* Gov. Beverly Perdue bets Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire over the Sweet Sixteen game between Carolina and Gonzaga tonight.

* Perdue will speak at the N.C. Chamber's annual meeting on Tuesday, just after former Gov. Mike Easley receives an award from the group.

* CNN anchor Anderson Cooper will give an afternoon lecture on the campus of Elon University on Tuesday, April 7.

* Former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger remembers his friend, historian John Hope Franklin, in the pages of the Washington Post.

Hampton Dellinger is lobbying to become a U.S. attorney.

As previously noted on Dome, the former candidate for lieutenant governor and legal counsel to Gov. Mike Easley is one of a number of names that has been put forward for federal prosecutor.

Over the weekend, The Durham Herald-Sun reported that Dellinger is lobbying to become U.S. attorney for either the Middle or Eastern districts of North Carolina:

Dellinger — the son of Duke University law professor emeritus and former acting U.S. Solicitor General Walter Dellinger — recently contacted Durham Mayor Bill Bell to ask Bell for help in securing the appointment.

"I've known the mayor and think highly of him and know he's highly regarded," Hampton Dellinger said on Friday. "I wanted to let him know of my interest and relevant experience."

Bell, an early supporter of Barack Obama's, said he didn't see any reason not to support Dellinger.

"I'm sure other people are going to be looking at it, too," he told the paper.

Hampton Dellinger has repaid his parents — a little.

The candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor received $535,000 in loans from his parents, Anne and Walter Dellinger of Chapel Hill.

The senior Dellinger is a noted attorney and former solicitor general in the Clinton administration.

According to his most recent campaign finance report, Hampton Dellinger repaid his parents $20,000 of the loans on June 19, a little over a month after the primary in which he came in second.

That amounts to about 3.7 percent of the money they loaned him. 

The report also showed that Dellinger had $39,166 in cash on hand at the end of the campaign, which could make repaying the remaining $515,000 difficult. 

Who's in the crowd at Barack Obama's Raleigh event?

Several big-name North Carolina legislators, judges and candidates are at the Kerr Scott Building to hear Obama speak.

Hampton Dellinger, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, is sitting with his father, former U.S. Solicitor General Walter Dellinger.

Other notables include U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, who has campaigned for Obama, Reps. Dan Blue and Ty Harrell, former state Auditor Ralph Campbell, Wake County Commissioner Harold Webb, former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Willis Whichard, state appeals court judge Jim Wynn and former UNC Board of Governors Chairman Brad Wilson.

Duke University law professor Walter Dellinger pedals to the U.S. Supreme Court building Tuesday morning. Dellinger represented the District of Columbia, arguing in support of a 32-year-old ban on handguns.

Under President Bill Clinton, Dellinger served as an adviser to the president on constitutional issues and as assistant attorney general and head of the Office of Legal Counsel.

Riding a bike to court helps Dellinger focus and prepare for oral arguments, he said. On Tuesday, he pedaled up Capitol Hill, not an easy ride.

Dellinger has argued before the Supreme Court more than 20 times.

A Washington resident challenged the handgun ban, saying it violates his Constitutional right to possess a firearm.

Dellinger is the father of Hampton Dellinger, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.

(Photo by Jay Mallin)

Hampton Dellinger got what neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama has obtained: a political plug from Al Gore.

Dellinger, of Durham, had lunch with the Nobel laureate and former vice president at his Nashville home Friday, where they discussed Dellinger's opposition to Duke Energy's planned expansion of the Cliffside coal-fired power plant, Mark Johnson reports.

"I applaud Hampton's efforts to combat climate change through reduced utility reliance on coal," Gore said in a prepared statement. "His vision and leadership are a tremendous asset to North Carolina. Hampton Dellinger would make a great lieutenant governor."

Dellinger, former legal counsel to Gov. Mike Easley, stopped short of calling Gore's comments an endorsement but said he has been inspired by Gore's work. Gore, Democratic nominee for president in 2000, shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to combat climate change.

More after the jump.

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Hampton Dellinger raised $576,413 by the end of 2007.

The Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor raised $568,073 from large donors, including Raleigh attorney Burley Mitchell and Hillsborough writers Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus.

He also raised $3,339 from donors who gave less than $50, and $5,000 from political action committees, including the Bank of America, according to a campaign finance report filed with the State Board of Elections last week.

In addition, he loaned his campaign $2,500, and his parents, Anne and Walter Dellinger, loaned it $200,000.

He also gave his campaign $360 as a donation.

At the same time, Dellinger spent $51,138 on a fundraiser for state Rep. Beverly Earle, campaign ads, a Web site and event planning.

That left him with $726,439 in cash on hand.

Walter Dellinger says that voter ID laws are "harmful and worthless."

In an analysis this week for the online magazine Slate, the former Solicitor General in the Clinton administration and his law partner argue that Indiana's law creates a Catch-22 for poor voters:

An Indiana applicant for a nondriver's photo ID must obtain a certified birth certificate issued by the state or county of birth, which can require payment of a fee. And because some Indiana citizens were born in states or counties that require a photo ID to get the birth certificate—including Marion County, the largest county in Indiana—a person who seeks a birth certificate in order to get a photo ID could find himself trapped in an unending bureaucratic loop. Predictably, applicants often wind up making multiple trips to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Dellinger filed a brief in support of the Supreme Court challenge to the Indiana law. He is the father of Hampton Dellinger, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.