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Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat heading back to Raleigh for his third term, is gunning for the post of Guilford County caucus chairman. And Scoop has yet to hear of anyone else who wants the job.

The caucus chairman serves as a point of contact for local businesses, institutions and voters who want to bend the ear of the entire delegation.

The current caucus chairwoman, Rep. Maggie Jeffus, says she has no objections to Jones taking over the role.

“It’s a lot of extra work,” she said. “If he would like to have it, I’m glad for him to have it.”

The job can be a bit like playing scheduling secretary to a herd of cats because it often requires getting all 10 legislators who represent parts of the county in the same room.

“It’s important for the people we serve to understand how successful we’ve been,” Jones said Wednesday. The delegation has been able to bring home funding for endeavors such as the new nanotechnology partnership between UNCG and N.C. A&T and the High Point Market.

Some of that success has to be chalked up to state Sen. Kay Hagan, who held a power appropriations post but is heading to Washington as a U.S. senator in January. So will the delegation still be successful?

Jones says yes, but acknowledges, “Losing a budget writer and that kind of seniority won’t help.”

Hagan’s replacement, Don Vaughan, is familiar with how the General Assembly works, Jones said. And the rest of the delegation has amassed clout as well, he said.

Perdue to tap Adams?

Jones also worried that the Guilford County delegation might lose one more high-profile member: Rep. Alma Adams.

“She probably will get offered a position by Perdue,” said Jones, referring to Governor-elect Bev Perdue.

Adams is a senior budget writer in the House and chairwoman of the Legislative Black Caucus, a group with clout at the General Assembly. In Raleigh circles — including one online gossip column and in the scuttlebutt that pervades conversation around the state Capitol — her name has been bandied about as a possible nominee for heading the Department of Administration.

“I don’t have a comment on that,” Adams said Wednesday.

Spokesmen with Perdue’s transition team said no decisions on Cabinet-level appointments have been made.

All this talk has raised Scoop’s eyebrows because Adams is on record criticizing Perdue for not having enough gender and ethnic diversity on her transition team, a situation that has been remedied in the past week. Also worth noting: If she is appointed, Adams wouldn’t be the first Guilford County official to lead Administration. State Sen. Katie Dorsett held the post during Gov. Jim Hunt’s second term.

Kindley wants GOP post

Former Guilford County GOP Chairman Marcus Kindley has been telling Scoop, and just about anyone else who will listen, that he plans to run for state party chairman next year.

That election comes in June, but Kindley said it’s important for him to start early.

Although Republicans picked up one seat in the state Senate, they lost the state for the first time since 1976 in the presidential election and lost a seat on the 10-member Council of State, which is made up of statewide elected officials.

“We didn’t give anyone a reason to vote for us,” said Kindley, who faults a lack of leadership from the party headquarters. Kindley was a volunteer grass-roots coordinator for Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory’s campaign this year.

Current party Chairman Linda Daves, a Charlotte Republican who does not like to be referred to as chairwoman, says she’ll make up her mind on whether to run after the new year begins. When contacted last week, her attention was on prepping Thanksgiving dinner rather than party politics.

Kindley ran against Daves in 2004. Although he claimed a fair amount of support from Republicans in rural areas, Daves won by winning big margins from urban centers such as Charlotte and Raleigh.

Other names in the mix include at least two former state senators. And with seven months to go before the election, more names are likely to pop up before the vote.

'I voted’

We at Scoop are still detoxing from the election, but here’s a story from Melissa Carter, 52 and a community liaison for a home-care physician, that seemed good for a holiday weekend.

On Nov. 4, she walked into Staples on Battleground, to order Christmas cards for her husband’s chemical company, when she saw Bobby Armstrong, one of the employees, wearing over his heart, “I Voted,” one of the ubiquitous stickers of that day.

Carter asked whether he had in fact just voted, and Armstrong told her yes. All 27 members of his family had.

Huh?

Armstrong, who is African American, went on to explain about his grandfather, and the time he got his ribs broken while he went to cast his own vote back in 1964. And Armstrong’s grandfather still voted.

So, Armstrong and his entire family — including a cousin who drove home from Charlotte — voted together, all at once, in memory of Armstrong’s grandfather.

Armstrong also told Carter about his parents. They’re lifelong Republicans. But this year, they had in their front yard a sign supporting Democrat Barack Obama for president. When Armstrong asked them why, his father quoted a popular lyric we at Scoop love to sing in the late hours of the day.

“Son,” Armstrong’s dad told him, “The times, they are a-changin.’ ”

Since that chance meeting a few weeks ago, Carter has told Armstrong’s story to a handful of people. And every time, they got caught up in the emotion of a moment in a family’s personal history.

All for a grandfather who wanted to vote.

“I have three sons, and for all three of them, this was their first opportunity to vote,” Carter said.

“I told them, 'Be wise,’ because these were elections were very powerful for so many people. Either way it went, we were changing history.”

The man loves a parade

Yes, it’s cold out.

Just be glad you’re not Howard Coble.

This time of year, he’s a parade waver. He’ll jump into Christmas parades going down every Main Street in his congressional district, the sprawling piece of real estate he has represented since 1984.

But unfortunately, some of those parades this year fall on the same day, so Coble has had to choose.

And you know, if he chooses wrong, that could bruise some egos and ultimately lose him some votes.

And having served in the U.S. Congress longer than any other Republican from North Carolina, Coble knows the importance of votes.

So, don’t expect to see Coble in any Christmas parade in Gibsonville, Archdale and Greensboro.

He can’t.

He has promised to be in the Christmas parades in Denton, Stokesdale and Jamestown, waving away.

And we at Scoop thought we had problems this time of year.

Staff writers Mark Binker and Jeri Rowe contributed