Former House Speaker Harold Brubaker will be the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Brubaker, an Asheboro real estate appraiser and cattle breeder served as speaker from 1995 to 1998, when the Republicans were last in control of the House. He has served in the House since 1977.
Speaker-designate Thom Tillis of Cornelius also announced the appointment of Reps. Jeff Barnhart of Concord, Mitch Gillespie of Marion, and Linda Johnson of Kannapolis as appropriations chairmen responsible for overall budget planning.
Named as co-chairmen of the House Finance Committee were Julia Howard of Mocksville, Mitchell Setzer of Catawba and Edgar Starnes of Hickory.
The three judiciary committees have been folded into one judiciary committee, led by Rep. Leo Daughtry of Smithfield, a former House majority leader.
Heading the House Commerce Committee will be Rep. Danny McComas of Wilmington. McComas will name three subcommittee leaders for committees focused on Alcoholic Beverage Control, Business and Labor and Science and Technology.
Heading the Rules committee will be Reps. Tim Moore of Kings Mountain and Stephen LaRoque of Kinston.
Additional committees will be announced in the coming days.
Fetzer's call for civility
When former state GOP chairman Tom Fetzer gave his farewell speech over the weekend, he did more than talk about all the Republican victories last year.
He called on the Republican leaders to spend less time attacking one another.
Before running for chairman two years ago, Fetzer said he had avoided state GOP politics, viewing it as "mean, and nasty and petty." But he said he decided to run last time, in part, because he felt called to do so.
But he said it was not easy.
"When I ran for chairman I was not a political virgin," Fetzer told the state Republican Executive Committee meeting in Raleigh over the weekend.
"I had worked in Jesse Helms' campaigns, which tended to be knockdown, drag-out affairs. I had run for mayor of Raleigh in a city that had never elected a Republican. The campaign for chairman was the most miserable experience I've ever encountered. Things were said about me that I could not believe - vicious lies. I spent $20,000 defending my name in a lawsuit."
Fetzer said that though politics is important, people need to keep things in perspective. He said getting married and having a child have helped him get a better perspective on things.
He also had some advice for the new chairman.
"If I could give you one piece of advice, please ignore the idiot bloggers," Fetzer said. "I don't know who those these people are and why they have time to do this stuff. But they need to get a life."
That brought cheers from the members of the state GOP Executive Committee.
Mutual admiration society
N.C. Commerce Secretary KeithCrisco and Gov. Bev Perdue heaped a little love on each other Tuesday.
At a Durham event to sign an economic partnership between North Carolina and China, Crisco told the audience that he can count on Perdue to "take any call, any meeting to bring new jobs to North Carolina."
"In baseball terms, she's a closer," Crisco told the group, which included more than 100 Chinese politicians and business leaders.
Then Perdue referred to Crisco and deputy Commerce Secretary Dale Carroll as the state's "powerful jobs building Commerce team."
Perdue appointed Crisco, a Tar Heel native who is founder and president of Asheboro Elastic, as her chief economic recruiter in January 2009.
On Tuesday, Crisco didn't reserve all his praise for his boss and her willingness to woo business leaders. When he introduced U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, he noted: "She's another closer. We use her, too."
Staff writers Lynn Bonner, Rob Christensen and Alan M. Wolf contributed to this report.
