Gov. O. Max Gardner, who held the position from 1929 to 1933, once described the process of running for governor as kissing the tails of everybody in North Carolina with the understanding that when he was governor, they would all have to kiss his.

We are in another gubernatorial race, and six candidates -- three Republicans, two Democrats and a Libertarian -- are at least kissing babies.

The reasons they are running for governor are varied: a desire to serve, ego, a career path, etc.

North Carolina's governors have arrived at the Executive Mansion in their own way.

Charles Brantley Aycock (1901-1905) became governor after a vicious white supremacy campaign in which a Gatling gun -- used in Wilmington to keep blacks in their place -- was hauled around the state as a campaign symbol.

Cameron Morrison (1921-1925) was elected in what almost certainly was a stolen election. Clyde Hoey (1937-1941) became governor because his brother-in-law, Max Gardner, put him there. Gregg Cherry (1941-1945) was elected only after promising to stay off the sauce during the campaign. Bob Scott (1969-1973) was elected in part because of his daddy's good reputation. (Kerr Scott was governor from 1949-1953.)

But one of the strangest routes to the governor's office was that of Jim Martin (1985-1993).

He decided to run for governor to get out of politics.

That is what Martin told Jack Fleer, the retired chairman of Wake Forest University's political science department. Fleer recently published a book for students of North Carolina government called "Governors Speak" in which five former Tar Heel governors talk about what it was like to be the state's chief executive.

Martin, a Princeton-educated former chemistry professor, having served a decade in Congress, was tired of being in the Republican minority, tired of splitting time between Charlotte and Washington, and he was "looking for a respectable way to end my political career."

"I had no ambition to go higher [in politics], but I had determined that it was time for me to leave Congress," Martin told Fleer.

"There was not a gentlemanly way to leave Congress," Martin said. He said that his campaigns typically ended $150,000 in debt and there was no way to pay off the debt without seeking re-election, creating an endless cycle.

The plan he hit upon was to run for governor.

"Interestingly, Dottie (the future first lady) welcomed that because here was a decision to put it on the line for a higher office, and if we lost, that's the end of it. We go back to private life. We stood valiantly. We did our best ... And if we won, which is what we intended, then eight years later, there would be a natural end of my career in politics."

"That's going to sound funny to somebody looking at it," Martin said, "but that was a serious problem for me."

After his two terms as governor ended, Martin returned to private life as an executive with Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.