Cheney coming to North Carolina.

Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in North Carolina at 4:05 p.m. today, said Brent Woodcox, spokesman for the state Republican Party.

Cheney, whose Secret Service code name is "Angler," is meeting at a private residence for a fundraiser for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. He is scheduled to leave the state at 7:05 p.m.

Woodcox said about 4:30 p.m. that Cheney was at the fundraiser and was about to make his entrance.

The state Republican Party has heard the complaints from John McCain and the national Republican Party about its ad. But the state party still plans to run the spot.

"We think this is a legitimate question to ask, and we don't think we're the only ones asking it," said Brent Woodcox, communications director for the state Republican Party. "We feel this is a North Carolina issue."

Woodcox said the buy is still being finalized, but it is set to start airing statewide Monday during 6 p.m. newscasts.

"We've always had a good relationship with the RNC," Woodcox said. "We anticipate that will continue."

Linda Daves says Thomas Wright's troubles are not "an isolated incident."

In a statement today, the chairwoman of the N.C. Republican Party said that the former state representative's conviction on three counts of fraud are part of a problem with "entrenched Democrat power" in Raleigh.

Democrats have spent far too much time in courtrooms on the wrong side of justice instead of working for the interests of those who elected them.  The fact that Mr. Wright used his position in the General Assembly to commit fraud is unacceptable.  The fact that he did so by pocketing funds intended to be used for the benefit of the people of North Carolina is among the most egregious and reprehensible betrayals of the public trust.

She said that Republicans and Democrats should work together to "end the culture of corruption in Raleigh."