But do they know their college hoops?

Forget about fixing mental health, booting political influence from state road-building, opening up government and boosting public schools. It’s March in the Tar Heel state, and the Madness has begun. It’s also an election year with wide-open statewide races. That means the really, really important question for North Carolina candidates is (drumroll please) how well do you know your college basketball?

The News & Observer’s Under the Dome political blog has veered into uncharted territory in an admirable effort to find out. It has invited the state’s candidates for elected office to post their brackets for the NCAA tourney, and promised to report how well they do.

This is great. Now we’ll really get to see who panders (Ole Roy’s UNC Chapel Hill Tar Heels are ranked No. 1), who’s a shrewd strategist and who doesn’t have a clue.

Questions: Will any of the candidates for governor be bold enough to pick someone other than the Heels? Will anybody at all pick Duke?