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The two-lane Island Ford Road stretches west from Cliffside, a once-celebrated mill village in Rutherford County, tracing the Broad River as it cuts through pastures and untouched countryside.

It is easy to miss, barely marked. Yet it holds a strong place in Walter Dalton’s psyche, a memory of his late father and an inspiration that guides him as he campaigns for the state’s highest office.

In his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor, the lieutenant governor talks little about himself. But he mentions the road. It speaks to the influence of his father, who died when Dalton was 8, and his small-town roots, both of which define him today. Read the full profile here.

Walter Dalton named his campaign team Wednesday, with familiar faces from his lieutenant governor's office and a former fundraiser for Gov. Bev Perdue.

Caroline Valand, Dalton's former chief of staff, will serve as campaign manager. She is a former state Democratic Party executive director. Deputy Campaign Manager is Derwin Dubose, the former outreach coordinators from Dalton's office. He will handle social media, voter mobilization and other duties.

Angel Combs, will serve as finance director, moving over from Perdue's campaign after the governor decided not to seek re-election. The chief strategists are Morgan Jackson and Scott Falmlen with Nexus Strategies, familiar political hands that helped get Perdue and numerous Democrats elected.

Other staffers: Pearse Edwards is communications director; John Anzalone is the pollster; and Peter Cari is the media consultant; Peter Giangreco is the direct mail consultant; and Clay Schossow is the lead online consultant. See more information about them from the press release below.

The Obama campaign held a youth summit Tuesday evening at N.C. Central University. In a state teeming with college campuses - a state that Obama carried by a slim 14,000-vote margin in 2008 - the college vote could make the difference. Get the full report here.

Speaking of Obama, for the second time in a week the president's religious beliefs have been called into question. N.C. evangelist Franklin Graham is the latest to revive the issue ahead of the 2012 campaign. Read more here.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton suggested Tuesday that he wouldn't release his tax returns, even though his political party is asking Republican Pat McCrory to do so.

After the official launch of his gubernatorial campaign, Dalton said McCrory's situation is different. "There has been some question ... about whether he is a lobbyist or not," he said. "I don't know of any questions" about my record.

At the same time, Dalton left the door open to reassess the situation. "We'll look at that as it goes along," he said.

As Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton readies for an expected Democratic primary for governor, he is putting his focus on education and economic development.

He said he supports Gov. Bev Perdue's proposal to increase the sales tax by 3/4 of a penny to fund education -- an issue Republicans say links him closely to the current governor, who announced Thursday that she wouldn't seek another term. 

"I don't look at that as Gov. Perdue's sales tax proposal," Dalton said in an interview Friday. "it is something that is logical that will buffer the damage that we are seeing in economic development and education.

"I want a solution, so I'm willing to embrace that and do embrace that as a way to solve it," he continued.

But Dalton did express regret that as a senator in 2005 he co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions. He said he would vote against the May referendum to put marriage between one man and one woman into the state constitution. "To be truthful, when I sponsored that bill, I was in a district at that time that very much wanted the  opportunity to vote," he said. "The more i have examined this  ... it is not the right process to mess with the constitution like that. ... Perhaps I was wrong back then."