Jack Betts wonders how much Mike Easley's endorsement of Hillary Clinton matters.

In a post on This Old State, the Charlotte Observer editor writes that Easley won two elections as governor without the sort of political organization that former governors built and shunned the usual grassroots party building once in office.

His popularity has rested with TV ads and broadcast appearances. 

But there’s relatively little organization — he couldn't even get his choice selected chairman of the state Democratic Party several years ago. There’s even less now that Easley is going out of office in a few months and apparently is not all that interested in running for further public office or even serving in the new administration in Washington.

Betts also wonders if Easley is gunning for a D.C. appointment.

Richard Moore told the Charlotte Observer he was proud of his ads.

The Charlotte Observer's Jack Betts has the story:

Treasurer Moore has been pressing Perdue hard with tough, pointed ads and campaign rhetoric, but Moore doesn’t regard his negative ads as anything to be ashamed of. In an interview with the Observer’s editorial board earlier this week, Moore was asked about those ads and the tone of his campaign. He responded, "I'm proud of my campaign."

Update: Moore also told the Winston-Salem Journal recently that he didn't think his ads were "particularly dirty."

"What is negative? Everything that we have put on the air is based in fact," he told the paper.

Jack Betts add his two cents on Thomas Wright's sentence.

In a post on This Old State, the Charlotte Observer editor writes that Wright got a longer sentence than other politicians because he did not apologize and because of where he was tried.

A key reason: Wright was charged, tried, convicted and sentenced in state court. Black and Decker were sentenced in federal courts. And while fairness would seem to require that those sentenced for corruption ought to get sentences that are proportionate not just to the crime but also to other sentences for political corruption, the plain fact is there’s little attention given to what fairness might dictate. Everything depends upon the prosecutor, the charges brought, the jury’s makeup and decision, and the judge who delivers a sentence. And judges themselves, of course, must abide by the dictates of the differing federal and state sentencing guidelines. Federal judges particularly have to go through a long process before pronouncing sentences, and their discretion is limited, though not as much as it used to be. State judges’ discretion is also controlled by mitigating and aggravating factors.  

Why might Gov. Mike Easley's office have been skittish about e-mail?

Over the weekend, notes were released that seem to indicate that Easley's staff were concerned about public records requests — including from blogs — related to e-mails to and from the governor's office and public information officers.

Dome checked our records, and it turns out that we made just such a request around that time for e-mails related to a history book on North Carolina governors that the press office helped edit.

Here's the sequence of events in 2007:

March 20: Jack Betts writes on "This Old State" blog that a chapter on Easley is "spread a little thick."

April 6: Dome requests any e-mails between the governor's office and the Department of Cultural Resources related to the book.

April 16: Under the Dome blog launches.

May 29: A public information officer writes about "more & more public records requests" for e-mails — including blogs — in notes during meeting with governor's press office.

June 16: Article published about governor's office's editing of the book.

The governor's press office was particularly upset about that story, calling Dome and Dome's direct editor to complain before it even ran.

Jack Betts says Gov. Mike Easley is ducking questions.

In a column Sunday, the Charlotte Observer editor notes that Easley has "chosen not to answer questions" about the failure of mental health reform.

The governor's office didn't think an interview would be productive, and declined the request. "It was our sense here in the press office that there wasn't going to be an opportunity for the governor to talk about solutions, but quite frankly more about the blame game, and that was not where the governor wanted to go," said Seth Effron, spokesman for Easley. 

On his This Old State blog, Betts adds more from Effron, including his statement that the press would be more interested in talking about problems than solutions.

"We’ll never know now, of course, but it’s hard to imagine that the newspaper wouldn’t have wanted to know what the governor was going to do about it, and how quickly," Betts writes. 

Jack Betts points out another Wilmington 10 connection.

In a post on This Old State, the Charlotte Observer editor writes that Rep. Thomas Wright's attorney has a connection to Wright's older brother's conviction in a politically charged case from the 1970s.

And by the way: Yes, Prof. Joyner is the same lawyer who did much of the work 30 years ago on the case of the Wilmington 10, where he represented Rep. Wright’s brother Joe, who was falsely accused and sent to prison on charges of firebombing a grocery store in Wilmington in 1971. Courts later overturned his conviction.

Wright has said that the emotional effects of the case on his family were "horrendous." 

Betts adds that Joyner was also a vice chairman of the Wilmington Race Riot Commission, which looked into the legislature and state newspaper's role in a racially motivated 1898 coup.

Several bloggers have raised questions about Richard Moore's ads.

On Isaac Hunter's Tavern, WUNC reporter Laura Leslie notes that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate has been buying ads on basic cable.

"Okay, Mr. Treasurer, I get CNBC — but the Food Network? Why?" she writes.

On This Old State, Charlotte Observer editor Jack Betts argues that the YouTube ad about a bridge in Beverly Perdue's home county missed the mark with people who have driven in that area.

...that ad may have lost Moore votes from folks who remember the bad old days when it could take an hour or more to crawl through New Bern on the way to hunting, fishing or sailing somewhere Down East. 

Earlier: Political consultant Gary Pearce calls Moore's ads "guy talk."

What is Mike Easley campaigning for?

For the second time, a North Carolina political observer has noticed the term-limited governor shift rhetorical gears into High Campaign Mode.

Announcing a new hybrid car battery initiative at the Emerging Issues Forum today, Easley's feisty style raised the "national ambitions" question anew, Charlotte Observer editor Jack Betts writes on his blog:

For a politician who professes no interest in running for higher public office, Gov. Mike Easley sure sounded like a candidate with a message and a healthy dose of ambition to move on up in the political world Tuesday.

Earlier this month, WUNC reporter Laura Leslie noticed the same shift to a "more animated, more rhythmic" preacherly style at an educational meeting.

"It's hard to explain here, but if you're in the room when he shifts into campaign style, it's as palpable as a transmission shifting gears," she wrote.

Easley can't run for governor and he has ruled out a Senate run. But the hybrid battery and education are two issues he certainly hopes to be remembered for.

Is it possible to campaign for a legacy?

Jack Betts gave Pat McCrory a little unsought advice this weekend.

In a column, the Charlotte Observer editor writes that McCrory has enjoyed "weeks of speculative news stories" about his soon-to-be-announced gubernatorial campaign.

But there's more work to be done:

* Raise money and get endorsements.

* Hone his pitch to conservative primary voters.

* Develop thicker skin when criticized.

* Center his message around the needs of urban areas.

He also suggests McCrory change his name to "Jim" and start driving a pickup truck, in order to better fit in with the state's Republicans.

Jack Betts says the differing treatment of Rep. Thomas Wright and former Speaker Jim Black is not about race.

It's about power, the Charlotte Observer reporter writes on his blog.

Betts says that it's true that state legislators never took as forceful an action against Black as they are now against Wright, who may be expelled from the House.

Some have said the treatment may be because Wright is black.

In the South you can never totally discount that. But in this case, it’s more likely that House Democrats didn’t move against Black not just because he was their leader and in a position of power, but also because so many members were in his debt. Black had personally helped raise a lot of money for Democratic legislators’ campaigns, and many of them owed their seats, their political success and their own share of power to Jim Black.

But, he adds, they did not owe anything to Wright.