• Several members of the North Carolina congressional delegation paid tribute to retiring Rep. Howard Coble, R-6th, by wearing plaid or madras jackets on the House floor as Coble concludes his three-decade career in Congress.
• One of Coble’s jacket-wearing colleagues, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, was re-elected secretary of the House Republican Conference for the 114th Congress.
• So much for a post-election honeymoon: Gov. Pat McCrory sued fellow Republicans Phil Berger (the state Senate leader) and Thom Tillis (the outgoing speaker of the House) in a separation-of-powers lawsuit, challenging the General Assembly’s authority to create commissions with executive-branch powers that are filled with members appointed by the legislative branch.
• Hagan 2016? Several top Democrats in North Carolina and nationally suggest just-defeated Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan might have the best shot to defeat incumbent GOP Sen. Richard Burr in the 2016 election race.
