Robert Pittenger, the former state senator from Charlotte running for lieutenant governor, was at the GOP convention Saturday eating lunch next to Rep. Howard Coble when Coble cracked a joke.

Pittenger laughed, and part of his lunch lodged in his throat.

Huckabee, on the other end, heard the commotion, rushed over and performed a Heimlich maneuver that cleared Pittenger's throat. Pittenger left the dais as Huckabee, the luncheon's keynote speaker, returned to his seat.

"To me this is just typical Mike Huckabee," Pittenger said later. "He's just a decent fun guy who cares about people."

'Partnering'?

Is Elizabeth Edwards going to work with Barack Obama?

In an aside in his speech in Raleigh Monday, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee may have indicated that he would be bringing Edwards into the fold.

Although her husband, John, eventually endorsed Obama, Elizabeth was notably absent at the endorsement and let it be known that she preferred Hillary Rodham Clinton's health-care plan.

Some political sites took note of this line, which was not in Obama's prepared remarks:

"By the way, I'm going to be partnering with Elizabeth Edwards. We're going to be figuring all this out," he said.

Dome is skeptical that means much, especially since it was not written into the speech. "Partnering" is a pretty broad term, after all.

Soccer seasons Senate race

Are soccer moms making a comeback?

State Sen. Kay Hagan, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, has co-sponsored three different bills related to soccer in the past two years.

One 2007 bill honored the UNC-Chapel Hill women's soccer team and its 2006 national championship. Another bill invited the female players to the legislature for recognition. And a third bill filed this session would create special "Support Soccer" license plates.

Newspapers have described Hagan, 54, a mother of three, as a "soccer mom from Greensboro." Her daughter Carrie plays the sport. In 1999, Hagan led a fundraising effort for soccer fields in Greensboro.

When Republicans proposed a redistricting plan that would have put her in a heavily Republican area in 2001, then-state Rep. Brad Miller jokingly noted how it would affect her.

"I think, under this plan, it would be easier [for you] to make it to your child's soccer games," he said.

Hagan's Republican opponent, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, is no slouch in the soccer department, either, co-sponsoring a 2007 resolution commending Wake Forest University's men's team.

Retired doc elected to RNC

Republican delegates elected retired Salisbury doctor Ada Fisher to the Republican National Committee on Saturday.

Fisher, 60, could be the first black Republican elected to the committee from North Carolina.

She ran unsuccessfully in 2004 and 2006 for the 12th Congressional District, and in 2002 for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Her election follows the election last weekend of South Carolina Republican Glenn McCall.

Fisher upset establishment candidate Mary Frances Forrester, the wife of Sen. Jim Forrester.

"We're going to have a look that reflects the party and the people," Fisher said.

Dole photo causes flap

The N.C. Democratic Party has filed a complaint against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

In a letter Monday to the heads of the Senate Ethics Committee, Chairman Jerry Meek writes that Dole has used the same picture of herself on both her official Senate Web site and also on her private re-election campaign site.

"The use of such a photograph is an improper use of official government property and may confuse and mislead voters who compare the two Web sites," he wrote to Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Cornyn.

Under Senate Ethics Rules, government resources cannot be used for campaign purposes.

Meek argues that because the photograph of Dole is the only one on her Web site, it "can only be assumed" that it is her official photograph, and therefore can't be used on the campaign site.

(By Jim Morrill of the Charlotte Observer and Ryan Teague Beckwith.)