Todd Batchelor, a former finance director for the N.C. Republican Party, plans to run for state House District 41 which until recently was held by Democrat Ty Harrell.

The Republican nominee would likely challenge Democrat Chris Heagerty, who was recently named to the House seat, after Harrell's resignation, Rob Christensen reports.

The Wake County seat is regarded as a swing seat that had been held for years by Republican Russell Capps before Harrell's victory in 2006.

"North Carolinians are hungry for change in leadership in Raleigh," Batchelor said in a statement. "People are sick and tired of politicians that consistently raise their taxes and spend their hard earned money irresponsibly. I will be a solid consistent voice for fiscal conservatism and job creation."

Among other issues, Batchelor supports lifting the cap on charter schools.

He was the 2004 Republican nominee for Congress against Democratic Rep. David Price. He is currently legislative chief of staff for Republican state Rep. David Lewis of Dunn. Lewis pays Batchelor with his own money, and his duties include a range of jobs from assisting with constitutent services to helping with fundraisers, Batchelor said.

Update: Post now accurately states that Batchelor would have to win the nomination to challenge Heagerty. Post now also clarifies that Batchelor is not paid by the state.

The Toronto Globe and Mail has picked up the Harrell-as-Obama meme.

With Bloomberg's Al Hunt declaring state Rep. Ty Harrell as the harbinger of Barack Obama's success in North Carolina, the Canadian newspaper makes the same parallel in a story today:

Ty Harrell is a young, black state Representative who defeated the Republican incumbent in 2006 in a district that is 90 per cent white. White, but with one of the highest concentrations of PhDs per capita in the nation. (UNC at Chapel Hill is only one of several universities in the region.)

In the city of Cary, which Mr. Harrell represents, “the faces are changing, the sounds changing, the language is changing,” as he describes it.

"The people moving here look at the people who have been here all of their lives and they're saying: 'This isn't how we do it in New York, or New Jersey, or Rhode Island or Oregon.'" But because they're new arrivals, divorced from their new home's complex political culture, many of them don't bother to vote. They, Mr. Harrell believes, are the third tranche of Mr. Obama's voter registration drive, because they generally come from Democratic states. "Because of the growth, we have to get those people registered," he says. "And then we have to turn those people who are registered into voters, and appeal to them in a way they haven't been appealed to before."

Fred Smith has received $14,500 from other politician's campaign funds since 2007.

According to his mid-year and year-end campaign finance reports, the Republican gubernatorial candidate received donations from 13 campaigns.

The top contributors were state Rep. Mitch Gillespie, who gave $4,000; Rep. Leo Daughtry, who gave $3,000; and former Senate candidate Todd Siebels, who gave $2,000.

He also received $1,000 each from Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson and Sen. Jim Forrester, $750 each from Sens. Richard Stevens of Cary and Jerry Tillman of Randolph County, and $500 each from Reps. James H. Langdon, Carolyn Justus of Henderson County and Mark Hilton of Catawba County.

He also received donations from Rep. Phillip Frye of Mitchell County, former Rep. Russell Capps of Wake County and Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman.

Bryan Gossage, an Apex council member in his second term, said today that he's running for a state legislative seat that takes in a slice of western Wake County.

Gossage, 33, is a Republican and owns a marketing and communications firm. He said he's raised $22,000 for the election and has the backing of three House Republicans from Wake County: Paul Stam, Nelson Dollar, and Marilyn Avila.

He said in a news release that he is running to bring back honest government to the legislature and to try to keep taxes under control.

"I am running because I’ll be a strong, sensible voice for Wake County," Gossage said. "North Carolina needs experienced, innovative leadership, and that’s exactly what I’ll bring to Raleigh."

His Web site at Gossage.org also notes that he served as worked for a California state lawmaker for two years.

Gossage is seeking the District 41 seat currently held by Rep. Ty Harrell, a Raleigh Democrat. Harrell won the seat in 2006 by beating Rep. Russell Capps, a six-term lawmaker and Raleigh Republican.