Latest dispatches from the campaign trail, July 16, 2012

• Walter Dalton and Pat McCrory aren’t yet sure how to respond to an expansion in Medicaid eligibility permitted by the Affordable Care Act.

• A News & Observer analysis finds that Dalton emptied his campaign account to win the primary for governor.

• GOP strategist Carter Wrenn blogs that the second-most watched political race in North Carolina will be the contest for control of the state Supreme Court between Democrat Sam Ervin IV and Republican incumbent Justice Paul Newby.

• Both Richard Hudson and Scott Keadle have benefited from support from outside conservative groups in their runoff contest to face Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell in the 8th Congressional District general election race.

• The Republican runoff for superintendent of public instruction between John Tedesco and Richard Alexander features conservatives who take completely different views of the role of the office.