The mud slinging in this race started months ago with a video made by Michael Lee’s committee. According to Lee, the knock-off political Jib Jab video puts humor into Thom Goolsby’s campaign video in which Goolsby claims he’s not a politician. But the tables seem to have turned.

Now Lee claims Goolsby supporters are marking up Republican sample ballots, putting a “D” for democrat by Lee’s name and handing them out at early voting sites. Lee is actually a Republican.

Rusty Carter, the owner of the Atlantic Corporation gave over $50,000 to Boseman’s campaign, but she may have to return it.

According to state law, an individual can give up to $4,000 to a campaign each election.

Carter may have broken laws by giving money to employees that eventually ended up in Boseman’s campaign and others, including Governor Bev Perdue.

“The investigation today does not reveal whether any candidate or campaign knew about this, but none-the-less, we are asking any candidate that may have received money that was tainted by this to disgorge it or give it back,” said Pender County District Attorney Ben David.

David says he is expecting a report from the State Board of Elections to arrive Thursday. He will decide whether or not to press any criminal charges after he reads it.

Congress does not have the authority to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance. Claiming that it has that authority in the interstate commerce clause, as some have suggested, stretches to Constitution to the point of ripping it apart.

The 10th Amendment does say that powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or to the people.

In the legal analysis, not once does Mr. Browning address the issue of Congress regulating “inactivity.” Mr. Cooper nor anyone in the AG’s office should claim that their decision was made on pure legal grounds when they don’t even address the primary legal question.

I actually tend to agree with most of their legal analysis because it simply addresses broad issues that are easy to resolve. Congress certainly has the power to regulate interstate commercial activities and yes, they even can regulate health insurance. However, this doesn’t mean that Congress can regulate a person for not taking action (in this case, not buying health insurance).

By not addressing this question, they undermine the credibility of their legal analysis and make it look like the decision is simply political in nature.