Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaign would like to point out that it isn't the only one airing commercials in which things don't quite add up.

Back in April, Democratic challenger Kay Hagan released an ad on energy that includes a screen shot of gas prices at $3.96 a gallon.

On April 20, about the time the ad came out, the national average was $3.49 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association. The average in North Carolina was $3.47.

So, Dole's camp wonders, where did Hagan get the footage?

Colleen Flanagan, a Hagan spokeswoman, said that it was stock footage and that the campaign used higher prices intentionally to show what would happen in the future.

"The reason I believe Kay's ad is so powerful is that it wasn't meant to represent what gas prices were at the time," Flanagan said. "People were nervous [that] prices were going to hit $4 a gallon."

The average price Thursday was $4.11, according to AAA's fuel gauge report.

Poll puts Dole up 12 points

Dole maintains a double-digit lead in the Senate race.

In a recent poll by SurveyUSA, the Salisbury Republican received 54 percent of support, while Hagan received 42 percent. Four percent were undecided.

The pollsters say one in four Democrats would cross over to vote for Dole.

The results match polls by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, the conservative Civitas Institute and Rasmussen Reports. All have shown Dole regaining a comfortable lead since a brief Hagan bump during the May primary.

The SurveyUSA poll of 676 likely registered voters was taken July 12 through July 14. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Bribery sentence delayed

Sentencing for a former state official who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to a bribery scheme has been delayed until October.

Boyce Allen Hudson pleaded guilty in May to charges related to a scheme in which he promised to help an ethanol company get its permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Hudson worked for the department, although he was not affiliated with the permitting section.

As part of his plea, Hudson agreed to help investigators with any other cases.

Court records show that on July 9, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle entered a sealed order in the case. Also on that day, Hudson's sentencing hearing, originally scheduled for later this month, was postponed until some time in October.

Watt, too, demotes donors

It seems Pat McCrory is not the only politician handing out demotions.

As Dome previously reported, the Republican gubernatorial candidate demoted former U.S. Sen. Jim Broyhill to a state legislator on his campaign finance report.

Now Washington-based newspaper Roll Call reports that U.S. Rep. Mel Watt had a little trouble on his report with two donors: fellow Congressmen Charlie Rangel and Jim Clyburn.

For employers, he listed: "information requested."

Watt told Roll Call he was following Federal Election Commission rules and requesting the information from the contributors.

"It does seem very funny, but we're just following protocol," he said.

Apparently the FEC won't accept information readily available on Wikipedia.

-By Staff Writers Ryan Teague Beckwith and Ben Niolet