Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory has picked a veteran Tar Heel political operative to run his gubernatorial campaign.

Richard Hudson is returning from Washington, where he was chief of staff to U.S. Rep. John Carter of Texas, who is secretary of the Republican Conference.

Hudson is well known in state GOP circles, reports Rob Christensen. Hudson served as communications director of the state Republican Party in the late 1990s, before moving on to manage the campaigns and serve on the congressional staff of U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes of Concord. Hudson also worked in the 2000 gubernatorial campaign of Richard Vinroot.

“We wanted someone who had campaign experience — someone who has statewide knowledge and who can manage the day-to-day campaign,” said Jack Hawke, McCrory’s chief consultant.

The McCrory campaign has also hired Neal Harrington as finance director. Harrington was formerly the finance director for U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick wants immigration officials to clarify their position that illegal immigrants can be admitted to North Carolina's community colleges.

Myrick, who has made illegal immigration a key cornerstone of her work in Congress, wrote Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Julie Myers last week that the federal law appears to disagree, Barb Barrett reports.

The statute, Myrick wrote, says that North Carolina would have to specifically pass a law allowing undocumented residents to be admitted to the colleges.

And even so, Myrick continued, the colleges could not allow in-state tuition.

Myrick's letter comes after a scuffle about whether community colleges can allow illegal immigrants as students. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper wrote a memo saying they couldn't. The N&O asked the federal government for clarification and was told that the decision can be made on a school-by-school basis.

"I am concerned that ICE's stated position conflicts with the intent of federal law and undermines ICE's recent progress to enforce immigration laws," Myrick wrote.

She asked Myers, an assistant secretary within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, for a response.

The American Conservative Union ranked two North Carolina representatives tops.

U.S. Reps. Patrick McHenry and Virginia Foxx both scored 100 percent on the conservative group's annual Congressional ratings — two out of only 62 representatives to land among its "best and brightest" for the 2007 session.

At the same time, four Congressional Democrats — Reps. David Price, Brad Miller, Mel Watt and G.K. Butterfield — scored 0 percent, landing among the group's "worst of the worst."

The ratings were based on votes on a minimum wage hike, stem-cell research, the Iraq war, Amtrak funding, earmark reform, border security, support of Planned Parenthood and energy policy, among other things.

The rest of the delegation was in between. Among Republicans, Rep. Sue Myrick scored a 96, Rep. Howard Coble an 83, Rep. Robin Hayes a 79, and Rep. Walter Jones a 71. Among Democrats, Reps. Mike McIntyre and Heath Shuler, both Blue Dog Democrats, scored 44 and Rep. Bob Etheridge an 8.

Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole both scored a 92.

Sheryl Crow called U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick "a rock star."

At a congressional hearing Wednesday, the pop-rock singer praised the Charlotte Republican's efforts to draw more funding for the environmental causes of breast cancer, the Charlotte Observer reports.

"I want to know what causes this disease," Crow said in testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's health subcommittee. "We need to put more resources into figuring out what the environment has to do with breast cancer." 

Myrick is not the only one Crow has praised that way, though it was unusual for a well-known liberal to praise a Republican. In an interview with People magazine, she also called her son, Wyatt, a "rock star."

Dome would like to note that Crow herself is not actually a "rock" star. Soft rock star, maybe.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, has called for former President Jimmy Carter's passport to be pulled over his meeting with Hamas leaders in Palestine.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick will host Jack Kemp in Charlotte.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate will be the honored guest at a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. April 28 at the Westin Charlotte.  

U.S. Rep. Howard Coble is endorsing Mitt Romney.

The Greensboro Republican said today that the former Massachussetts governor has a better background than U.S. Sen. John McCain for handling the economic problems facing the United States.

The Greensboro News & Record reports Coble made the endorsement outside his office.

"By his own admission it's (Romney's) strong suit," he said. "And by Sen. McCain's admission it's not his own strong suit."

Previously, Coble said he liked Romney but would not make an actual endorsement.

Among the state's Republicans, Rep. Virginia Foxx has also endorsed Romney, while Sen. Richard Burr is backing McCain. Rep. Sue Myrick backed Fred Thompson, who has since dropped out.

On the sidelines: U.S. Reps. Patrick McHenry, Robin Hayes and Walter Jones and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole was one of several North Carolina lawmakers who didn't attend President Bush's final State of the Union address.

Rep. Sue Myrick, a Republican from Charlotte, said she had attended every other one since being elected, but opted to watch this one from her Washington home.

"She just wanted to go home and watch it on television, and the view is actually better on television than on the House floor," her spokesman, Andy Polk, said Tuesday.

Rep. Walter Jones, a Farmville Republican, watched it on television as well.

Democratic Reps. Brad Miller of Raleigh and David Price of Chapel Hill didn't attend either. Miller was ill and Price's wife was retiring from the nonprofit she runs.

Dole's office said she missed the State of the Union for the first time since being elected. She had agreed to speak at the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association's annual dinner in Chapel Hill before the date of the speech was announced.

"It's one of the largest associations in the state and Senator Dole wanted to keep her commitment to them," said Dole spokeswoman Amy Auth.