Perdue's 'helter-skelter agenda reboot'

Gov. Bev Perdue has launched a new agenda in a busy round of speeches on education, jobs creation, public safety and other issues, notes policy analyst Chris Fitzsimon, a former broadcast newsman and former aide to then-House Speaker Dan Blue. Fitzsimon writes a blog for NC Policy Watch, a program of the N.C. Justice Center in Raleigh. He notes that Perdue has made speeches in Greensboro, Kannapolis, Charlotte and other places and sought to emphasize her plan to introduce a number of new issues this year. Here's what Fitzsimon has to say about Perdue's efforts in his latest blogpost, available here.

"The agenda and the press push feel more like a campaign than a week in the governor's office. That's ok. The state could use a lift and we certainly need more jobs, a higher graduation rate, and a more open and honest government.
"Perdue's on the right track, but there's something missing somehow from her approach this week. Not just the specifics of each proposal, presumably they are coming soon.
"It's more the helter-skelter nature of her agenda reboot, tying to do everything in the first real week back from the holidays. Adding a bullet point about crime as part of her education and government reform agenda is an example of what feels like a frenzy to remake her image immediately.
"And while most of Perdue's proposals do make sense, there's nothing that feels radically new, despite the catchy names, nothing that people will be talking about on their own for the next few weeks.
"But maybe that's ok too. An active, engaged governor is vital to the state's success and we clearly have one.
"Perdue told the Greensboro crowd that she will have "initiative after initiative" in the next four months. Let's hope some of them fill in the gaps that she left this week and that she saves some energy to translate the cleverly-named programs into action".
Fitzsimon's observation about the lack of anything radically new is something that political observers have talked about for a while now. Perdue has a tough job ahead of her given the lingering slow economy and expectations that there's something she might be able to do different. But with falling state revenues to support new initiatives in any major way, and the sheer difficulty of changing things in Raleigh because of an entrenched bureaucracy and authority spread out over independently elected Council of State agencies over which she has no authority, the problem of fixing things is a big one indeed.

Why not more business support for GOP candidates?

Raleigh political analyst John Davis, who is urging voters to support Republicans and who predicts the GOP will take over the N.C. Senate in the 2010 elections, has a new analysis on his Web site (www.johndavisconsulting.com) that plumbs an old question: Why haven't Republican political candidates enjoyed more support from business interests in past elections? After all, he reasons, Republicans are business-friendly candidates, but he noted that Democrats have long stayed in power because they get big financial support from business folks.

About 20 years ago he finally discovered the reason after doing a number of straw polls among attendees at political forums where he spoke, he writes: They have a religious and social agenda that most business-oriented voters do not regard as the main business of government, he believes.

"....[T]the common denominator among those business-friendly Republicans with lousy straw poll scores was their preoccupation with a right-wing religious and/or socially conservative agenda.

"Over the next 20 years, it became very apparent that although North Carolina business people do not have a personal problem with religion or social conservatism, with many supporting that agenda privately, they simply believe that the primary responsibility of elected officials is to run the government as efficiently and effectively as possible, addressing the fundamental needs of the state. In the mind of many North Carolina business people, there is a disconnect between effective governmental leadership and a preoccupation with a social agenda.

"As I said at the outset, when the dust settles after the 2010 elections, if all NC Republicans have to offer is, “We’re not the other guys … those corrupt tax and spend liberal Democrats,” they will not win either chamber of the NC General Assembly. Our problems are too great.

"If I am out of work, living on unemployment, can't afford health insurance, can’t afford to keep my kids in college, can't afford to buy my family Christmas gifts ... don't come to my door asking for my vote based on your position on abortion. If my wife is sick and I can't afford to take her to a doctor, and my daughter lost her job and I can't afford to help her pay her rent … don't come to my door asking for my vote based on your position on same-sex marriage.

"Karl Rove is right. 'It won’t be enough to surf voter dissatisfaction with Mr. Obama and Democrats. Voters will want to know what Republican candidates would do'.”

Davis is a smart fellow, though he missed the call on the state Senate in 2008 when he thought voters would put the Republicans in charge. Still, he points to Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand's decision to step down, and retirement of other business senators, combined with the rise of liberal Democrats in leadership ranks, as evidence that things are about to change in big ways.

What I'm wondering is what voters -- and Republican candidates -- think about Davis' point about religious and social issues. Is that a drag on their election in 2010?

A.G. approves I-485 plan but Treasurer disagrees

The state Attorney General's office gave formal approval today to the plan for designing, building and financing completion of I-485 around Charlotte. Gov. Bev Perdue announced plans Nov. 9 for completing the road with a novel way to pay for it that included construction companies, in effect, financing part of the work by allowing the state to pay for it over a period of years. State Treasurer Janet Cowell's office raised questions about the process, including whether it amounted to taking on more state debt -- and at the end of the day Tuesday restated her concerns about debt.

Here’s a link to the attorney general's opinion.

In a letter to N.C. Secretary of Transportation Gene Conti dated Jan. 12, Chief Deputy Attorney General Grayson G. Kelley issued an advisory opinion in which he noted that the General Assembly had contemplated the use of design-build-finance projects when it approved legislation enabling the process "to, in effect, borrow money from local governments and non-profit corporations on the condition that all funds advanced be reimbursed with seven years." The legislature later approved contracting with private entities, local governments or the NC Turnpike Authority to finance roads, streets and bridges, Kelley noted.

"In our view, the plain language (of the law) vests NCDOT with the authority to contract with private entitites for the construction of the I-485 projects under contract terms which may involved financing. As such, assuming the extended payment schedule described in the draft Request for Proposals constitutes 'financing,' we believe the General Assembly has authorized NCDOT to expedite cosntruction in this manner," Kelley wrote.

"Furthermore, we have been unable to identify any provision of North Carollina law that would prohibit the contracting proposal described by NCDOT. Nor are we aware of any case law restricting delayed payments by a state entity to a contractor."


The advisory opinion represents a clear statement that many felt was needed to lend legitimacy to the plan, given the treasurer's office's reservations about the process. Cowell's office has strangely played this close to the vest. The Observer weeks ago invited Cowell to write an op ed piece explaining her view of the financing process but so far she has not taken advantage of that opportunity.

At the end of the workday Tuesday, her spokesperson Melissa Waller said:

"We appreciate the effort of the Attorney General's office in consulting with the Department of Transportation and our office to produce the advisory opinion, completing the next step of this important process. However, we respectfully disagree with the Attorney General’s opinion. While we continue to support the completion of the I-485 project through other optimal financing methods, we also believe that the larger issue of debt management should be referred to the Debt Affordability Advisory Commission and the General Assembly."

Book: Elizabeth thought John a 'hick'

The new book "Game Change" about the 2008 election certainly slices and dices whatever was left of former U.S. Sen. John Edward's reputation -- and this time leaves his wife Elizabeth's image in the same shape.

They fought constantly over the course of the campaign, to hear authors John Heilemann and Mark Halperin tell it, including one horrendous public spectacle at the Raleigh-Durham private aviation terminal when she ripped off her blouse and screamed "Look at me" to Edwards as embarrassed staffers turned their heads.

Edwards has long been revealed as a shameless egotist who believed the people loved him, and the stories of how he treated his staff poorly while pursuing an affair with a videographer, the truly bizarre Rielle Hunter, are well-known. But it will come as news to many that Elizabeth, a lawyer whom many regarded as a sympathetic figure also treated campaign staff like dirt and even made fun of John, calling him a "hick" and ridiculing his parents as "rednecks," the authors wrote.

Edwards' pursuit of the White House began within two years of his arrival in Washington, and changed him from a down-to-earth guy who was nice to people into a constant candidate striving for the big-time. At one point he tried to cut a deal with Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign to become his vice presidential candidate -- or that Obama would become Edwards' VP running mate if Edwards won early primaries -- and later tried to parlay that into becoming Obama's attorney general nominee. Toward the end the best deal Edwards could cut was for a speech slot at the Democratic National Convention, and then even that opportunity evaporated.

A number of people on Edwards' staff tried to warn him that he was playing with fire, including one of the smartest pollsters ever to work in N.C. and national politics, Harrison Hickman. Heileman and Halperin wrote that in 2005 Hickman tried to get Edwards to see how he had changed for the worse:

“You can’t talk to people that way,” Hickman scolded him after one off-putting display. People are attracted to the nice John Edwards, and for a lot of them, you’re not that John Edwards anymore.
Edwards bridled at the criticism. “I don’t know where that’s coming from,” he snapped. “You have to consider the source … A lot of these people are hangers-on.”


Read more: An Excerpt From John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's 'Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime' -- New York Magazine http://nymag.com/news/politics/63045/index1.html#ixzz0cKG8Svrn

Smith Bagley, RJR heir, dead at 74

Both the New York Times and Huffington Post have pieces today on the death of Smith Bagley, heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune in Winston-Salem and since the 1970s a fixture on the Washington, D.C. social and political scenes. He died of a stroke, the Times reported.

Bagley, 74, was the grandson of Richard Joshua Reynolds, who founded the tobacco company. Bagley once ran for Congress from North Carolina but lost in 1968. He and his wife were fundraisers for Democrats from the Jimmy Carter administration though the first year of the Obama administration, raising about $600,000 to help defray costs of the Obama inaugural. His wife Elizabeth served as ambassador to Portugal in the Clinton Administrtion. He also was indicted in 1979 for conspiring to manipulate stock prices, but was acquitted at a Richmond trial.

Here's a link to the Times piece.

And here's a link to the Huffington Post piece.

Katawba trust is planting longleaf

Sunday's column on the effort to restore a significant portion of the longleaf pine forest that once dominated 60 million acres of the Southeast brought some good news from Lindsay Pettus, president of the Katawba Valley Land Trust in Lancaster, S.C. He wrote:

Neat article in Sunday’s Observer as to Longleaf in which a number of conservation organizations and agencies are replanting their own lands with Longleaf. Our Katawba Valley Land Trust plans to do the same with several tracts we own in these next years. Historically at 40 Acre Rock Flat Creek Natural Area there were pockets of Longleaf there and we plan to replant Longleaf on an 86 acre tract.

I think one of the largest USA Longleaf tract stands is on Lackland Air Base property in Florida. We have a 420-acre Conservation Easement at the Battle Of Camden site on Flat Rock Road in Kershaw County and some Longleaf has been planted at this site as a great portion of the Battle of Camden was fought under these trees as both armies fought to win the day.

One writer appreciated the information about the longleaf but was skeptical of any thought that it might be a way to sequester carbon emissions to fight global warming.

Good piece, except for the foolishness about global warming.

Haven't you heard about Climategate? It has been revealed that scientists were admitting that the earth has been cooling over the last decade, manipulating climate data to "hide the decline," conspiring to prevent their data from being made public, and trying to prevent opposing views from being published.

This, at least, casts serious doubts on global warming.

Another writer had a good question:

I have often wondered why Democrats want to legislate this carbon tax on companies (Cap and Trade) but have never hesitated to support massive urban development which necessitated cutting our forests. These trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere while replacing it with oxygen. What effect do you think this decimation of forests has had on "man-made global warming?" Why then is massive urbanization generally supported by Democrats and politicians? Thanks for the article. DP

Richard Mode of Morganton, an NC Wildlife Federation representative to the National Wildlife Federation, sent this note:

Just wanted to thank you for the wonderful article you wrote on the NWF Longleaf Pine Report. Thanks for thanking the folks at NC State for participating in the development of the report. They had to weigh in on the report and critique it thoroughly during a very busy part of their semester and all three contributors did a great job. Their input improved the quality of the report dramatically. Dr. John King even took time to present at the national telepress conference NWF held. Dean Brown has a wonderful staff at the College of Natural Resources. The color and background you added in your article also made the report come alive.

I also want to thank you for bringing us the [OLF] article from Jeff Hampton at the Virginia Pilot. It was quite interesting.

I just finished reading James Hoggan’s book Climate Cover-Up. The book makes me appreciate that writers like you and Bruce [Henderson] are still out there bringing good information to citizens. No matter how much good work is accomplished, not much happens till people find out about it then weigh in to make good public policy.
Thanks for filling that need so well.

North Carolina's 'lost decade' in employment.

Those hoping for strong words of encouragement at today's N.C. Economic Forecast in Raleigh sponsored by the N.C. Chamber and the N.C. Banker's Association may have been disappointed, but UNC Charlotte Professor of Economics John Cannaughton kept the crowd focused on the reality of the state's economy. Among his remarks:

-- "The recession's over. It's has been over for six months. Relax."

-- He's reminded of what John Kenneth Galbraith once said: "The purpose of economic forecasting is to make astrology look good."

-- The recession may be over but "for most of us it doesn't feel that way" because of the staggering numbers of unemployed.

-- "We're not going to start feeling better until we see jobs being created."

-- North Carolina has lost about 300,000 manufacturing jobs. In November 2009, North Carolina had 300 more people employed than it had in December of 2000, making the aughts North Carolina's "lost decade."

-- It's going to be a slow recovery.

-- In 2010, about 32,000- 33,000 jobs will be created. Normally, N.C. sees about 60,000 to 70,000 jobs created. In some years, it has been 80,000 or 90,000 jobs created.

-- In December of 2010, expect unemployment to be about 10 percent, perhaps 9.8 percent.

-- There may be another federal jobs program but it won't be a permanent cure.

-- We've got to be realistic about how long it takes get those lost jobs back -- five years or more, he said.