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• U.S. House Deputy Majority Whip Patrick McHenry, R-10th District, is chairman of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign in North Carolina. Joining McHenry on the Bush team are state Sens. Tom Apodaca of Henderson County, Brent Jackson of Sampson County, and Rep. Charles Jeter of Mecklenburg County.

• The latest poll from the conservative Civitas Institute shows Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper with a slight but statistically insignificant lead over incumbent GOP Gov. Pat McCrory in the 2016 race, with 34 percent supporting Cooper, 32 percent McCrory, and 33 percent undecided or backing another candidate. One oddity: Even though Cooper has been elected four times statewide, 32 percent of respondents said they hadn’t heard of him.

• Democrat Billy Richardson, an attorney from Fayetteville, has taken Rick Glazier’s seat in the state House. Glazier resigned to become head of the left-leaning N.C. Justice Center, a move that was announced several weeks ago. Richardson served in the General Assembly in the 1990s and lost a bid to return to Raleigh in 2014 to Republican Wesley Meredith. That campaign was nasty, as Carolina Journal reported at the time.

• State Sen. Joel Ford, D-Mecklenburg, is the latest member of the party to receive calls from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to consider facing two-term incumbent GOP U.S. Sen. Richard Burr next year. Ford, a member of the pro-business Main Street Democrats, suggests the party needs to move to the center and attract more unaffiliated voters.