What have they done with Richard Burr?

If you ask me, I think they’ve kidnapped U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and put some imposter in his place. What else explains the goofy positions, if that’s the right word, that the junior U.S. senator from North Carolina has taken on environmental issues in northeastern and northwestern North Carolina?
What makes it puzzling is that Burr isn’t usually reluctant to tackle hard issues. Remember the tobacco buyout program he helped engineer through Congress a few years ago? So it’s not that he’s a stranger to controversy.
But on two hot issues, he hasn’t spoken out.
One is the Navy’s proposed Outlying Landing Field. A lot of politicians avoided opposing that site close to a national wildlife refuge, but lately the state’s leaders are opposing it – Republicans and Democrats alike. Recently state Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, a Republican, joined Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat and late joiner of this campaign, in opposing the site in Washington and Beaufort counties and supporting another choice in North Carolina. Now Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Graham of Salisbury has come out against the Navy’s preferred site, and Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole has urged the Navy to listen to residents of the area. She hasn’t formally opposed it, but word is that her patience with the Navy is wearing thin because the service refuses to actively consider another site.
But Burr has resisted taking a position because, he says, that’s not his job. He told the Associated Press he didn’t think “it’s a member of Congress’ role to tell the Navy where or where not to place something.”
Strange position, that one.
Last week he took another walk, this time on the six-decade-plus controversy over the “road to nowhere” that the federal government promised to build in 1943 on the north shore of Fontana Lake. The road would cost more than half a billion dollars and destroy vital habitat. The Swain County commissioners support a $52 million settlement, and so does newly-elected Rep. Heath Shuler. Shuler defeated Rep. Charles Taylor, who supported building the road even at its out-of-sight cost.
Now 17 members of Congress have signed a letter to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne asking him to support giving unspent money from an environmental impact statement on the road – about $6 million – to Swain County as a partial payment on the proposed $52 million settlement. The letter was signed by nine members of Congress from Tennessee and eight from North Carolina, including Sen. Dole.
But Burr demurred, issuing a statement that he had always supported the 1943 plan to build the road and that while the community is still split, “I do not believe we should stop the work now underway and take a new path. I am aware that some of my colleagues suggest we now seek a financial settlement. Unfortunately we do not have assurances that the federal funding needed to fulfill the commitment made to the citizens of Swain County is achievable, nor is there agreement within the community that this is the right decision.”
Well, continuing to support the 1943 plan is a stance, but it’s a pricey one. What’s strange is that he worries there is no assurance of federal funding for a $52 million commitment. But there’s no assurance of federal funding commitment for the nearly $600 million or more the road would cost, either. Is there any doubt which is more likely to happen?
Which is why a lot of folks are wondering: what in the world have they done with Richard Burr?
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Remembering Tar Heel mascot Jason Ray

I never met Jason Ray, the UNC mascot who died from injuries in an accident just before the regional semifinals last week in New Jersey. But I spent many winter evenings with him over the past three years, watching him help whip up Tar Heel fans as UNC basketball teams whipped up on scores of other teams. I know the job was shared by several students and of course I don’t know which nights Jason was in costume, but I do know the mascot was always fun to watch.

I also know a little about what it takes to do that sort of thing. A couple of hundred years ago, or so it seems, I was a Carolina cheerleader at a time when Dean Smith was just emerging as a coaching genius and beginning to win national attention.

In those days one of my jobs for pep rallies was to fetch the Tar Heel mascot – one of a series of wooly rams known as Rameses – from the farm of Bob Hogan and bring him to campus. Hogan, whose family had been farming in Orange County for generations, would help me take out the back seat of my 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, and lead Rameses in one door. When I got to the campus destination, someone would help me lead Rameses out the other door. Hogan himself would handle those duties on football Saturdays. I don’t recall whether we had a Tar Heel mascot in costume in those days, but the real Rameses attended mostly football games and, I guess, other outdoor sports.

One of my cheerleading colleagues was Dave Bennett, a year or so younger than I, who would go on to become head cheerleader. After graduation, Dave became a teacher, a coach and head of the state government intern program for a time before going into the family plumbing supply business in Burlington, Bennett-Hockett Supply Co.

Last fall, the company had an employees day in Chapel Hill and attended a football game. Jason came over and entertained the kids. Here are Dave’s thoughts about Jason and what that day last fall meant, and a photo (that's Dave at far left) taken of the group with Jason Ray:

“Our hearts ache for the family of Jason Ray. This picture was taken last fall on a football Saturday as our business hosted an employee/customer outing to the Carolina v. South Florida game. Jason thrilled the kids in our group with his warmth and enthusiasm. He was a wonderful ambassador for the University and its athletic program. Jason’s tragic passing will be felt deep within the Tar Heel family.”

Don't like elections? Change 'em

For those who fret that not enough voters take part in elections, not to worry: The N.C. General Assembly is about to consider almost every conceivable kind of change. There’s a ton, all to be found on the legislature’s website at www.ncleg.net. Here’s a handful of proposals from the Senate filings, just to give you a whiff of what’s in the wind:
-- Senate Bill 84, to amend the N.C. Constitution to make legislative terms four years long rather than two years, sponsored by Sen. David Weinstein, D-Robeson.
-- SB Bill 168, to move the presidential primary in 2008 from early May to the first Tuesday in February, which would be Feb. 5, 2008, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Brock, R-Davie.
-- SB 954, to put North Carolina in a compact with other states agreeing to elect the president by popular vote, sponsored by Sen. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg.
-- SB 957, to amend the N.C. Constitution to provide for the nomination of appellate judges by a nominating commission, appointment by the governor and periodic nonpartisan retention elections – replacing the state’s current system of electing judges, sponsored by Clodfelter.
-- SB 1124, to amend the Constitution to provide that the superintendent of public instruction be appointed by the State Board of Education, rather than chosen by election, sponsored by Clodfelter.
-- SB 1128, to provide public funds to finance the campaigns for eight Council of State offices, including superintendent of public instruction, auditor, treasurer, secretary of state, attorney general, commissioner of agriculture, commissioner of labor and commissioner of insurance, sponsored by Clodfelter. Candidates would have to agree to fundraising and spending limits to participate.
-- SB 1205, a similar bill to provide public funding of eight Council of State races, but not governor or lieutenant governor, starting in the 2012 election, if candidates agree to limit fundr-raising and spending, sponsored by Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, and Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, R-Cabarrus.
-- SB 1261, to establish a pilot program experimenting with publicly financed elections in four legislative districts – two House and two Senate – recommended by the minority and majority leaders of the House and Senate and chosen by the State Board of Elections. Sponsored by Sen. Bob Atwater, D-Durham.
-- SB 1347, to provide that the superintendent of public instruction by appointed by the governor and subject to confirmation by the legislature, instead of chosen by election, sponsored by Sen. Malcolm Graham, D-Mecklenburg, and by Clodfelter. (Yes, that’s the third Clodfelter bill changing the way the public schools chief is chosen. Obviously he wants to get discussion going on any or all of several ways to do it.)
-- SB 1469 and 1470, to cut in half the number of statewide elected officials, by providing that the elected members of the Council of State will be the governor, lieutenant governor, auditor, treasurer and attorney general and that they would continue to be elected by the people. The remaining offices would be appointed by the governor. Sponsored by Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin.
See anything you like?

Tobacco still a burning issue in Raleigh

Tobacco still a burning issue in Raleigh

A couple items in the news this week drove home the point how much North Carolina has changed. One was sheer numbers: North Carolina added 800,000 residents since 2000 – some 300,000 in the Charlotte region. Mecklenburg and Wake are among the fastest-growing areas in the country, and it won’t be long before the state passes Ohio in population. Hard to believe.
Here’s another change that’s hard to absorb: the growing support in the N.C. General Assembly for a bill to ban smoking in public places including work places and restaurants. It reflects a decline of the tobacco lobby’s power in the 21st century.
It hasn’t passed yet, but it zipped through a House committee the other day on a more than 2-1 vote but won't be on the House floor for days while its sponsor tries to round up more support. Its primary sponsor is House majority leader Hugh Holliman, a Davidson County Democrat and former smoker who lost a sister to lung cancer. He has the support of 10 cosponsors and support from some Republicans as well as Democrats. State Health Director Leah Devlin backs the bill, and so does Rep. Alice Graham Underhill, D-Craven, whose father, the late N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham, was an ardent defender of all things tobacco.
But things change. Just 14 years ago, the tobacco lobby was still flexing its muscle in Raleigh. It persuaded the 1993 General Assembly to co-opt local control of smoking ordinances by restricting the ability of local governments to declare no-smoking areas after Oct. 15 of that year. It was an outrageous preemption of home rule and meant that many thousands of North Carolinians had to endure second-hand smoke in public places.
They still do, and that’s bad public policy. Dr. Devlin told reporters Thursday that second-hand smoke increases the chance of heart disease and lung cancer in those who must breathe it. There’s no safe level of second-hand smoke, she said. “It’s a very serious health hazard,” she added.
Things began to change sharply several years ago. When Gov. Mike Easley – born and reared in tobacco country and in a tobacco family – proposed hefty raises in cigarette taxes, it was one sign that the axis of the Earth had tilted. And when the General Assembly approved a two-step increase, the ground in bright-leaf country wobbled some more.
It will be interesting to watch how Holliman’s bill fares in the House, but it is clear that Big Tobacco no longer has the clout it once did in Raleigh.

The book on Easley: Whew!

The state has just published a new edition of “The Governors of North Carolina,” a 211-page paperback book that features biographic sketches of the 99 North Carolinians who have served as governors since Ralph Lane in 1585-86. It’s edited by Michael Hill, a state historian, and sells for $29.35 (including tax and shipping). You can arrange for a copy by contacting francis.kunstling@ncmail.net or calling the N.C. Division of Archives and History at (919) 733-7442.
For the most part it’s an interesting read, catching up with those who served the state during its many challenging periods. Some of the writing is pretty revelatory. The entry on Gov. R. Gregg Cherry 1945-49) of Gastonia – so called “Grog” Cherry by detractors and some admirers as well – includes this note: “Personally, Gregg Cherry was roughhewn, plainspoken, and at times profane, with a fondness for whiskey and chewing tobacco.”
The entry on Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock (1901-05) was equally candid. Among other things, it noted that Aycock distrusted Republicans of the era and “endorsed the idea that politics should be reserved for the white race.”
And the Depression-era Gov. J.C.B. Ehringhaus (1933-37) was so “cautious,” the book noted, that at the height of the Depression he declined to provide state matching support for the Emergency Relief Administration “and delayed implementation of provisions of the Social Security Act, passed in 1935, until 1937.”
He also opposed the state’s taking part in the New Deal’s tobacco support program and spoke in opposition for 90 minutes at a Raleigh football stadium. Among other things, he told the crowd, he’d gotten “a bellyfull of public office.”
Alas, the entry on the state’s current governor, did not read with the same kind of raw-material, bark-still-on candor. Gov. Michael Francis Easley’s entry read more like a public relations pamphlet. (Indeed, the book's introduction notes, Easley's entry was written after consultation with his press office.) Among other things, it referred to “[T]he more than $400 million in annual funds generated by the new lottery” for schools – except the lottery hasn’t generated that kind of money yet.
It also noted he “successfully led North Carolina through its transition to become a major competitor in the new global economy..... Easley provided the tools need to attract successful new industry and to grow existing businesses. These tools will help secure a strong, healthy economy for north Carolina years into the future.”
Whew! Even Easley’s admirers will find that spread on a little thick. Perhaps state officials should wait until governors have left office before they try to assess their gubernatorial terms.

Readers sound off on corruption reporting

Sunday’s column ("Reporters, records led path to
Black") in the Observer related how Democracy North Carolina researcher Bob Hall and Observer reporters used public records to help unravel the story about former Speaker Jim Black, and how it’s helping tell the public about an investigation into the dealings of Rep. Tom Wright, D-New Hanover and how financial houses are helping fund State Treasurer Richard Moore’s campaign. I asked readers to let me know what they thought. Here’s a sample:
From a reader in Hickory:
I appreciate the awareness you and your colleagues are trying to raise regarding the conflicts of interest and fraud that is pervasive in some political camps. With that said, your reference to the work of David Ingram and Rick Rothacker should have cited the earlier work by Forbes magazine (Neil Weinberg and Jason Storbakken) which first exposed Richard Moore’s “Pay to Play" and related conflicts of interest. By all means, please do not let up on the message but in fairness to those who did the original research and put Moore in the national spotlight, they should be referenced as well.
And my reply:
Good point, but I do know that David and Rick were working on their
story long before Forbes magazine sent out the press release on theirs. I’m not arguing we were on it before Forbes went to work; very likely Forbes spent months on it. But it would be incorrect for us to imply that we got on the story only after Forbes did. They busted it first and deserve credit. My Sunday columns run 132 lines (in our system) and the laws of physics prevent me from saying all the things that should or could be said....
The point I was trying to make was not who got the story first, but how well our state’s open records laws have served the public interest in helping folks understand what was happening.
From a reader in Tega Cay:
Appreciate everything the Observer has done to
report on corruption in government. Sometimes it seems like
the newspapers are the only organization that devotes the
assets and energy necessary to uncover these threats to
democracy. The Carolinas, like a lot of other states, has a
long way to go in changing its attitudes towards government corruption.
From a Catawba County reader:
I wish they would simply ban lobbying altogether. It is a cancer in the state and in this country!
From a reader in Newland:
When I studied political science, the model was that a state governor’s cabinet would be appointed and confirmed, just as the U.S. cabinet is. Otherwise, you may have a group of officials working against each other.
In the same vein, I loathe electing judges.
From a Charlotte reader:
As a board member of Democracy North Carolina and resident of Mecklenburg County, I am very proud of the work that Bob Hall did in exposing the corruption in the legislature. There is no doubt that this was not the first time something like this has happened but one way we can help reduce the chance for it to happen again would be if the state legislature were to expand our public financing of elections. If we were to expand this program so that it covered our legislative and council of state races we could avoid these sorts of embarrassments.
Jim Black represented me in the legislature for several years and I think he did a good job but, in my opinion, the pressure to raise more and more cash clouded the judgment of a well meaning public servant. Public financing of elections will reduce the need to raise all this cash.
From another Charlotte reader:
I read the Observer every day, and I have the distinct impression that the Observer came to the conclusion that Jim Black was a crook very late in the day. Even though you reported that Black created a do-nothing job for Michael Decker etc., you seemed to be saying, "at least he is our crook, he has done so much for the local area." The alternative media were after Jim Black long before the Observer.
In fact, I think Jim Black did what was good for Jim Black, and many local needs went unmet, like prosecutors.
Isn’t it sad that a man would sell himself for $28,000? There must be more to the story.
And what did Black owe that lady he made the House Historian, anyway? There must be more to that story.

The peanut question

House Speaker Joe Hackney says the N.C. House of Representatives is a different place now that new ethics rules are in effect and lawmakers have been taking formal – and informal – training on what’s allowed and what’s not.
A test case in point: for years the N.C. Peanut Association has provided free packs of peanuts for lawmakers and guests who visit the speaker’s office. When Rep. Dewey Hill called Hackney a few weeks ago to make sure it was still okay, Hackney told the N.C. Editorial Writers Conference Sunday in Chapel Hill, he started thinking out loud: They employ a lobbyist, don’t they? And wouldn’t the peanuts would be just the sort of gift the new ethics laws or the no-gift register are designed to prohibit?
Well, maybe not. The N.C. Peanut Association, it turns out, does not employ a lobbyist. And, Hackney says, “The peanuts have arrived.” But they haven’t been consumed. “I’m the speaker and they are in the speaker’s office.” But Hackney is still figuring out what to do. Should he send a check to pay for them? Hackney says he doesn’t yet know how it’s going to turn out. “It’s a part of our healing process that we are going through,” Hackney says.
There has been some concern, he noted, that members might find it difficult to parse through all the new rules. No one wants to get caught up in some problem, but in the main, he said, the new rules have been well-received.
The same kind of thing has gone on in the Senate. At a Mecklenburg delegation meeting last week, a group of citizens asking for county authority to impose a ban on smoking in restaurants brought coffee mugs for every legislator. At the close of the meeting, however, delegation chairman Sen. Dan Clodfelter reminded members that the mugs might represent the sort of gift the new rules prohibit.
I didn’t count every one, but it appeared to me that the mugs were left behind on the table as lawmakers adjourned.