GREENSBORO -- As North Carolina Democrats gathered in Greensboro on Saturday for a statewide fundraising event, they suddenly had a lame-duck first-term governor and at least two new candidates.
But a lot of folks were thinking about the guy who wasn’t there.
Gov. Bev Perdue’s surprise announcement last week that she would not seek re-election left the party scrambling to find a nominee, creating a 100-day sprint to the May 8 primary. Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton jumped in Thursday. He was joined Saturday by state Rep. Bill Faison, who announced his candidacy in Greensboro. Faison, 64, a trial lawyer, represents Orange and Caswell counties.
But what about Erskine Bowles, the former White House chief of staff and UNC system president? He wasn’t in Greensboro, but he was said to be considering the race.
“I think Erskine would be a very formidable candidate,” state Revenue Secretary David Hoyle said. “I think the business community would fall in love with that. He would be the Republicans’ worst fear.”
Without Bowles for now, a number of prominent Democrats have expressed varying degrees of interest including former U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge of Lillington, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, U.S. Reps. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton and Heath Shuler of Bryson City, and former state Treasurer Richard Moore of Raleigh.
Normally, it takes months or even years for candidates to mount gubernatorial campaigns, so Perdue’s decision created opportunity, but one with a short timeline to make a decision, mount a campaign and raise enough money to become visible across the state.
“Historically speaking, we’ve never had such a compressed time frame for a Democratic gubernatorial primary,” said Brad Crone, a veteran Democratic consultant. “And 1984 is the last time we’ve had such a broad field. When you have a variety of candidates with base constituencies, it can divide up the party real quick.”
Several of the potential candidates were gathered Saturday evening at the Greensboro Marriott Hotel at the Sanford-Hunt-Frye Democratic Party fundraising dinner attended by 725 people. Perdue, who has not had a public appearance since Wednesday, spoke at the dinner along with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
Answering questions from reporters beforehand, Perdue said she would devote the remainder of her administration fighting for public education.
“I did not want to be seen as someone who was partisan, who was trying to divide and use this as a wedge to win re-election” Perdue said. “It is much more important to me than being governor, this fight for education. ... Our economic future is at risk. This is not partisan. This is not about politics.
“I am going to go to every town, every county,” she added. “I am going to take this on the road and get right in people’s faces.”
Perdue also said she didn’t think the late announcement put her party at a disadvantage, but rather that it would generate a lot of excitement and create a short campaign.
“I can’t help when I made the decision,” Perdue said. “I have watched what has happened in North Carolina for the last year. I have seen the partisan divide. ... I have never seen such rabid partisanship.”
Dalton and Faison spoke earlier in the day to a state Democratic executive committee meeting, as did former U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham, who is running for lieutenant governor.
Dalton received a standing ovation, but stunned Democrats still seemed to be trying to absorb the new political landscape.
“It’s disappointing,” Lee Little, a Democratic executive committee member from Union County, said of Perdue’s announcement. “I love Gov. Perdue. But her poll numbers were in the 30s. Maybe we could do better with another candidate.”
“People in the room have no idea who to be for,” said state Democratic chairman David Parker of Lake Norman.
Crone, the Democratic consultant, said the primary favors the candidate who can raise the money quickest and those with a built-in constituency. Dalton had $600,000 in his campaign kitty at the end of the year, and he raised $150,000 at a fundraiser at the home of Cary software executive Jim Goodnight on Wednesday night. Dalton, like Moore, has run statewide.
Faison, a 64-year old trial attorney, loaned his campaign $500,000 late last year and presumably has the ability to pump even more of his own money into his campaign.
Foxx, as the only African-American who has shown interest, could benefit from a primary turnout that is likely to be 30 percent black, while also coming from the state’s largest media market.
Bowles, who lost twice in races for the U.S. Senate, lives in Charlotte. He is a wealthy investment banker who could inject substantial amounts of money into his campaign. He also has broad donor contacts across the state and the country that other Democrats do not have.
But the candidates must act quickly because filing period begins Feb. 13.
North Carolina is expected to host one of the three most competitive governor’s races in the country. By some estimates, the Republican Governors’ Association and the Democratic Governors Association, both arms of the national parties, were each preparing to pour $10 million into the state – much of it likely to be for negative ads.
That knowledge had been wearing on Perdue, as had her problems in raising money and her low poll numbers, said friends and colleagues.
She had been battered by a recession, an investigation into the bookkeeping of her 2008 campaign, and an adversarial relationship with the state’s Republican legislature.
Although Perdue has long had a reputation as a tough political operator, friends said she had little stomach for the personal ads she expected to come that would question her ethics and those of her family.
“Beverly saw things like that coming,” Hoyle said.
And while Perdue and her political advisers were convinced that there was “a path to victory” over likely Republican opponent Pat McCrory, they also acknowledged it was an uphill fight and the odds were that she would lose.
“I told Bev three months ago: ‘Bev, you’ve climbed Mount Everest in high heels without an oxygen tank,’ ” said Hoyle, a former legislator ally from Gaston County. “ ‘All this stuff that is coming at you. There is not another hill to climb. Why do you want to put up with this stuff?’ ”
Even so, Perdue had been preparing for her re-election, hiring staff, raising money and holding strategy sessions. The first signs that she was reconsidering came a little over a week ago, when former state Sen. Tony Rand, her Parole Commission chairman and close political adviser, began telling a few in her inner circle that she was giving heavy thought to not running again.
Those close to her say that she “agonized” over the decision and that deciding not to seek re-election went against her life-long political instincts. But in the end, they said it was a highly personal decision
“She made this decision on her own by herself,” Hoyle said. “I’m sure she talked to Bob and the kids. I’m sure she did not make this decision with any input from any political friends. ... I think she did absolutely the right thing.”
