RALEIGH — We’re past the preseason phase of North Carolina politics, when candidates were just beginning to announce their intentions and organize their campaigns. The 2004 season is now fully underway. Republican candidates for statewide office such as governor and U.S. Senate are beginning the local GOP Lincoln-Reagan circuit. Gov. Mike Easley has been spotted popping up like the appropriately seasonal groundhog in several communities, most recently New Bern, making his case for re-election and defending his fiscal and economic policies.
For understandable reasons, North Carolina’s competitive races for governor and U.S. Senate have been commanding the lion’s share of political attention during this early period (in between the copious coverage devoted to John Edwards). But don’t be fooled into thinking that these are the only statewide races that bear watching. Competitive races are also likely for key posts in the state’s executive and judicial branches.
With the election of former state legislator Cherie Berry to the post of labor commissioner in 2000, the Republican Party finally cracked North Carolina’s Council of State. These independently elected state executives exercise varying levels of formal power and political influence. One such race to watch in 2004 will be Republican Steve Troxler‘s attempt to win the agriculture commissioner’s race against interim commissioner Britt Cobb, a favorite within the department and among some agribusiness groups, or former lawmaker Tom Gilmore, whose been lining up some endorsements of his own in recent weeks. Troxler had the “privilege” of losing a close race to Meg Scott Phipps for this office in 2000, and in retrospect faced an illegally funded campaign. GOP activists sense an opportunity here.
Ditto in the attorney general’s race, though few political observers would have thought so until recently. Democratic incumbent Roy Cooper, a well-respected former state senator, has drawn criticism for his handling of a controversial case in which Alan Gell was retried for murder after serious errors and misconduct came to light concerning the original trial that had led to his conviction. Cooper has strongly defended his office’s conduct in the matter, arguing that the best way to respond to the problems with the original trial was to hold another one, but likely Republican nominee Thom Goolsby, a Wilmington attorney, will try to capitalize on this issue and others.
Another Council of State race to watch is a probable rematch between Democratic State Auditor Ralph Campbell and Republican Les Merritt, who lost narrowly to Campbell in 2000. Merritt is a former Wake County commissioner and accountant who will run a credible campaign, but Campbell has impressed many on both sides of the aisle for his office’s handling of sensitive audits such as an inquiry into the finances of the state-funded John Hyman Foundation run by former Sen. Frank Ballance. Merritt will argue that Campbell should have been more aggressive in pursuing these cases and more willing to conduct performance audits to identify potential savings in state government during a time of fiscal deficit in Raleigh.
An open seat for superintendent of public instruction has drawn a host of candidates, though the powers of this office are actually quite limited. On the Democratic side, Easley education advisor J.B. Buxton recently joined a field that may include longtime DPI staffer June St. Clair Atkinson, teacher-union lobbyist John Holleman, former state Sen. Charles Carter, and agriculture-education official Marshall Stewart, among others. The Republican candidates are former N.C. State professor Jean Smoot and former Wake school-board chairman Bill Fletcher.
There will now apparently be two races for North Carolina Supreme Court. Republican Appeals Court Judge John Tyson will challenge incumbent Democrat Sarah Parker for one of the seats, while Republican Justice Robert Orr’s decision to step down later this year to take the helm of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law will open up another opportunity that jurists from both parties will surely pursue, though these races are now officially “nonpartisan.”
There will be lots of time, effort, and money spent electing a U.S. senator and probing voter intentions regarding a second term for Gov. Easley. The above races, and others (the GOP’s Berry will face a tough re-election contest against outgoing state Rep. Wayne Goodwin, for example), will compete for North Carolinians’ attention and dollars, as well.
Oh, and I hear there’s a competitive presidential race brewing.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.