Parties look for a handle on ethics

A battle to interest the state's voters

RALEIGH -- North Carolina Republicans can deploy a stack of ready-made attack ads against their opponents this year: another former Democratic legislator sent to jail, an $80,000 state pay raise for Mary Easley, the wife of Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, and a mental health system in turmoil.

In the end, even some Republicans concede it may not make much difference.

"Raleigh scandals, like state government operations themselves, are of less importance [to voters] than the car wreck down the street and the son or daughter shipping off to Afghanistan," said Joel Raupe, an assistant to the Republican leadership in the state House. "Somewhere in between, what is happening in Raleigh gets lost."

Voters might not be able to identify where unethical behavior transpired, but their broader skepticism of candidates still drives both parties to try to seize the mantle of reformer.

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican nominee for governor, has made the idea of cleaning up Raleigh a central tenet of his campaign, disparaging a "culture of corruption."

At a forum Tuesday to discuss such issues, McCrory seemed frustrated by the difficulty of focusing voters on incidents such as former Democratic state Rep. Thomas Wright's being sent to prison after being convicted of public corruption.

"Where is the outrage?" McCrory said, referring to, among other issues, the near-doubling of first lady Mary Easley's pay at N.C. State University.

Both major gubernatorial candidates appeared at the forum convened by the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying & Government Reform, which helped push through a sweeping lobbying reform law in 2006. The candidates, appearing separately before a crowd of about 75, outlined their reform proposals.

McCrory said state officials use intimidation to keep local leaders and state employees from criticizing state leaders, leaving workers fearing for their job or local officials worried that they'll lose state funding. He said such threats have been passed on to him before but would not name anyone subjected to such intimidation because he said they feared for their jobs.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, the Democratic candidate, doesn't hesitate to distance herself from her own party, echoing a McCrory complaint about the secrecy surrounding budget negotiations. Early in her legislative career, Perdue said, she was frustrated by how Democratic leaders in the legislature made major spending decisions privately.

"I really resented the fact that even I didn't know what was going on," Perdue said. She eventually became a leader of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

McCrory and Perdue disagree on much, but organizers of the forum were pleased to hear both pledge greater access to records and budget-writing.

"They're out ahead of their parties," said Jane Pinsky, the coalition's director. "I was delighted and a little bit surprised. Because in the last legislative session we got some pushback from legislators who basically said, 'We've done lobbying reform and that's enough.' "

Republicans in 2006 attempted to tar a variety of Democratic candidates as allies of then-House Speaker Jim Black, the subject of a federal investigation and embarrassing revelations about his fundraising. A GOP state Senate candidate in Raleigh used Black in an attack ad, while some Republicans posted a real-estate-style sign: "House for sale," featuring Black's photo. (Three months after the election, Black pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges for accepting payoffs.)

A net loss

But the Republicans lost legislative seats, and Black won re-election. If voters sensed misdeeds in Raleigh, they didn't agree on whom to hold accountable.

The blurriness continues this year. A July poll by the Civitas Institute "suggests that North Carolina voters are in the dark concerning which party holds power in the General Assembly."

Fewer than half the respondents knew Democrats controlled the state House, while 40 percent knew a majority of senators are Democrats.