The Republican presidential nominee's political action committee, Straight Talk America, has given just $3,500 in recent years to Tar Heel Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In 2000, the leadership PAC gave a $1,000 donation to U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, a Concord Republican, and in 2006 it gave $2,500 to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican.

Barack Obama's PAC gave $10,000 to U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler.

Libertarians and voting

Mike Munger says the state is dragging its feet on Libertarian registrations.

The Libertarian gubernatorial nominee and Duke University political science professor tells Dome that the party had more than 13,000 registered voters in 2005.

When the Libertarians lost party status, those voters became unaffiliated, though they should be able to reregister now that it is a party again. But Munger says some of the state's largest boards of elections have not yet posted the forms online to allow it. Only a trickle of Libertarians had registered as of last week.

"How can we register people as Libertarian when they won't change the forms?" he writes in an e-mail. "The state is intentionally dragging its feet, in violation of the law, and the expressed will of more than 100,000 voters." Munger was referring to those who signed a petition asking the state to recognize the Libertarian Party.

Deputy elections director Johnnie Mclean said that the state board only recently got the forms together to allow people to reregister, so it will take a while before the party bounces back.

A reality check

U.S. Reps. Brad Miller and David Price spent part of their summer vacation last week in Liberia's capital city of Monrovia, where their hotel lacked hot water and had exposed wiring, the odor of gasoline and occasional power outages. It was a change from the plush digs of Capitol Hill.

It also was a sobering reminder of the conditions in poor nations plagued by civil strife.

"We have just visited two of the poorest nations on the planet," Miller said in an interview from Africa. "Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both have been through horrific conflict."

Liberia had 14 years of civil war, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is emerging from a civil war that has killed more than 5 million people, said Miller, of Raleigh.

"Their poverty is a security threat to the United States," he said. "Failed societies and ungoverned areas are where extremism and terrorism really take hold."

Miller joined a Price-led congressional trip to the region. U.S. Rep. Mel Watt of Charlotte also was on the trip. The delegation planned to visit Kenya, Malawi and Mauritania before returning to the United States.

Official travel policy

State workers can typically spend up to $19 on dinner.

Under the state's official travel policy in 2007, employees on official business are "expected to exercise the same care in incurring expenses that a prudent person would exercise if traveling on personal business."

The policy includes a schedule of expenses that will be reimbursed for out-of-state trips: $7.50 for breakfast, $9.75 for lunch, $19 for dinner and $75.50 for lodging per day.

In addition, it notes that "excessive tips" will not be reimbursed, though it does not give specific guidelines for tipping. For overseas trips, the policy allows for business-class tickets and more spending on meals, although it does not give exact guidelines on the latter.

First lady Mary Easley was criticized last week after reports that she was part of a delegation that spent $109,000 in taxpayer money on two European trips.