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• U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-10th District, the chief deputy whip of his party’s House caucus, is looking to move up. If current Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana becomes the new House majority leader, McHenry has announced his desire to succeed Scalise. McHenry would face House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas in the whip race. Be sure to check out Carolina Journal Online soon for a recent interview with McHenry.

• Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, the House speaker pro tem and an effective champion of conservative causes through his eight terms in the General Assembly, announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election. Stam received the John Locke Foundation’s “Knight of the Right” award at a recent anniversary celebration.

• Candidates seeking seats on the North Carolina Court of Appeals will begin listing their party affiliations, thanks to a bill that passed the House Tuesday in the waning hours of the legislative session. The parties will not hold primaries in races for the Court of Appeals, so several candidates from each major party can appear on the ballot.

• The 2016 primary elections will take place March 15. Voters that day will cast ballots for contenders in a host of state and local offices, and decide which candidate they prefer for president. While the bill consolidating the primary election and moving it from May to March also urged the state parties to make the presidential contests winner-take-all, the Democrats and Republicans plan to continue assigning most delegates based on the proportion of votes each candidate receives.

• Speaking of the primary, two-term GOP incumbent U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is likely to have an opponent: retired Greensboro advertising executive Larry Holmquist. The 61-year-old has never run for public office but says he would provide a “conservative voice” that Burr allegedly lacks.

• Rep. Mark Meadows’ decision to reimburse mileage for a former staffer may attract a formal ethics probe. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a conservative watchdog group, has asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to launch an official investigation of the reimbursements. Meadows’