Bob Orr sounded briefly like the attorney for the N.C. Press Association.

At a debate at UNC-Charlotte Saturday, the Republican gubernatorial candidate argued that Gov. Mike Easley and his successors should follow the state's public records laws.

Orr, a former Supreme Court justice, noted recent news reports that the governor's staff may have ordered public affairs directors to delete their e-mails, a violation of the records law.

He also attacked a recent meeting of the 21st Century Transportation Committee which was held on Figure Eight Island without press access.

"If we're truly going to have openness, it has to begin at the top," he said. "It has to begin with the governor. The governor has to be committed to obeying the open meeting laws, the public records law, of being able to fight for openness."

Orr said that public agencies should pay attorney's fees when they have been found by a judge to have improperly withheld public records.

Is North Carolina more like Virginia or Tennessee?

That's the question on the minds of campaign managers for Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

All three states are part of the so-called "Rim South" — Southern states that aren't part of the Deep South but aren't Northern either.

UNC-Charlotte politics professor Ted Arrington said that Obama could see similarities with Virginia, which he won handily: A large military presence, a mid-sized black population, strong urban centers such as Richmond and Charlotte.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton could see parallels to Tennesse, which she won: A strong agricultural area, similar capital cities, a mid-sized black population and clusters of retirees in the mountains.

Arrington said that Obama will likely win in three Congressional districts with larger black populations represented by Reps. Mel Watt, G.K. Butterfield and Mike McIntyre.

"If they split the vote statewide, the other 10 districts would very likely go to Clinton," he said. 

Hunter Bacot uses polls as a learning tool.

As head of the Elon University Poll since 2005, the professor of public administration has used four student interns, members of a class on polling and paid student workers to poll North Carolinians.

That suits Bacot just fine. A native North Carolinian, he taught public administration at UNC-Charlotte and still teaches two courses a semester at Elon.

The university conducts an average of five polls during the academic year. Randomized phone numbers from a Connecticut firm are used to generate a list, while live operators read questions with rotating wording to reduce wording bias.

Elon's polls are not done for any client, so Bacot focuses more on general issues than specific campaigns. An exception is during major election years, when he'll craft questions about the races for president, governor and U.S. Senate.

Bacot, 46, says they do not screen for registered or likely voters. That makes them slightly less reliable for predicting elections, which often hinge on turnout, but Bacot says that's not the purpose.

"Our perspective is that everyone is a part of the democratic process, whether they participate or not," he said. "Some people think that's a bad thing, but we think that if you live in the state you deserve a voice."

The National Association of Social Workers is defending the value of its endorsement.

The group's director of advocacy and legislation, Jack Register, wrote that UNC-Charlotte Professor Ted Arrington was wrong to say the group has no political clout.

"I see our association as a powerful voice for N.C. social workers," he writes.

However, he says Arrington was correct that its members do not always vote for the candidates it has endorsed, which in this case was Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.

"I see this as a strength," he wrote Dome. "Our association is made up of 4,000 social workers. The diversity of opinions of our members continues to influence our policy positions so that we are truly representative."

Register says that approximately 83 percent of members are women and at least three-fourths have a master's in social work or higher.

All gubernatorial endorsements are not created equal.

Earlier, we noted that UNC-Charlotte Professor Ted Arrington is skeptical that Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's rack of endorsements will help in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

But there is one group—or rather a set of groups—that Arrington thinks could make a difference.

Those are the black voters' groups in each of North Carolina's major cities that routinely make political endorsements: The Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, The Simkins PAC in Greensboro and The Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

That's because the groups generally have a good reputation in the black community and they work hard to inform voters.

"They will have people right outside the doors of the precincts with a marked ballot," he said.

Still, Arrington said the groups may choose to skip endorsements in the primary.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue is winning the endorsements race.

But will that help her win the Democratic gubernatorial nomination? UNC-Charlotte Professor Ted Arrington is doubtful.

"They don't matter to voters," he told Dome. "A voter rarely votes for a candidate because they've been endorsed. None of these groups have a wide enough membership to make a difference. And there's not a lot of proof that members follow the endorsement."

Of the endorsements announced so far, Arrington said the N.C. Association of Educators is the most significant because it was ratified by the general membership and because of the group's expertise in education.

He was less impressed by EMILY's List and the National Women's Political Caucus, which would be expected to endorse the female candidate, and the National Association of Social Workers and the United Transportation Union, which don't have a lot of clout.

Forget about U.S. News & World Report's college rankings for a moment.

For those in North Carolina's higher education system, there are two lists that are more important: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

Both have provided lists of peers for North Carolina colleges that could be used to determine whether professors are getting comparable salaries to their colleagues.

A study by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy*, which used the Carnegie peers, found that some North Carolina schools were doing just fine.

But those same colleges do worse when compared with the National Center's peers.

For a full discussion of the difference, click "Read More."

* Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the foundation which funded the survey. The analyst works for the John Locke Foundation, but the study was done for the Pope Center.

   Comments (2)

Professors at N.C. Central get paid well, but those at UNC-Asheville might want to ask for a raise.

That's according to a study of higher education salaries released today by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy*.

The study found that salaries for all faculty at four state colleges — N.C. Central, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Pembroke and Winston-Salem State — are at least 80 percent of those at similar colleges.

But some professors at Elizabeth City State and N.C. State and all UNC-Asheville and N.C. A&T faculty were below the mean and median levels of their colleagues at other schools.

Foundation analyst Jon Sanders said he looked at the pay scale in part to see if there is a "brain drain" at state colleges. He said the study alone would not answer the question.

"If there is a brain drain, it's not owing to salaries," he said.

The House budget proposal calls for a 2.5 percent salary increase and a one-time $400 bonus for state college professors.

* Correction: An earlier version of the post misstated the group which funded the survey. Jon Sanders works for the John Locke Foundation, but the study was done for the Pope Center.