Forecast is for better Raleigh-D.C. teamwork

Ferrell Guillory says Washington and Raleigh will work more closely together.

The founder of the Program of Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill told Dome that state Democrats in the two capitals will work much better with Beverly Perdue moving into the governor's office and Kay Hagan moving into the U.S. Senate.

In recent years, the state has been run by Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, and represented by Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr.

"I think the state Democrats are looking forward to having someone in Washington whom they can deal with and feel that she'll be a presence back in North Carolina regularly, that she understands the university, that she understands the community college system, that she understands the infrastructure that needs federal support," Guillory explained.

"It will be seen as a victory for Democrats in recapturing a place in the U.S. Senate," he added. "[Hagan] will clearly be a go-to person, particularly for Democrats."

Martin has no regrets

State Rep. Grier Martin says he doesn't regret his decision not to challenge Dole for the U.S. Senate.

Martin was openly recruited to run for the seat, back when the conventional wisdom was that Dole was safe. Hagan eventually jumped in and pulled out a stunning victory this week.

But before all that, Martin says, he saw polling suggesting that Dole was vulnerable.

"From the sole perspective of my political career, I was convinced that the odds were more than good enough to make a go at it," Martin told Dome in an e-mail. "There are, thank goodness, other perspectives more important, though. I would only have a regret if Dole had been re-elected, but fortunately for NC, we had a smart, tough, hard-charging candidate like Kay, who was clearly the best person to get the job done."

Voter education

The N.C. Democratic Party spent $1.5 million educating voters about straight-ticket voting.

North Carolina is the only state in the country that does not include the presidential race in the straight-ticket option on the ballot.

With a close race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain here, the party sent mailers, made automated calls and ran radio and newspaper ads educating voters to make sure to also mark the presidential race.

Obama also made sure to note the distinction when he spoke at rallies.

The effort appears to have paid off, with a much lower percentage of undervotes than usual.

The late, late news

The latest in late-breaking news from the state Department of Health and Human Services came in a news release sent after 5 p.m. Election Day about a legal settlement with a mental health provider the state was trying to shut down.

The state settled with Dominion Healthcare Services two weeks ago. Dominion agreed to reimburse Medicaid $1.6 million.

Tom Lawrence, spokesman for DHHS, said he didn't know about the settlement and found out about it after a newspaper picked up a news release from the company. Lawrence said his office started working on the news release Tuesday morning, but a necessary clearance from state attorneys pushed its release to after 5 on the busiest news day of the year.

The communications office has no system for getting information from state attorneys about the status of DHHS cases, Lawrence said.

"These things are often handled, sometimes handled without us knowing what's going on," he said.

Backhanded gratitude

Outgoing N.C. Insurance Commissioner Jim Long told the crowd at the Democratic Party festivities in Raleigh on Tuesday night that they should all sit down "and send a thank-you note to George Bush."