South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial candidates are looking to prove their conservative credentials during a debate that included even a few kind words for embattled Governor Mark Sanford.

The South Carolina NAACP’s tenth King Day at the Dome march and rally at the Statehouse had a different feel to it this year, coming one day before the inauguration of the nation’s first African-American president.

The NAACP’s effort to boost its boycott of South Carolina because of the Confederate flag is causing some confusion among flag supporters. The lieutenant commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans says the group has made an offer to a property owner to put up a giant Confederate flag along a busy Columbia highway in response to the NAACP. But the commander of the SCV says no offer has been made, only an inquiry, and the lt. commander is speaking for himself and not the group.

The NAACP has met with celebrities and others in the movie industry to pressure South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds in Columbia. South Carolina NAACP President Lonnie Randolph says the civil rights group met over the weekend with leading actors and at least one movie studio consultant.

NAACP leaders say they will step up their campaign against flying of the Confederate battle flag on state grounds in South Carolina. Dennis Courtland Hayes, interim president and CEO, said Monday at the civil rights organization’s national convention in Cincinnati that action plans are in the works and to stay tuned for details.