How good of a launching pad is the Crime Control secretary?

As one of the newer jobs in the governor's Cabinet, the position has been held by only 10 people, but the roster is fairly impressive.

Although appointed positions are not as good resume-builders as elected posts on the Council of State, the list includes future state Supreme Court justices Burley Mitchell Jr. and J. Phil Carlton and state Treasurer Richard Moore.

Current Secretary Bryan Beatty is rumored to be under consideration for another post in Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue's administration, perhaps as secretary of Correction.

The post has also been popular among political insiders, such as Heman Clark, a fixture of Democratic politics who died last week, and Herbert Hyde, a once-and-future state legislator who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general and lieutenant governor.

After the jump, a list of all 10 secretaries.

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If Democrats rename Vance Aycock, who would they name it for?

State Treasurer Richard Moore, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, suggested renaming the party's annual dinner after former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, former speaker pro tem Marie Colton of Asheville or the late N.C. Speaker Liston Ramsey.

But in a post on This Old State, Charlotte Observer editor Jack Betts argues that Ramsey is a bad choice because of his "ironclad control" of the House in the 1980s.

They ran a rigid pork-barrel system that so disturbed both Democrats and Republicans that a coalition threw him out of office in 1989 and installed Democrat Josephus Mavretic in his place.

Betts says other options, including the late U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin, have their own problems. He suggests naming it for the late state Sens. Herbert Hyde or Jim Richardson.

Um, how about just calling it the Grove Park Inn Dinner?