Let's start with the NC race for the governor. There are two democrats running—Bev Purdue and Richard Moore—and three republicans—Bill Graham, Bob Orr, and Fred Smith.
Perdue is currently Lt. Governor of the state, she was a teacher and has a Ph.D. in education. The NC NOW PAC has endorsed her. On her Web site (bevperdue.com) she lists her major issues as: Building a New NC; Health care; Education; Water/Drought; Protecting Our Environment; Protecting Our Military Bases; Standing Up for Working Families; Economic Incentives; Transportation Reform; Creating 21st Jobs.
Richard Moore is a lawyer that has served in the NC House and served under Jim Hunt as the Secretary of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. He is currently State Treasurer. On his site (richardmoore.org) he lists as his issues: Rewarding Hard Work; Better Financial Management and Reform; Educating New Generations; Affordable Health Care; Defending the Environment.
According to articles in the Raleigh News & Observer and the Winston-Salem Journal after Moore and Perdue debated, they agreed on most policy issues but clashed over the lottery and state community college and university tuitions.
Perdue has voted for tuition increases and cast the tie-breaker vote for the lottery. Moore believes that tuition has gone up too much and that the lottery over-promised and under-delivered. The two also disagreed on the death penalty. Both support it, but Perdue believes there should be a moratorium and that the system has some big flaws currently.
Now for the ugliness of politics—Perdue has gotten an endorsement from the NRA (something her site doesn't mention, but Moore's does). Perdue has also pledged to stop running negative ads, something the Moore campaign has not backed away from.
So I guess it is time to consider the GOP candidates. Bill Graham's list of issues includes such lovely nuggets as supporting the sanctity of marriage, protecting the second amendment (yes, everyone absolutely needs an automatic weapon and I KNOW that is what our founding fathers intended!) and protecting innocent life (complete with a picture of a pudgy checked baby wrapped in a bath towel). Sorry people, I can't be impartial on this one. ICK. If you simply must investigate further, here's his Web site.
Next. Bob Orr was on the State Supreme Court and Court of Appeals and he was in the Army. Under issues he lists on his Web site: Economic Development; Education; Healthcare; Honest Government; Immigration; Transportation. Under Immigration one of his points deals with not letting the kids of illegal immigrants go to school. Now I don't doubt it costs the state big bucks to educate the children of illegal parents, but it doesn't seem right to punish the kids and damage their futures (causing them to not have an education and rely even more on government assistance). But then I am a bleeding heart liberal. Overall though nothing screams wack job that I came across.
Finally Fred Smith. He is a state senator and served in the US Army Jag Corps and was CEO of his own company. On his site under issues he has the obligatory nod to the 2nd amendment and the "culture of life." There is also an editorial Smith wrote about "Defending the Family." Sorry folks, gonna have to file him (with Graham) in the nut job category.
There you have it. The five candidates of note for Governor. And I even said nice things about one of the republican candidates and so far the earth has not tilted off its axis.
