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A North Carolina furniture company closed abruptly Thursday just one year after it was hailed by President Barack Obama as an example of the recovering U.S. economy. Lincolnton Furniture Company operations stopped indefinitely and only a few people will remain employed moving forward, company financial officer Ben Causey said. Full story here.

More political headlines:

--North Carolina's congressional delegation is now firmly Republican after GOP redistricting redrew the political favor. Here's a look at Raleigh Republican George Holding's outlook as a freshman. He has one priority: cutting spending.

--For Raleigh-based state government workers who endured four years without a pay raise, the free bus pass was a nice benefit while it lasted. The state ended its funding.

North Carolina's congressional delegation split along unusual lines when it came to the fiscal cliff legislation. U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan voted to approve. In the House, five Democrats and one Republican voted in favor and two Democrats and five Republicans voted against. See the breakdown here and more on the vote here.

More political headlines below.

Members of the N.C. congressional delegation say they’re ready to compromise on some hardened positions to reach a deal that would prevent the country from plunging over the “fiscal cliff.” Failing to reach an agreement by the end of the year would trigger tax hikes and massive cuts in spending on federal programs.

N.C. Rep. Howard Coble is the latest Republican who says he’s willing to buck one of the party’s sacrosanct pledges to not raise taxes. Read full story here.

More political headlines:

--N.C. Supreme Court Justice Patricia A. Timmons-Goodson, the first and only female African-American to serve on the state’s highest court, is resigning her position. Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat who will leave office after next month, is intent on making the replacement even though if it means she rescinds an executive order she signed to do it.

Amid new indications that North Carolinians remained deadlocked on their presidential choice, Democratic chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Friday the Obama campaign is prepared to wage a vigorous campaign through the November election here.

Dismissing suggestions from Republicans that the president’s campaign was looking to reduce its effort in North Carolina, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee said the ticket was not backing off from what many observers have suggested is Obama’s most difficult battleground state. Full story here.

More political headlines below.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidates sharpened their criticisms Tuesday night, drawing more pointed contrasts with each other’s records in the second in a series of televised debates. 

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge heard his congressional record on trade and his tenure as superintendent of public instruction come under fire. Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton found himself defending his attendance record and his advocacy of Democratic causes in the legislature. Read the story here. And get the pundits' take on the debate.

Other headlines:

-- The calls for Democratic Party chairman David Parker to resign snowballed Tuesday, leaving his tenure short on days. Gov. Bev Perdue, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and former Congressman Bob Etheridge all reversed course to call for his ouster after trying to avoid the controversy for days.

The Charlotte Observer is calling it the "April Surprise" and the paper's cartoonist gets in his take on the candidates' reactions to scandal.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/09/1763710/lack-of-us-debt-deal-could-soon.html#storylink=cpy

Pat McCrory's campaign announced today that the entire Republican congressional delegation is supporting the former Charlotte mayor's bid for governor.

Led by U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, the delegation's endorsement helps dispel the notion of a GOP challenger. The names of a number of top Republicans have floated through political circles lately, from Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler to state Sen. Pete Brunstetter. Neither is expected to run.

McCrory is expected to make a formal announcement about his rematch bid against Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue in early 2012. But he already is busy raising money, making the rounds with Raleigh supporters and media today.

UPDATED: Gov. Bev Perdue's off-the-cuff remark about suspending Congressional elections to focus on the economy went viral. Her aides tried to walk it back, calling it "hyperbole" and suggesting she was joking. 

Was she? You decide. Listen to the audio file here.

As background, her remarks came during a Q&A at the Cary Rotary Club meeting. A man in the audience asked Perdue what she can do to turn around the economy. (The question is not included on the tape because I didn't flick my recorder on quickly enough.) 

It led to a rambling 2-minute-and-25 second answer she surely now regrets.

Soon after it was posted, reactions came streaming in. Here's the official line from N.C. Republican Party spokesman Rob Lockwood:

“Listen to the Governor’s words, she wasn’t joking at all. The Congressional Democrats are wildly unpopular in North Carolina, so she may have been trying to invent a solution to save their jobs from public accountability.”

"If it was a joke, what was the set-up? What was the punch-line? Where was the pause for laughter? It took them hours to say it was a ‘joke,’ but when that flopped, it became ‘hyperbole.’ We’ll just call it an unconstitutionally bad-idea.”

UPDATED: File this in the random-things-politicians-say file.

Speaking to a Cary Rotary Club today, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue suggested suspending Congressional elections for two years so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election.

"I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that," Perdue said. "You want people who don't worry about the next election."

The comment -- which came during a discussion of the economy -- perked more than a few ears. It's unclear whether Perdue, a Democrat, is serious -- but her tone was level and she asked others to support her on the idea.

Later Tuesday afternoon, Perdue's office clarified the remarks: "Come on," said spokeswoman Chris Mackey in a statement. "Gov. Perdue was obviously using hyperbole to highlight what we can all agree is a serious problem: Washington politicians who focus on their own election instead of what’s best for the people they serve."