Share
RALEIGH The state's two most recent former governors made important public appearances in the Capital City in the last week or so. They could not have been more different.
Former Gov. Jim Hunt was the main attraction on a sunny fall day at N.C. State University's Centennial Campus. In many ways it was a Hunt campaign and Hunt administration reunion. Hundreds and hundreds of them gathered under a big white tent to hear Hunt, UNC President Erskine Bowles and NCSU Chancellor Jim Woodward sing Hunt's praises and talk in excited tones about the James B. Hunt Jr. Library to be built on campus, a cutting-edge research and learning center that one day might become as much a symbol of the university as it's iconic bell tower at the edge of the main campus a few blocks west of the Capitol.
About building the future
It was a joyous occasion for many attendees - not all of them Democrats, either. Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot, who once challenged Hunt for the governorship, was there among prominent Democrats and Republicans. They were there to celebrate the day - and to hear another campaign speech from Jim Hunt, ringing with urgency and fervor about raising millions of dollars to build the library.
At a key point in Hunt's speech, longtime adviser Gary Pearce smiled and nudged me: "This is the essence of Jim Hunt." He was right. Hunt was talking about opportunity - specifically what he thought could be done with the old Dix Hill property as he was about to leave office in 1984. Hunt's vision has come to fruition with the new campus, a place that brings together business, residences, students, researchers, teachers and alumni. It's a marvelous thing.
A few blocks west of the Capitol, in a sharply different setting, former Gov. Mike Easley walked into the Clarion Hotel in response to a subpoena from the State Board of Elections to testify in an inquiry about how his campaign had complied with state campaign finance laws. Although many of his aides and supporters - close and former - had also testified that week, it was not a joyous occasion. Easley's former counsel, Ruffin Poole, sought to avoid testifying and got a judge to quash his subpoena for secret reasons, though an appeals court reversed that decision after the hearings adjourned. One of Easley's campaign pilots, confidant McQueen Campbell, had dropped a bomb on the governor, testifying that Easley suggested using campaign money to repay Campbell for repairs he did at Easley's Raleigh home. An aide to Easley's campaign treasurer seemed to back Campbell's account. And documents showed Easley's campaigns talked about getting large contributions to the state Democratic Party that could be used expressly for Easley's benefit. One potential contributor, a donor testified, was willing to write a big check but wanted to be reappointed to a state commission and needed help getting an environmental permit for a dock on the coast.
About events of the past
Easley, too, resorted to his essential nature. He can be a charmer, a great story teller, with a facility for putting people at ease. He was cool, calm, collected in the face of charges by Campbell, who flew him around the state, helped him get a good deal on that coastal land and helped Mary Easley get an NCSU job. Campbell painted him as a cheapskate who never asked for a bill and who led him to believe he should file a bogus flight invoice to pay for Easley's home repairs.
Easley's lawyers, mindful of other investigations, may not have wanted him to testify, but the former governor walked in smiling, joking and treating the hearings as a stroll in the park. He hadn't paid attention to campaign details, thought those flights were all paid for and No Sir, never, ever suggested Campbell should file bogus invoices. That was all about being paid in advance for future blocks of flight time, he said.
It was hard not to draw comparisons between Hunt's visionary rhetoric and Easley's labored accounts about the past. Easley was talking about things he said he could not remember, alternative versions of events, how he was "out of the loop" about many details of his campaign.
Governors beyond office
Easley did not, of course, set the terms of discussion before the board. He was responding to members' questions. But here in North Carolina we're used to former governors, even those who had their controversial moments in office, providing leadership in public affairs well beyond their terms in office. It was so with the combative Bob Scott, with the much admired Jim Holshouser, with the cerebral Jim Martin and so it ever will be with Jim Hunt, who remains a force in public policy and regional leadership.
In the end Easley was not persuasive. The elections board penalized his campaign $100,000 for not reporting flights worth $60,000, and $40,000 to reimburse the elections board for the cost of the investigation. And it referred the case to the local district attorney's office for possible pursuit of criminal charges.
Easley potentially has bigger problems than the State Board of Elections. There are federal and state investigations, and no matter what happens, his reputation is in tatters. The prospects of his assuming a position of elder statesmanship seem as remote as John Edwards making a successful return to politics. If it ever happens, it won't be anytime soon.
