Senate candidates make NCAA picks

What do the NCAA brackets tell us about the U.S. Senate candidates?

Dome invited the major candidates to share with us their NCAA brackets. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and potential Democratic challengers Jim Neal and Kay Hagan participated.

Here's our analysis:

MORE BRACKET PANDERING: Neal and Hagan picked UNC-Chapel Hill to go all the way. But both ESPN and CBS Sports say more than a third of bracketeers have picked the Tar Heels. Pandering, or just a good bet? You decide.

DUKE BLUE: Dole, a Duke alum, goes against the grain and picks her alma mater to beat UNC. She also picked Davidson College, near Charlotte, to make the Final Four.

"In the end, I think the Duke Blue Devils are going to win the tournament and add a fourth national championship banner to the rafters at Cameron Indoor," she said in an e-mail message to Dome.

SORRY, HONEY: Dole also picked Davidson to beat the University of Kansas. Her husband, Bob Dole, went to school there and represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate for years.

"Sorry, Bob!" she wrote.

RUNNING AGAINST WASHINGTON? Meantime, Hagan had UNC beating Georgetown University in the Final Four. Was this a dig at Dole, who has spent a lot of time in Washington?

"I think Kay would agree that Carolina could show Georgetown (and Washington in general) a thing or two," said Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan.

It isn't easy getting old

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue may have once been a teacher, but she has lost her touch with kid culture.

In a speech to an American Indian conference in Raleigh on Thursday, Perdue cited, incorrectly, a classic children's song in talking about the difficulties minorities face.

"You remember, I guess it was Mr. Green Jeans, who used to say on Sesame Street, 'It's not easy being green,' " Perdue said. "It's not easy being different for any of us, and in North Carolina it hasn't been easy for American Indians or African-Americans or one minority or other, now Latino folks come in to rock the boat, if you will, to rock the status quo, to push forward for change. But we must do that."

Perdue, of course, was referring to the song made famous by Kermit the Frog.

Mr. Green Jeans was a character on the show "Captain Kangaroo."

McCrory, Smith top GOP

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory and state Sen. Fred Smith are leading the pack in the Republican gubernatorial primary, according to the latest results from Public Policy Polling.

PPP surveyed 553 likely Republican primary voters on March 17. The results showed that McCrory and Smith were each the choice of 29 percent.

Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham was the choice of 8 percent, and former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr was favored by 7 percent.

The survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Dole on the money trail

Dole will spend the rest of the congressional recess raising money for her re-election race.

After an official speech Wednesday night at the Volvo truck plant in Greensboro and another this morning to female real estate agents in High Point, Dole is turning her attention to fundraising.

Dole heads to Minnesota for a fundraiser March 27 with U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. She returns to the Triangle on March 29 for two private fundraisers.

The recess ends March 31.

Water policy is on tap

The Sierra Club is holding a gubernatorial forum on water policy.

The environmental group has invited the four major Republican and two major Democratic candidates to a forum from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday at Griffith Theater at Duke University.