The attention shifts toward the legislative session starting next week and away from the election as Gov. Bev Perdue releases here budget proposal this morning. Perdue will ask legislators to spend an additional $562 million on K-12 schools and increase the state sales tax in the $20.9 billion budget.
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday made it clear they weren’t interested, setting up a rematch of last year’s budget battles between the Democratic governor and the GOP-led legislature. Get more details here.
But before Jones Street consumes the news, here's more from Tuesday's election:
--Angry and frustrated, organizers of the opposition campaign vowed to use the momentum to continue to push for legal protection. Activists in Durham and Wilson kicked off a seven-day protest across the state by sending gay couples to apply for marriage licenses. All the while, amendment opponents are refusing to accept that the 61-39 percent loss reflects how people in North Carolina feel about the issue.
--More amendment news: President Barack Obama shifts his stance on gay marriage, a day after the vote. North Carolina is ridiculed in social networking and online sites for its vote. A move to uproot the Democratic convention from Charlotte because of the amendment won't happen. And columnist Barry Saunders asks who the amendment backers will target next.
-- A near-record number of voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary election, but it will take one more round to decide the winner of more than a dozen races across the state. And the second time around, far fewer voters are expected at the polls for the runoff election.
-- Fresh off his victory in Tuesday’s primary, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Walter Dalton came to Charlotte Wednesday and slammed Republican opponent Pat McCrory in his own backyard.
--Two of the losing candidates in the race for the Republican nomination in the 8th Congressional District endorsed second-place finisher Scott Keadle on Wednesday. By endorsing Keadle, the two Republicans hope to stop front-runner Richard Hudson from winning the nomination in a July 17 runoff.
--From the Edwards trial: Prosecutors trying John Edwards have called a cast of witnesses over the past three weeks to talk about $400 haircuts, fancy houses, posh estates, back-biting, betrayal and an extramarital affair that sent a one-time presidential candidate plummeting to the depths of a criminal trial. But prosecutors won’t be calling the woman who set the whole, sordid matter into motion – Edwards’ former mistress, Rielle Hunter.
