North Carolina has the sixth-lowest cigarette tax.

According to research by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an anti-smoking advocacy group, only five states have lower cigarette taxes: Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina.

North Carolina's 35-cents per-pack tax is far below the $1.15 median rate of Arkansas and Delaware. The lowest is 7-cents in South Carolina; the highest, $2.75 in New York.

Gov. Beverly Perdue has proposed raising the tax by $1 per pack. The new rate of $1.35 would tie Pennsylvania for 20th highest rate. 

It would also be the highest among neighboring states of Georgia (37 cents), Virginia (30 cents), South Carolina and Tennessee (62 cents).

The tax rates are as of April 1 of this year. The federal cigarette tax will increase to $1.01 on April 31. In addition, a few cities and counties charge local cigarette taxes.

Marc Ambinder says John McCain may be targeting North Carolina today:

So why is Sen. McCain campaigning in Blountville, TN?

It has nothing to do with Bountville.

It has everything to do with the parts of rural North Carolina and rural Virginia that share its media market.

The Sarah Palin rally on Saturday in Raleigh was the last official McCain event in North Carolina.

It's the equinox of the fall Silly Season.

Your Dome correspondents have sifted through a number of ridiculous claims and counter-claims since this election began, but we haven't posted some because, well, we had slightly better things to do.

That said, we had a few quiet moments this morning and wanted to share them with you:

POTTYMOUTH PAT? The Perdue campaign would like you to hear the clip below of Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory — they say — swearing in a WPTF interview Wednesday. We honestly can't tell if he's saying what they say he said.

SATANIC CONTRIBUTION? The National Republican Senatorial Committee would like you to know that Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan received a donation for $666 around the time of the fundraiser hosted by the founder of the Godless Americans PAC.

LICENSE TO DRIVE? The campaign of Hagan would like you to know that Sen. Elizabeth Dole's "ElizaBus" touring the state right now has a Tennessee license plate, though we're here in North Carolina.

Should we have devoted the waning minutes of the campaign season to digging deeper into these stories or were we right to move on? Let us know in the comments.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole visited a number of states in 2006.

As head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee that year, Dole campaigned for Republican Senate candidates in a number of states, according to news reports:

Minnesota: In March, Dole traveled in Minnesota on behalf of Senate candidate Mark Kennedy, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. 

Montana: In April and August, Dole toured Montana with Sen. Conrad Burns, according to the Associated Press.

Washington: On Aug. 25, Dole appeared at a $100-a-plate luncheon with Washington Senate candidate Mike McGavick, according to The Columbian.

Tennessee: On Aug. 28, Dole toured Eastern Tennessee with Senate candidate Bob Corker, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Michigan: On Aug. 29, Dole went on campaign stops with Senate candidate Mike Bouchard, according to the Muskegon Chronicle.

Pennsylvania: On Aug. 31, Dole spoke at a press conference at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Arizona: On Sept. 22, Dole headlined an entourage of female senators at the Arizona Inn in Tuscon, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

New Jersey: On Oct. 11, Dole traveled in New Jersey, according to The Hotline.

Ohio: On Oct. 16, Dole traveled to Ohio, according to the N&O.

Missouri: On Oct. 18, Dole headlined a breakfast for Sen. Jim Talent, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Virginia: On Oct. 31, Dole appeared with Sen. George Allen at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.

In addition, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee says an official e-mail from Dole shows she traveled to Nebraska in August.

John Shelton Reed says the Southeast is a concept, not a region.

The retired UNC-Chapel Hill sociology professor said that the Southeastern United States is a loosely defined "post-historical region" centered around Atlanta.

"It's an economy; it's not a culture," he said. "You talk about Southern music and Southern cooking and Southern women. You don't talk about Southeastern music and cooking and women."

As a general rule, Reed said the boundaries do not necessarily follow state borders, but he would use the Mississippi River as the dividing line between the Southeast and the Southwest and the usual borders between the North and South.

That would include: Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

It would leave out Arkansas and Louisiana. He said West Virginia would be a borderline case.

"These boundaries are kind of indistinct," he said. "You don't cross a border, you sort of move into it gradually."

Hat Tip: awbeal 

Who needs the federal government? We've got football.

Though the U.S. Census Bureau does not define the Southeastern region in its reports, another major — more important? — agency does: The Southeastern Conference.

The college athletic conference headquartered in Alabama has its own roster of states it considers to be in the Southeast:

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.

It does not include North Carolina or Virginia, which are part of the Atlantic Coast Conference but are undoubtedly in the Southeast. It also skips West Virginia, a borderline case.

The definition is important because a recent political ad compares tax rates in the Southeast, which obviously differ depending on which states you include.

How do you define the Southeast?

We here at Dome headquarters have been poring over some tax data this morning as part of a fact-check, and we came across this interesting epistemological problem.

The general consensus of our group of reporters was that it includes the following states:

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

We did not include West Virginia, but the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis does in its regional breakdowns. That means a number of other groups, such as the Tax Foundation, also use it.

The U.S. Census Bureau does not define the Southeast.  

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler traded waterfront property with the TVA this summer.

The Waynesville Democrat is a partner in a development group that traded roughly equal sized stretches of waterfront property in Tennessee with the Tennessee Valley Authority, according to Knoxvillebiz.com.

The deal has attracted attention because Shuler sits on a committee that exercises oversight over TVA, a government-run public utility. TVA officials approved the deal in June.

The land acquired by Shuler's group likely will be used for a community dock and boat ramp for a development they're building.

Shuler's office and TVA officials say he wasn't involved in negotiating the deal, and Shuler has had conflicts with the agency on environmental issues: 

During a 2007 hearing, he asked the agency how it would reduce air pollution that enters the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from TVA power plants. Kilgore, told the legislator that TVA planned to install a new scrubber at its plant in Rogersville.

Shuler also helped lead opposition to the Road to Nowhere, a long-delayed road through the national park that had been proposed to replace a thoroughfare that was flooded by the creation of TVA's Fontana Dam in the 1940s. The road now has been scrapped in favor of a monetary settlement for Swain County, N.C.