Weekly Wrap: Candidate filing, online lottery tickets and 'Silent Sam' deal

Election season is upon us.

Just weeks after state lawmakers left town for the year, many are filing for re-election in 2020. Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, who serves as majority leader and a chief budget writer, isn't among them. Brown said he wants to spend more time with his family and on his businesses – something a 10-month legislative calendar severely limits.

Filing remains open for two more weeks, and some other incumbents likely will bow out as well, especially after a court-ordered redraw of dozens of House and Senate districts to erase partisan gerrymandering left some sitting lawmakers in suddenly unfriendly districts.

Congressional candidates got a late start on filing so state judges could sign off on the new map for North Carolina's 13 U.S. House districts. Lawmakers likewise had to redraw that map in the face of a gerrymandering lawsuit. Already, Republican 2nd District Congressman George Holding won't seek re-election after his district become more favorable to a Democratic candidate. Republican 6th District Congressman Mark Walker is in a similar boat, and he is eyeing a possible primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, whose major primary opponent, Garland Tucker, dropped out of the race, or 10th District Congressman Patrick McHenry or 13th District Congressman Ted Budd.

The state lottery commission is moving toward offering online scratch-off tickets, which operate pretty much like the video poker or sweepstakes games lawmakers have fought for years to outlaw. Lottery officials said the digital games will bring in more revenue, and North Carolina law allows the commission to offer them here since several other states already have them.

Finally, even though the "Silent Sam" Confederate monument is gone from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, the controversy over it carries on. UNC officials announced the day before Thanksgiving a deal to hand the monument, which protesters toppled in August 2018, over to the state chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, along with $2.5 million. The SCV can build its own facility to house the statue, as long as it's not in any county where a UNC campus is located. But students and faculty criticized the move, saying the university shouldn't fund an organization that many see as white nationalists.