Sen. Boseman stays at lobbyist's home

State Sen. Julia Boseman, a Wilmington Democrat in the midst of a child custody battle, is staying at the Raleigh home of a lobbyist during the legislative session.

Boseman said she is renting a basement apartment in the home of lobbyist Theresa Kostrzewa. Both said Boseman is paying $50 a night.

Recent changes to the state's lobbying laws prevent lawmakers from accepting free or reduced-rate housing from lobbyists. Walker Reagan, a legislative staff attorney who advises on ethics issues, said Boseman would not be in violation of the law so long as she is paying a market rate. He said that Boseman had asked his opinion.

Kostrzewa said she checked apartments in her neighborhood and found that apartments were renting for $800 a month. That comes out to $27 a night. She said she also checked with a nearby hotel and found the government rate at roughly $65 per night.

Boseman is the Senate's first openly gay member. She is in a custody battle with her former domestic partner, and it has led to disclosures that she had smoked marijuana in the year before her election to the state legislature in 2004 and that she has defaulted on a $1.3 million loan on her former home.

Boseman said she has her son every other week under the custody agreement and she brings him to Raleigh.

"My No. 1 priority was finding a safe place," Boseman said. "I didn't want to keep him in a hotel. I felt like I needed more of a stable environment."

She said she also pays $10 an hour to Kostrzewa's teenage daughter for baby-sitting.

McCain leads Obama in N.C.

John McCain leads Barack Obama by four points in North Carolina.

In a recent poll by the Civitas Institute, the Republican presidential nominee had 45 percent, followed by Obama at 41 percent and Libertarian nominee Bob Barr at 2 percent. Twelve percent were undecided.

In the previous survey for the group, McCain led Obama 44-39. Barr was not included in that poll. Other surveys have shown Barr gaining as much as 6 percent.

The live survey of 600 likely general election voters was taken June 11-13 by TelOpinion Research of Alexandria, Va. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Hagan tethers Dole, Bush

Kay Hagan's campaign is tying U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole to George W. Bush.

A mailed solicitation obtained by Dome reveals some of the tactics being used by the Democratic candidate for Senate. In particular, the Hagan campaign is using Bush and the Iraq war to attack Dole.

In a three-page letter, Hagan writes that Dole has spent "hundreds of billions" on a "mismanaged war," kept troops "deployed indefinitely" and voted against veterans' benefits.

"It is truly astonishing to me that Senate Republicans like Elizabeth Dole have worked hand-in-glove with George Bush to force his agenda on America," it reads.

The letter also claims that the National Republican Senatorial Committee will "spend millions" on Dole's campaign.

Hagan says she is trying to raise $1.5 million by June 30.

Car smoking ban advances

The state Senate wants to ban driving while smoking -- at least for state employees.

Senators voted 37-7 Monday night to prohibit state employees from smoking inside a vehicle owned or leased by state government. The bill would also allow local governments to place similar restrictions on vehicles they control.

Violating the law would carry no punishment, though the person in charge of assigning the vehicle would be required to place a no-smoking sign in at least one "conspicuous" area inside.

It would apply to all vehicles assigned by the N.C. Department of Administration's motor pool division.

There was little discussion before senators voted for the bill, which is aimed at improving health.

(David Ingram of The Charlotte Observer contributed to this report.)