Crises have defined Easley's 1st term;
2nd term might push him to reward allies
Amy Gardner, The News & Observer
October 19, 2004

North Carolinians have seen this image more than once on the evening news: Gov. Mike Easley leaning out the doorway of a National Guard helicopter, his flannel shirt sleeves rolled up, a bulky headset on his ears and a solemn look on his face as he surveys the storm damage that has helped define his first term.

Easley, 54, has had little choice but to fall into the role of crisis governor since he took office in January 2001. He has appeared, almost, to enjoy it.

Through three ice storms, seven hurricanes and three budget emergencies, Easley has been crisis commander, ordering up supplies and rescue crews, seizing state and local dollars, demanding patience from allies as one emergency after the next swallowed the state's resources.

Crisis also has let Easley, a Demo-crat, avoid what he likes less in politics: slapping backs at barbecues and horse-trading at the legislature. He has endured criticism for skipping both. But in the end, he has kept critics, and even friends, at bay with a demand for discipline in troubled times -- and with a promise that things will get better.

And what then?

Conditions would change with an improved economy. Easley's flying-solo style, evident since his days as a prosecutor from Brunswick County , would crash into a crowd of people who want something out of Easley they haven't gotten yet. If he wins a second term Nov. 2, Easley would succeed, many say, only by reaching out to those who have stuck with him thus far.

"At that point you've got to start building consensus," said former Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker, a friend who lost to Easley in the 2000 Democratic primary. "You've got to start building relationships. You've got to rely heavily on supporters to get your agenda done."

The implication, of course, is that Easley has not done those things in his first term.

He has been less visible than past governors, often skipping political events that supporters expect him to attend. His appearances have picked up this election year. But in 2002, he missed the annual meeting of the N.C. Association of Educators, the annual meeting of the state NAACP, even the Democratic Party's Election Night gathering.

On a more strategic level, Easley has angered even allies with his independent ways. Facing budget shortfalls as big as $2 billion for three successive years, the governor went on statewide TV early in his term calling for a tax increase to protect education spending. He seized money earmarked for the state's retirement system, and money promised to cities and counties. He demanded a vote on a lottery from lawmakers reluctant to vote on that issue.

And he issued the first veto in state history.

In November 2002, Easley rejected an arcane but intensely political bill designating dozens of appointments to boards and commissions. His red veto stamp invalidated one of the most important, if invisible, prerogatives of legislative leadership.

It was a slap in the face to the fellow Democrats in charge of the two legislative chambers then: Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight and House Speaker Jim Black. The sting was powerful for Basnight, whose rock-solid Democratic majority had been crucial to Easley's agenda but who had expressed frustration with Easley's unwillingness to bend.

Basnight's disciplined leadership of the state Senate delivered consensus to the governor time and again -- to enact More at Four, the academic prekindergarten that Easley created; to push through smaller class size in the elementary years; and to raise taxes to balance the budget.

Independent streak

Easley said he vetoed the appointments bill because it expanded commissions at a time of fiscal crisis, when government should not be expanding; and because some people named in the bill were dead.

But the veto also sent a clear message to Basnight and other lawmakers: The governor holds the most power in Raleigh -- and this one's not afraid to use it.

"When you've never been in the legislature and you're dealing with a budget shortfall of a billion and a half, there's nothing you can do that anybody will like," said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, who is close with both Easley and Basnight. "You just have to do what you have to do."

Basnight, a restaurant owner from Manteo, declined to be interviewed for this story. Easley said more has been made of the discord than is really there.

"Marc always does the right thing. He does a fantastic job of keeping the Senate caucus together," Easley said. "At the end of the day he is going to do what's in the best interest of North Carolina ."

That's an arm-twisting line Easley has used often -- not only on Basnight, but on the entire General Assembly. In speeches and in interviews, he has said over and over that, even in tough times, lawmakers must do the right thing: enact his agenda.

What he hasn't done is offer much in return. And that strategy could wear thin when the state's fiscal crisis eases, something most economists expect in the coming four years.

Changing course?

Wicker, for one, thinks Easley would have no trouble at all then -- in no small measure because of his skill at the political schmooze. Easley may not like schmoozing, but sometimes it's hard to tell, Wicker said.

At a big Democratic dinner in Asheville recently, both tendencies were on view. Easley allowed interviews with reporters to go on a little longer than planned, and offered this crack in a small conference room adjacent to the party: "I'd rather be sitting in here than out there with all those people."

Yet when Easley emerged to "all those people" -- a ballroom at the Grove Park Inn filled with at least 500 Democrats -- he electrified his audience, making them laugh and cheer through a rousing, 20-minute speech in which he paid tribute to just about everyone in the room -- most notably his predecessor, Jim Hunt.

And then, he disappeared. While the party continued, and such luminaries as Hunt and U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles stayed on, Easley and his wife, Mary, ducked out a side door and headed to the airport.

Despite such stunts, Easley is an engaging wit up close, mimicking associates or serenading them with his guitar -- "Amazing Grace" is a favorite -- on speaker phone from the Executive Mansion .

Easley also has a gift for connecting directly with voters -- on TV. He is folksy and personable, and his Rocky Mount drawl makes him more so when he declares his empathy with struggling farmers or laid-off factory workers.

And when he does appear in larger crowds, Easley finds common ground with whomever he's with, talking endlessly about medicine (two brothers are doctors), agriculture (he grew up on a farm), parenting (son Michael is a student at UNC-Chapel Hill), and his spirited wife, Mary, who teaches law at N.C. Central University, and whom Easley once described this way: "If Mary were any more extroverted, she'd be a stripper."

Ease on camera

In crisis, too, Easley has demonstrated his ease in front of a camera. Last month in Moore County , he toured tornado damage from Hurricane Jeanne. Later, he met with local emergency officials, sitting easily before cameras in the local airport, the sleeves of his black windbreaker rolled up and his foot on a chair beside him.

It was his sixth storm of the season, and he'd gotten pretty used to the routine.

"This is what we've been doing about every Tuesday," he joked.

Political savvy

Easley's popularity is high, but not as high as Hunt's when Hunt ran for re-election in 1996. Easley's supporters argue that's still remarkable, given the economic circumstances of his tenure. His detractors say he doesn't deserve credit for much of anything at all.

Paul Shumaker, a Republican political consultant, says Easley has simply been lucky. Events on his watch have been "much bigger" than he, so Easley has been able to "fly under the radar screen," Shumaker said.

"I don't agree with what he's done, but he has worked the legislature to his advantage," he said. "Taking the money away from local governments -- he imposed his will. Has he gotten away with that? I'm not willing to say that right now because he's up for re-election."

Easley says he's savvier than people give him credit for.

His success comes from a message not unlike Hunt's that appeals to Republicans and Democrats, city dwellers and country folk.

Easley calls himself a fiscal conservative, and he is a pro-death-penalty, pro-gun-rights candidate. But he also believes in bigger government in some areas -- in providing better health care for children and seniors, for example, and producing a better-educated work force to succeed in the world's changing economy.

If he has worked the legislature differently than Hunt, that doesn't mean he's worked it less effectively, he said.

"I do better over there than you think," he said. "I've got a lot of good friends over there."

At that airport fly-in in Southern Pines, for example, Easley put in a plug for House Republican Speaker Richard Morgan, who is from Moore County, and who was in Alaska and unable to attend.

"It was just a nice thing to do. I appreciated that," Morgan said later, after he heard that Easley had mentioned him.

Problem-solver

Easley's propensity to buck convention is not new. He does so because he's a problem-solver by disposition, he said -- preferring to tackle a big challenge and work the phone to strike a deal, rather than cut ribbons or pay homage to the party apparatus.

As a prosecutor in Brunswick, Columbus and Bladen counties, Easley made his name prosecuting corrupt politicians and drug dealers, carrying a gun in his glove compartment and teaching his wife how to shoot -- and ignoring the threat of a local pol that if he continued on his path he'd be a one-term prosecutor.

As attorney general, one of his first actions was to tackle an overcrowding crisis in the state's prisons that threatened to invite federal sanctions. He also immersed himself, in his second term, in North Carolina 's role in the national tobacco settlement. His negotiating skills earned him a dozen roses from the chairman of R.J. Reynolds Co., Steven Goldstone -- and a lasting friendship with the chief litigator, Mike Moore, attorney general of Mississippi .

Easley's approach, he acknowledged, is this: "OK, let's fix it. Let's get on with it."

That style is unlikely to go away if Easley wins a second term. Easley has no plans, he says, to drop his focus on protecting education. Yet he understands that lawmakers will be antsy to accomplish other things as well.

"You are right; I have asked the legislature to be patient, to cut spending, to hold spending, and they've done it," he said in a recent interview. "And the agencies have done it. And you know, they have a lot of good projects they want to do. And I'm talking about Democrats and Republicans; Republicans like to spend money, too."

But Easley doesn't think the state will be flush with cash for a long time, and lawmakers will be limited as to what they can do, he said. That's one reason he will continue pushing the lottery -- his answer to the challenge of finding more money for schools.

Easley also would like to tackle some of the lower-profile challenges facing state government: a tax structure based on an agricultural and manufacturing economy that no longer exists; and a long list of recommendations to make government more efficient that have yet to be put in place.

Whatever his agenda, not everyone thinks it will be more difficult to achieve than his accomplishments of the last four years.

Rand, the Senate majority leader and a golfing buddy of Easley's, laughed loudly at the thought that Easley's job might grow more difficult than his first term was.

"My god!" Rand snorted. "Look at the pictures of his inauguration, and look at him now. He looks older than I do!"



Mike Easley

Home: Southport

Born: March 23, 1950

Family: Wife, Mary; one son

Education: Bachelor's degree in political science, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1972; law degree, N.C. Central University, 1975

Occupation: North Carolina governor

Political experience: Governor, 2001-present; attorney general, 1993-2001; district attorney, 1983-91

Civic activities: Lead governor for National Guard and Military Families, National Governors Association; co-chairman, Legal Affairs Committee, National Governors Association; Education/Children and Families Committee, National Governors Association; Southern Growth Policies Board; Southern Regional Education Board; Phase 11 Tobacco Trust Fund Board; N.C. Business Council

Religious affiliation: Catholic

Hobbies: Woodworking, hunting, sailing

Favorite movie: "The Sound of Music," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"

Top priority if elected: "I will continue to make progress in education and build the best business climate in the world so that we can recruit and retain high quality jobs and industry to North Carolina. I will continue to expand our More at Four program for at-risk four-year-olds and I will continue to keep class size low, teacher pay high and provide adequate funding for our community college and university systems. I will continue to expand our prescription-drug program for seniors, protect our natural resources and improve our roads."

Contact: Phone, (919) 834-9000; Web site, www.mikeeasley.org



Economic ideas

A sample of Easley's positions on the four issues identified by voters as the state's most important (find more detail at www.newsobserver . com, key word elections).

ECONOMY

• Keep the corporate tax burden low, improve transportation and improve Internet connections to attract industry.
• Push Washington to change bad trade policies.
• Continue to use flexible incentives for businesses to come to the state.
• Protect funding for worker training at community colleges, and strengthen faculty pay there.
• Begin a bio-manufacturing job training program, linked to community colleges, using $60 million from the state's Golden Leaf Foundation, to lure biotech businesses.

TAXES/SPENDING

• Count on economic growth to provide revenue to allow temporary increases in sales and income taxes to expire.
• Push for a state earned income tax credit to help working families.
• Lower corporate tax rates for small businesses.

HEALTH CARE

• Continue to fund all expected enrollment in state Children's Health Insurance Program. Expand coverage to more children and adults as revenue allows.
• Help small businesses provide health coverage for employees.
• Continue investing in preventive care and educational programs.
• Consider variable limits on malpractice awards that depend on type and severity of injury and degree of error.
• Support incentives for doctors who practice in underserved areas, and better prenatal care to reduce high-risk deliveries.
• Maintain a program that will cover 90 percent to 95 percent of outpatient drug and insulin costs for seniors at or below 250 percent of the poverty level until the new Medicare benefit begins in January 2006.

EDUCATION

• Support an education lottery to expand the More at Four preschool program, continue class size reduction and aid school construction in rural areas.
• Comply with court orders, by executive order when necessary, to increase aid for disadvantaged students. Count on continued fiscal discipline and economic growth for more aid.
• ontinue to raise teacher pay, by unspecified amounts. Allocate more money to help rural schools get and keep excellent teachers.
• Continue to help districts pay bonuses for teacher recruitment and retention.
• Maintain financial incentives for teachers who seek National Board certification.
• Offer smaller, career-oriented high schools.
• Maintain a program that lets students earn two years of college credit or an associate's degree from a community college in one extra year.