Archive for the ‘Lieutenant Governor News’ Category

From TimesFreePress.com:

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, the Senate speaker, said “obviously it’s a tough time in state government, but at the same time I think we’re doing what we need to be doing and living within our budget like the people living within the real world are having to do.”

He expressed admiration for the governor for offering buyout incentives to state employees, the details of which have not been finalized.

Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, an Education Committee member, said of the cuts that “we’re making some tough choices that we’ve got to make. This is no time to raise taxes to pay for more programs, and I think they’re doing the right thing in cutting back as much as they can.”

He said eliminating the BEP 2.0 funding will be difficult for local school systems that were expecting the money.

But while Rep. McCormick was concerned about K-12, he said the effect on higher education “could be ugly. I hate to see that. I hope we wait until last to cut higher ed. It’s obvious we’re going to have tuition going up in a down economy, and that just makes it tougher on the kids and the kids’ parents.”

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From the Dispatch:

In North Carolina, Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue cruised to victory over State Treasurer Richard Moore after a $16 million fight to replace Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, who cannot seek a third consecutive term.

Also in North Carolina, Republican Congressman Walter Jones, who pushed to bring “freedom fries” to the U.S. House cafeteria in a symbolic protest of French opposition to the Iraq war, withstood a challenge from Joe McLaughlin. Jones, a seven-term congressman who got the idea from a North Carolina eatery, later soured on the war and McLaughlin, a former Army officer, had hoped to capitalize on discontent with his anti-war stance.

In other races, Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan beat Chapel Hill entrepreneur Jim Neal for the right to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who breezed to a comfortable victory in her own primary after facing token opposition from a former New York police officer.

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Lee, a retired Superior Court judge, announced six weeks ago that he would not run for governor, doubting that he could raise sufficient money. His announcement left the party with no high-profile candidate for the state’s top elected office.

Copeland said he spoke with Lee two weeks ago, trying to persuade Lee to run for governor.

At that point, he said, Lee asked whether he would consider running for lieutenant governor.

“I thought long and hard about it, thought it over with my family and a few other close friends and we said, ‘Yeah, this is important,’ ” Copeland said.

The men talked again Friday morning.

“I spoke to him just before I filed and he said, ‘You’ve made my day,’ ” Copeland said.

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This guy is such an improvement over Eliot Spitzer. Who knew that Republicans would have a legitimate shot at the big chair in Albany in 2010?

But Paterson gave away more than that in another way: He donated more than $10,000 from his campaign account as lieutenant governor to non-profit groups, such as a church in New York City and a group that helps disabled children in Israel.Some good-government groups derided the move as another indication of the problems with the state’s loose campaign-finance laws, which has allowed elected officials to dip into their campaign accounts rather than pay for things themselves.

“It’s not appropriate use of campaign dollars,” said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director for the state League of Women Voters. “They should be used to better inform voters about your message. And that is certainly not what he is doing.”

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