More North Carolinians sign up to vote

Since the first of the year, 144,774 new voters have signed up in North Carolina.

The 2.6 percent increase in registered voters has come as two top positions -- president and governor -- are being vacated by second-term incumbents with no obvious political heir.

The State Board of Elections calculated the new numbers over the weekend, including residents who filed by Friday's deadline for traditional registration. Still, North Carolinians can register and vote at one-stop sites from Thursday through May 3.

Slightly more than half of the new voters are Democrats.

In all, new registered voters were: 76,131 Democrats, or 53 percent; 53,732 unaffiliated, or 37 percent; and 14,911 Republicans, or 10 percent.

That left the state with 5.75 million voters.

Poll shows Obama ahead

Sen. Barack Obama continues to lead the way in North Carolina's Democratic presidential primary.

The latest tracking poll by Public Policy Polling shows that Obama was the choice of 54 percent of those surveyed. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the choice of 34 percent of those surveyed.

The findings are the results of a survey of 538 likely Democratic voters April 12-13. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. PPP said other factors, such as a refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may have introduced additional error.

The same survey showed that Perdue has a big lead in the Democratic primary for governor. Perdue was the choice of 41 percent of likely Democratic voters; Moore was the choice of 31 percent.

And Kay Hagan is showing some movement in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, was the choice of 28 percent of likely Democratic voters. Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill investment banker, was the choice of 7 percent of those surveyed. More than half -- 58 percent -- are still undecided.

Jones: Obama out of touch

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones has condemned Barack Obama's remarks about guns and religion.

In a statement Monday, the Farmville Republican said he does not agree with the Democratic presidential candidate's recent characterization of small-town Pennsylvanians as "bitter."

"Senator Obama is clearly out of touch with the values of middle-class Americans," he said. "Those comments might be welcomed by liberal groups in San Francisco, but mainstream America resents these types of condescending remarks."

He added that "law-abiding citizens who believe in the Bible and the Constitution" do not want their values "mocked" by politicians.

Lawsuit filed over ad

An attorney Monday filed notice of his intent to sue Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and her campaign on behalf of an insurance broker caught in the crossfire between Perdue and her rival for the Democratic nomination for governor, state Treasurer Richard Moore.

Raleigh attorney Gene Boyce said his client, State Insurance Services, is seeking unspecified monetary damages for defamation and unfair trade practices.

Perdue's campaign ran a TV ad for several days this month alleging that State Insurance Services had won a contract from Moore's office to market insurance policies to retirees because the company's principals had given "huge" contributions to Moore's campaigns. The ad also said retirees were overcharged for the policies.

The company said it won the business through a competitive request for proposals and that a small percentage of retirees were overcharged in cases of mistaken billings that were later cleared up.

"We stand by the content of our ad and will review any of the legal documents they send to us," said David Kochman, a spokesman for Perdue's campaign.

The campaign ended the TV ad by Wednesday, but a campaign spokesman continued to stand by its claims. The next day Perdue said she would not run any more negative ads.

Boyce said no lawsuit would have been filed if the Perdue campaign had retracted the TV ad and apologized for its claims.

"I don't know why they never responded to me," he said.