* Labor unions trying to shape the nation's health-reform debate have poured millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of North Carolina lawmakers in recent years.

Since 2003, unions have spent $3.4 million to elect allies from the Tar Heel state to the U.S. House and Senate. Nearly all of it has gone to Democrats.

North Carolina, a right-to-work state, has the second-lowest union representation and the lowest union membership rate in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

But key voting blocs, including state workers and many service workers, are represented by labor groups such as the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU. Labor groups have organized rallies, town hall meetings, phone banks and advertising in support of health-care reform.

Of the state's 13 House members, Democrat Brad Miller of Raleigh received the most union money — $588,000. (N&O)

* North Carolina community colleges leaders have drawn up a new policy that would allow illegal immigrants into the two-year colleges.

The state Board of Community Colleges' policy committee on Thursday drafted rules that would admit undocumented immigrants if they graduated from a U.S. high school. The students would have to pay out-of-state tuition rates and could not take a seat from students who are legal residents. (AP)

Election Day was a good day for SEANC.

Only 17 of the 121 candidates endorsed by the State Employees Association of North Carolina did not win election — an 86 percent success rate for the state workers' group.

Big wins included Governor-elect Beverly Perdue, who writes the state budget and can veto legislation on state workers' issues; Lt. Governor-elect Walter Dalton, who presides over the state Senate; 29 of 32 endorsed Senate races and 67 of 74 House races.

Among the disappointments was state Auditor Les Merritt, a rare Republican to receive the group's backing; Commissioner of Labor Mary Fant Donnan, who had pledged to be more labor-friendly; and Ed Ridpath, a perennial candidate who had hoped to unseat House Republican leader Paul Stam.

State organizer Kevin LeCount said SEANC's political action committee spent about $250,000 on the election, including 48,500 mailers touting the endorsements and donations of up to $4,000 to legislative candidates.

SEANC's national affiliate, the Service Employees International Union, also spent money on the governor's race.

Labor unions last week gave $730,000 to the N.C. Democratic Party, which in turn gave large contributions to the party's nominee for governor.

Campaign finance reports show that the state Democratic Party received $730,000 from three union political action committees. The party then turned around and gave Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's campaign an $875,000 contribution and spent $245,000 to send mailers on her behalf. That infusion of cash represents a quarter of the $4.6 million Perdue raised in the last three months.

Detailed campaign finance reports for the last three months are not yet publicly available. The donations were included in required 48-hour reports over the last week.

More after the jump.

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Freedom's Watch is calling North Carolina voters about Kay Hagan.

The Washington-based conservative lobbying group is making automated calls to North Carolina voters that say Hagan is soft on illegal immigration.

As with some other third-party efforts, the calls are not legally allowed to be coordinated with either Hagan's Senate campaign or U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's. They also do not mention the campaign, instead focusing on the issue and encouraging voters to call Hagan.

Greensboro blogger Ed Cone has reported receiving the calls, as has the Dole campaign's headquarters.

Update: Dome readers report receiving calls from the Change to Win Federation, a coalition of the Service Employees International Union and other unions, that promote Hagan.

Second Update: A BlueNC blogger and an N&O staffer report receiving a robocall from the Associated Builders & Contractors Free Enterprise Alliance criticizing Hagan.

State workers may need to buy some purple T-shirts. 

The State Employees' Association of North Carolina is now affilliated with the Service Employees International Union.

At a convention on May 3, the state workers' group voted by a 78 percent margin — 524 out of 671 delegates — to affiliate with SEIU, a national labor union representing 1.9 million people known for its purple shirts.

"This vote marks the largest union victory ever for working people across the South — especially in North Carolina, which previously had the lowest rate of unionization in the country," said SEANC executive director Dana Cope in a statement.

SEANC hopes to use the resources of SEIU to fight a 1959 law restricting state workers from collective bargaining. Currently, North Carolina is the only state with that prohibition.

The group will now be known as SEANC, SEIU Local 2008.

OBJECTS IN MIRROR: John Edwards may be closer than he appears in Iowa, reports the Boston Globe. He's working the rural counties, where it takes only 22 caucus-goers to win a delegate, compared to 80 in urban areas, and he's picked up most of Dick Gephardt's 2004 trade union support. Who was Gephardt again?

THE OUTSIDERS: Edwards says outsiders (read: 527 groups) shouldn't spend money to influence elections, reports the New York Times. But the Alliance for a New America, set up by a local of the Service Employees International Union, is paying for ads promoting his campaign. Call it a Catch-527.

RE: CAMPAIGN '08: An internal memo from Edwards' deputy campaign manager says Edwards will hold a series of small round table discussions to push his positive middle-class message, says the Washington Post. It says the campaign is strong, etc. etc. Of course, would they write otherwise?

IN OTHER NEWS: Edwards new ad in New Hampshire tells voters "the power that comes with the presidency comes from you." At least until Inauguration Day, right? ... Edwards offers doughnuts to the undecided in Nashua. How long is the drive again? ... Elizabeth Edwards makes the "People Who Mattered" list in Time magazine's "Person of the Year" issue. Sort of the Miss Congeniality to Vladimir Putin's top spot. Of course, next to him, Attila the Hun would be prom king.

John Edwards' campaign officials cast today's endorsement by the Iowa council of the Service Employees International Union as a boost in the state that kicks off the presidential campaign in January.

"SEIU is going to be a major player in Iowa on behalf of Sen. John Edwards," Edwards's campaign manager David Bonior told reporters, The Charlotte Observer's Jim Morrill reports.

SEIU has around 2,000 members in the state. Last week the national union - which claims 1.9-million members - decided not to make a national endorsement in the primaries.

Heading into the 2004 caucuses, SEIU endorsed Democrat Howard Dean. The former Vermont governor and then-U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri locked up most union endorsements that year. Each finished behind Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Edwards.

Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, Edwards' state campaign director, said this year's SEIU endorsement will be a big help.

"Two thousand members and their families will make a great difference to us on caucus night," she told reporters.

John Edwards says he is getting another labor endorsement.

The Edwards campaign says the Iowa state council of the Service Employees International Union will announce today that it is endorsing Edwards for the Democratic nomination for president.

“SEIU is at forefront of the fight to make work pay and provide economic security to hardworking families. I have proudly stood with them on the frontlines of the fight for working Americans for years, and I am honored to earn their support today,” Edwards said in a statement.

"Together, I believe we can fix the broken system in Washington that has been rigged by corporate interests, and we can make this country work for regular Americans again.”