Private money covering Easley's legal bills

First lady Mary Easley is using private money to pay state Sen. Tony Rand to be her attorney.

Rand, the Senate majority leader and a Fayetteville Democrat, has been representing Easley in her dealings with state Auditor Les Merritt, a Republican. A spokeswoman in the governor's office said Rand is not being paid with state funds.

Merritt released a report Thursday about two trips to Europe. In 2007, Easley and an assistant went to France. A year later, Easley and a delegation of state arts officials went to Russia and Estonia. The two trips cost taxpayers a total of $110,000.

Merritt found that $45,000 of that was unreasonable.

Merritt, who is seeking re-election, was criticized for releasing the report days before the election. He said it was only because he had tried for a month to ask Easley questions. Merritt released a list of his office's attempts.

The list shows that Merritt's staff and officials in the governor's office started trying to arrange an interview Sept. 15. After Merritt's office agreed to send questions by e-mail, Rand entered the picture Oct. 10. On Oct. 13, Rand offered to make his client available.

By then, Rand said, Merritt didn't want the interview.

Palin pulls them in

Sarah Palin has drawn big crowds in North Carolina.

The Republican vice presidential candidate has visited the state four times, attracting more than 27,000 people to the events, according to these crowd estimates:

* In Greenville, Palin spoke Oct. 7 to a crowd of about 8,000 at East Carolina University, then watched the second presidential debate with gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory and Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr.

* In Elon, Palin spoke Oct. 16 to about 2,000 people at Elon University, then attended a private fundraiser in Greensboro.

* In Asheville, Palin addressed more than 7,600 people at a rally in the Asheville Civic Center on Oct. 26. Thousands more were turned away.

* Saturday night in Raleigh, Palin spoke to 10,000 people at the Exposition Center at the State Fairgrounds, according to WRAL's crowd estimate. No official estimate was available.

Wishful thinking?

Brooke Burr had an unusual button on Saturday.

Attending the Sarah Palin rally in Raleigh, Sen. Richard Burr's wife was wearing a large pink campaign button that read "Palin-McCain."

Typically, the vice presidential candidate's name is second, it was pointed out.

Burr said she had not even noticed that, although she figured the pink color was an allusion to Palin. She said a campaign worker gave her the button.

Driving it home

Junior Johnson is getting out the word for Barack Obama.

In a post on BlueNC, the Hall of Fame NASCAR legend says he is the last person you would expect to be promoting the Democratic presidential candidate.

"I've voted for many Republicans over many decades. And let's face it -- NASCAR car drivers and Democrats don't usually mix," he writes. "But then again, no one expected my state of North Carolina to be a tossup a few days before the election, either."

He says he supports Obama because Obama will fight corporate lobbyists, help small business owners and protect Second Amendment rights.

"I've been in a lot of races in my life," he writes. "But I do believe this may be the most important one yet."

Another NASCAR legend, Richard Petty, has endorsed John McCain.

'Desperation,' 'tears'

The Libertarian Senate candidate has weighed in on Sen Elizabeth Dole's "godless" ad. Christopher Cole writes Dome that the ad controversy has shown flaws of both Dole and her Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan.

"The Republicans are demonstrating absolute desperation," he writes. "Their inability to campaign on principles -- they have none -- forces them to scrape the bottom of the Helms barrel."

On the other hand, he argues that Hagan is disingenuous.

"She turns to a damsel-in-distress routine because she really has no defense," he writes. "She was well aware that her relationship to the Godless Americans PAC would be offensive to most Carolinians. That's why SHE never publicized it. She got caught and turns to crocodile tears to gain sympathy."