Three in Easley Cabinet might want to stay on

Will the Iron Cabinet outlast Easley?

Word is that at least three members of Gov. Mike Easley's administration may be interested in continuing in their posts:

Bryan Beatty: The former director of the State Bureau of Investigation has headed the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety since 2001.

Bill Ross: The environmental attorney has been head of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources since 2001 and claims the Clean Smokestacks Bill and the purchase of Chimney Rock State Park among his accomplishments.

Dempsey Benton: The newest member of Easley's Cabinet, Benton was brought in to clean up problems with the mental health system. The former Raleigh city manager was even cited as a keeper by Republican candidate Fred Smith.

Already, Easley's Cabinet is well-known for its longevity, with many of the original appointees from 2001 still serving.

Keeping some on board could be politically difficult for Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, who promised to run a more hands-on administration.

Popularity contest

Which North Carolina congressman was most popular?

That depends on how you break down the numbers, but U.S. Rep. David Price clearly won the largest number of votes in the November elections.

The Chapel Hill Democrat snagged 265,751 votes. The next most-popular were Reps. Sue Myrick (241,053), Brad Miller (221,379), Howard Coble (221,018) and Mel Watt (215,908).

The rank order is different if you look at percentages, though.

From that perspective, Watt was the most popular, winning 71.6 percent of the vote, followed by Reps. G.K. Butterfield (70.3), Mike McIntyre (68.9), Coble (67) and Bob Etheridge (66.9).

The least popular was Rep.-elect Larry Kissell, who picked up 157,185 votes, or 55.4 percent. Generally speaking, the newer members of Congress were less popular than the older ones.

Why Obama won

A professor of Southern studies says North Carolina did not change overnight.

Ted Ownby of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi says that Tar Heels have long been more liberal than other Southerners.

"Despite Jesse Helms' popularity, there's always been a pretty strong range of liberal and progressive elements in North Carolina politics," he said, citing Terry Sanford, among others. "Since the 1930s, North Carolina's liberal politicians have tended to be to the left of other liberal politicians in the South, though sometimes they have to moderate their liberal tendencies."

Ownby said that tradition belies recent attempts to credit Barack Obama's win here and in Virginia mainly to an influx of liberal Northeasterners.

Conservative runs

Marcus Kindley is running for state GOP chairman.

A Guilford County stockbroker and former head of his county's Republican Party, Kindley ran unsuccessfully against chairwoman Linda Daves in 2007 on a platform of social conservatism, support for the war in Iraq and reduced spending.

He proposes a Contract with North Carolina for Republican candidates for local office. It would include asking for homes' tax values to be lowered in light of the troubled real estate market.

Daves, who has served since December 2006, has not said whether she will seek another term as chairwoman. Former gubernatorial candidate Fred Smith is also weighing a run.

Perdue forum

Perdue will hold an economic round-table discussion in Charlotte on Tuesday.

The event will be led by Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Bank of America executive Cathy Bessant and UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Phil Dubois. It will be moderated by UNC-Chapel Hill professor Ferrel Guillory.

The event is at 10 a.m. at UNC-Charlotte's Harris Alumni Center.