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The sweepstakes company owner caught in an illegal gambling ring gave more than $235,000 to North Carolina political candidates and parties in 2012, ranking as the largest individual donor to legislative contenders, according to a new analysis of state campaign finance records.

The total reported by Democracy North Carolina, a Raleigh-based elections watchdog group, is at least $60,000 more than previously known. Not all legislative candidates are required to file electronic campaign finance data, but Democracy North Carolina scoured the paper forms to find obscured contributions from Burns and his wife.

The lawmakers who received the most money, not surprisingly, were the legislative leadership: Senate leader Phil Berger received $8,000 and House Speaker Thom Tillis took $6,500. The report identified 63 lawmakers who accepted campaign checks, including 21 who received the maximum $4,000 per race (19 Republicans and two Democrats).

One nexus of the donations appears to be Moore & Van Allen, the law firm that lobbied for Burns' company, International Internet Technologies, and formerly employed Gov. Pat McCrory. The Republican governor received $8,000 from Burns and his wife (which he later donated to charity) but said he didn't know Burns.

The Legislative Black Caucus laid out it's legislative agenda, using a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: "There comes a time when silence is betrayal."

"Some say, 'This is a bad time for the Black Caucus. What are you really going to do?' We are going to do a lot because we are going to be vocal," said Rep. Garland Pierce, the caucus chairman and a Wagram Democrat. Black lawmakers make up the majority of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses.

He pounded the Republican agenda, as Democrats have for the past several weeks, as "truly taking form the needy and giving to the greedy." Pierce, a Baptist minister, combined legislation to allow the expiration of the earned-income tax credit, unemployment benefit cuts and blocking the expansion of Medicaid with voter ID, raising his voice to say "these things are fundamentally wrong at the core and plainly ungodly."

Pierce stopped short of suggesting the Republican cuts are racially tinged. "It's not so much about black, white and party, it's a class struggle," he said.

Democratic lawmakers stood firmly against the voter ID vetoed in the previous session and don't see a need for the legislation now. "You can't tell me voter ID is needed, particularly in this state, where you have less than one percent of voter fraud even attempted," said Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat. "No one has shown me any reason to require that you walk up and present a voter id to vote."

Michaux and other lawmakers spoke hours after House Speaker Thom Tillis outlined a plan to bring a voter ID measure to a vote.

Democratic Sen. Floyd McKissick argued that the measure would disproportionately affect Democratic and independent voters. "That is their goal -- to oppress that vote by any means necessary," he said.

At the same time, Democrats noted that absentee voting -- which is favored by Republicans -- would not require a photo ID to cast a ballot. "I'm one who believes in equal protection," Michaux said. "If you put voter ID out there for some folks and not for other folks you are not getting equal protection."

An official statement affirming the N.C. House's support of the second amendment won approval in a committee Tuesday but questions linger about the wording of the non-binding resolution.

The resolution, sponsored by freshman Republican Michael Speciale, says President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and members of Congress "have proposed ... actions that would have the effect of infringing on the right of American's to keep and bear arms."

In the debate, Democratic Rep. Marcus Brandon asked bluntly: "Do (resolutions) have to be factual?"

"There's absolutely nothing factual in the bill," Brandon said later, saying it's all opinion.

"Facts are facts," Rep. Tim Moore, the Republican committee chairman responded, saying the N.C. General Assembly can find facts as it deems fit.

GOV. McCRORY TO TALK HIGHER ED: Weeks after he stuck his foot in his mouth, Gov. Pat McCrory will make a speech about higher education and the role of innovation in the university economic growth. The Republican governor made controversial comments about changing the higher education funding formula to reflect job output from colleges, not how many students enroll, and he also suggested the state shouldn't subsidize liberal arts classes like gender studies. The noon speech is at N.C. State.

TODAY AT THE STATEHOUSE: House and Senate leaders appear ready to agree on a bill to block the expansion of Medcaid to 500,000 North Carolinians. The conference report is on the calendar for concurrence and then would go to the governor. But the topless bill is no longer on the calendar. On Monday, Republicans sent it back to committee. Buncombe Rep. Tim Moffitt told AP the delay would give time for consultations with Senate lawmakers. U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan will hold a call this morning to discuss the ramifications of the federal budget impasse on North Carolina.

***Welcome to the Dome Morning Memo, get more political news and analysis below.***

FLORIDA GOP GOV -- AN OBAMACARE HATER -- TAKES THE REP. INSKO APPROACH: That's right. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who first entered politics to fight the federal health care law, is proposing to take the money for Medicaid expansion for the first three years when Washington will pay the full cost. State Rep. Verla Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat, proposed the same thing in North Carolina, but Republican lawmakers shot it down repeatedly. "That's just completely nonsensical and doesn't work," Republican Rep. Nelson Dollar said of Inkso's idea.

TODAY AT THE STATEHOUSE: The House is taking it easy today. A skeletal session with no recorded votes -- none until Tuesday, in fact. The Senate will convene for action at noon. But most the action will take place in the Commerce Committee where the bill to speed up and incentivize fracking with get a hearing. Gov. Pat McCrory lists no public events on his schedule. He leaves this evening for Washington to attend the National Governors Association and Republican Governors Association winter meetings. Wonder if McCrory will talk to Scott and Ohio Gov. John Kasich about how their recent decisions to expand Medicaid?

***Good morning. Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo -- more N.C. political news below.***

North Carolina is moving to eliminate its estate tax under legislation that won approval along party lines in a House committee Wednesday.

Republican state Rep. Edgar Starnes, the House GOP leader, said the state tax on the value of estates upon death is "an economic policy that just punishes people because they are trying to save things." But Democrats countered that it only applies to the most wealthy and provides needed revenue for state programs.

The state tax applies to estates with a value over $5.25 million or $10.5 million for a married couple. The rate starts at 0.8 percent and increases to 16 percent for the largest estates.

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed what he called Tuesday a "bipartisan" bill that moves quickly to pay down the state's unemployment debt by cutting benefits for jobless workers.

Bipartisan? The word is striking given the bitterly partisan moments in the legislative debate. How does he get to claim that Republicans and Democrats supported the bill? Four Democratic state senators and three Democratic House members supported the measure. It equals about one-quarter of Senate Democrats and 7 percent of House Democrats.

Carolina Panthers’ owner Jerry Richardson personally asked state lawmakers to help finance a stadium upgrade Wednesday morning, offering a plan that calls for $62.5 million in state aid and state approval for $144 million in higher local taxes.

Some lawmakers responded with questions, particularly about the tax hike.

Richardson and team President Danny Morrison appeared at the Mecklenburg delegation meeting with Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble, who outlined the proposal.

Richardson described his long effort to win the franchise, which was awarded in 1993. He insisted he has no plans to move it.

“I would never move the team, I want to emphasize that,” Richardson told Mecklenburg County legislators. “I never made a threat to move the team. To be honest with you, it was offensive to me to suggest I would.”

The seventh annual Historic Thousands on Jones Street rally drew enough marchers to stretch from one end of downtown Fayetteville Street to the other. They squeezed into the plaza between the state history and natural sciences museums – a space that organizers say holds 10,000 people – to listen to speakers on a stage in front of the state legislative building.

It was an audience displeased with a government that is now firmly in Republican hands with the election of Pat McCrory as governor. Read more here.