Bono's politician shout-out hits a sour note

At the U2 concert in Raleigh this weekend, the crowd would have gone wild for just about anything Bono said or sang.

Which made it all the more awkward when Bono got to his inevitable sermonizing, said several of those who caught the show.

Bono was talking about his "One" project, which works against poverty and disease, particularly in Africa. Bono praised North Carolina for having two prominent politicians who have worked hard for that cause.

On the right, he said, was the late Republican U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

On the left, he said, was former Democratic U.S. Sen. John Edwards.

That's when it got uncomfortable.

"I've never experienced an awkward silence at a rock concert before," Joe Gregorio wrote on one blog, echoing what Dome has heard from others.

Marshall adopts gift ban

Secretary of State Elaine Marshall will extend Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue's ban on gifts to the Secretary of State's office.

Perdue's gift ban, which applied to employees in her administration, came after revelations that Verizon Business treated state employees to dinners and gifts. The company has a $51.5 million, no-bid contract with the state.

Marshall, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday that her office already bans gifts in certain circumstances. She praised Perdue's order.

"The people of North Carolina deserve to know that their state government is operating in unison to reject gifts from those seeking to do business with the state, as well as gifts that could even create any appearance of conflict of interest," Marshall said.

Cunningham still testing

Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham of Lexington continues to act like a U.S. Senate candidate, but he is not ready to announce that he is in the race.

Cunningham was working the crowd at the Democrats' annual Vance-Aycock fundraising dinner in Asheville over the weekend, and he spent a few days last week in Washington attending a seminar put on by The Truman National Security Project, which trains young Democrats on security issues.

But Cunningham said he has not decided whether to enter the 2010 race for the seat held by Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

"I am continuing to test the waters with Democrats around North Carolina," Cunningham said. Cunningham may be holding off until he sees what U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge of Lillington decides.

Etheridge has been encouraged to get into the race by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which carries a lot of clout because of its ability to bankroll a campaign. But Etheridge has not been moving around the state, and he was not at the Vance-Aycock dinner.

There are already two Democratic Senate candidates in the race, Marshall and Durham attorney Kenneth Lewis, both of whom hosted hospitality suites in Asheville.

Ad pushes health reform

A coalition of civil-rights groups has launched a television ad in four states, including North Carolina, to drum up support for Democratic health-care proposals.

The NAACP National Voter Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Campaign for Community Change, the United States Student Association and PowerPAC.org are targeting states with large African-American and Latino populations.

The ad features an older African-American man walking as people board a bus in the background. He begins by saying that the year he was born, an effort to reform health care failed. The description is clearly meant to evoke discriminatory busing practices of the civil rights era.

Later in the ad, a Hispanic woman tries to board the bus, but the door closes on her.

The ad is also set to run in Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas.

By staff writers Benjamin Niolet and Rob Christensen