We believe that the Mike McLaughlin who's been named chief policy analyst for Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton is the same Mike McLaughlin who graduated from ASU way back in the day and worked for a time as a reporter for the Watauga Democrat and then got himself to Raleigh for a string of interesting jobs, including editing the journal for the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research and serving as Communications and Research Coordinator of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice.

If it's the same guy, we're both tickled and impressed.