North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D) said the country should suspend congressional elections for two years “so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election,” the Raleigh News and Observer reports.

Said Perdue: “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”

Update: Was Perdue joking, as her staff now claims? Audio of her remarks was just posted.

The Concord Monitor reports that mayoral candidate John Cook spent a night in jail “after he was charged with disorderly conduct and exposing himself to two Concord police officers.”

“Cook has had three run-ins with the Concord police in recent years that have led to criminal charges, including a 2005 incident when he allegedly kicked two police officers as they took him to Concord Hospital while he was ‘heavily intoxicated,’ according to court records.”