Easley stays out of speaker's race

Gov. Mike Easley said Tuesday morning he’s staying out of the House speaker’s race in 2007 and wouldn’t say whether he believed Jim Black should be selected for a fifth term as speaker or replaced by another candidate. (Black resolved that issue Tuesday night when he announced he would not run for another term.)
Easley said, “I think it’s important for me to stay out of the speaker’s race and let them come to their own choice and their own conclusions as it relates to the current speaker.” His remarks came in a group interview with a dozen reporters Tuesday morning at the governor’s mansion.
This wasn't surprising. Easley has very little to gain from butting into the House’s choice of a speaker and potentially a lot to lose if he intervened and annoyed members of either party as the last biennial legislature of his two terms in office approaches.
Easley evidently is not about to do what one of his predecessors did in 1989. Then-Gov. Jim Martin helped bring about a Democrat-Republican coalition that toppled four-term Speaker Liston Ramsey – a mentor to Jim Black – and replace him with Rep. Joe Mavretic, a Democrat who included Republicans in House leadership posts for one term. Democrats took control back in 1991 for two terms with Dan Blue as speaker, then Republicans got the job in the 1995-97 sessions with Harold Brubaker. Black has held the post since 1999, but his assorted troubles over campaign contributions, his appointment of a lottery commissioner tied to a lottery vendor and various state and federal investigations likely mean he can’t be re-elected speaker again.
When former N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps was in trouble over a campaign contributions scandal, Easley called on her to resign. But Phipps was in the executive branch, and Easley evidently believes it’s not his call to say the same about a member of the legislative branch of government. He has refrained from criticizing Black so far and doesn’t seem likely to change that, or to comment on the investigations.
Black has been Easley’s most reliable ally in the House, helping him win passage of the governor’s proposals on education, economic development and particularly squeezing the state lottery through the House on a close vote in 2005. Easley certainly owes Black for getting the lottery through the legislature. It is, after all, the bill for which Easley will be most remembered, and perhaps Black, too.
While Easley was not interested in saying what he thinks the House should do, he did have one observation. "There’s an awful lot of talent" in the House, he said. He added, “I think I can work with all of them.”
Perhaps that’s the message he meant to send all along.