• Officials continue to say fundraising efforts are on track, but Charlotte’s Democratic National Convention has not met its monetary goals.

 

• A new survey by Public Policy Polling finds Republican Pat McCrory maintaining a 7-point lead in the race for governor, even with Libertarian Barbara Howe included in the field. McCrory leads Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton 47-40, with Howe getting 9 percent.

 

• Dalton has a big hill to climb in the fundraising race against McCrory. The lieutenant governor has $714,000 in the bank, compared to $4.4 million for the former Charlotte mayor.

 

• A third of the House Democratic caucus did not join a friend-of-the-court brief asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Among them are N.C. Reps. G.K. Butterfield, 1st, Mike McIntyre, 7th, Larry Kissell, 8th, Heath Shuler, 11th, and Mel Watt, 12th.

 

• The Obama campaign launches a new ad saying Mitt Romney’s tax plans would benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.