The old Jim Hunt crowd gathered in Raleigh on Friday for the groundbreaking of the library that will bear the former governor's name and for lunch at the Park Alumni Center at N.C. State University, Rob Christensen reports.

The crowd included a who's who from Hunt's 16 years as governor, including Jim Phillips, former chairman of the UNC Board of Governors; former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell; Norris Tolson, a transportation secretary under Hunt; former Ambassador Jeanette Hyde; Hunt's former spokeman and strategist Gary Pearce; former Human Resources secretary Lucy Bode; former Cultural Resources secretary Betty McCain; former aide Ed Turlington, and former state Democratic chairwoman Barbara Allen.

Just to name a few. 

And what would a gathering of politicians be without a little fund raising? 

At the lunch, Hunt announced a $20 million fund raising campaign to help cover some of the costs of the library that will also serve as headquarters for the Institute for Emerging Issues, the think tank Hunt created.

"This is a marvelous opportunity," Hunt said. "It really is."

Former Gov. Jim Hunt will probably hear a lot about his initiatives on education and school-readiness when people with big titles gather Friday to celebrate the ceremonial groundbreaking of the James B. Hunt Jr. Library on N.C. State University's Centennial Campus.

The library, set to open in 2012, will house the Institute for Emerging Issues, a Raleigh think-tank Hunt created.

Scheduled to attend the ceremony are UNC President Erskine Bowles, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, and U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge.

Not a place for the kids to flip through the latest issue of Highlights, but the library will include an interactive policy gallery for the grown-ups with big ideas.

Margaret Harper, who ran twice for lieutenant governor and was a pioneer among female political figures in North Carolina, died Sunday at Duke Hospital. She was 92.

Harper unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, first losing in the 1968 primary to Pat Taylor and in 1972 to Jim Hunt, who would become governor.

Harper, of Southport, was a businesswoman who ran an insurance agency and headed a statewide coalition of women's organizations. During World War II, she stepped in to edit the State Port Pilot newspaper while her husband James served in the military.

During the 1968 campaign, she told a Meredith College audience: "I want to look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man and work like a dog."

After her defeat, she became vice chair of the state Democratic Party. At the time, she predicted it would be "right many years before a woman is elected on the state level."

In a 1981 interview, she said would run again if she were younger. And, she said, she'd win. "I was born 20 years too soon, I think."

Gov. Beverly Perdue is writing her own story.

Literally.

A new feature on Perdue's Web site includes a brief biography of each of North Carolina's governors.

"No North Carolina governor, with the exception of Zebulon B. Vance, has been as venerated as Charles Brantley Aycock (1859-1912), with whose term the Democratic Party inaugurated a seventy-two year hold on the office," reads the biography of Aycock, which also helps explain, by the way, where this weekend's Vance-Aycock dinner got its name.

It's notable, if not entirely unexpected, to find that the biography of the current governor is both longer and more boosterish than any other on the list.

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Ed Turlington, a Raleigh lawyer long plugged into state and national Democratic politics, has been elected to the Democratic National Committee.

He was one of 75 at-large delegates nominated by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, the party chairman, and elected by the DNC at its meeting last weekend in Austin, Rob Christensen reports.

Also elected from North Carolina was Joyce Brayboy, the former chief of staff to Congressman Mel Watt of Charlotte.

Turlington was in some pretty good company having been chosen along with such major party figures as Elaine Kamarck, Maria Echaveste, Alexis Herman, Dennis Archer, Harold Ickes, Gerald McEntee, Anna Burger, John Sweeney, and Don Fowler.

Turlington was general chairman of John Edwards 2004 presidential campaign and was a top aide to Sen. Bill Bradley's 2000 campaign, as well being closely associated with such Tar Heel figures as former Gov. Jim Hunt and Sen. Terry Sanford.

He was apppointed to the DNC's Resolutions Committee. Appointed co-chair of the DNC's Credentials Committee was Everett Ward of Raleigh, a former executive director of the Democratic Party.

Gov. Beverly Perdue is scheduled to speak at a fundraiser for Virginia State Sen. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee for governor in the Old Dominion, on Oct. 1.

The event is at the Capital City Club has a suggested minimum contribution of $500 and an A-list of hosts that includes former Gov. Jim Hunt, Democratic organizer and fundraiser Bruce Thompson, uberfundraiser Peter Reichard and Ruffin Poole, lawyer and former aide to Gov. Mike Easley. Poole most recently made the news when a federal grand jury investigating issues surrounding Easley asked for volumes of communication between the Department of Motor Vehicles and a handful of then-Easley aides, including Poole.

Deeds had been trailing behind the Republican nominee, former Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell. But McDonnell has been on defense since a recent Washington Post report by N&O alum Amy Gardner highlighted his graduate school thesis while at CBN (now Regent) University, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson. The thesis, among other arguments, characterized working women and feminists as "detrimental to the family." The thesis was written in 1989, but the Post chronicled how McDonnell has pursued 10 of the policy goals articulated in the paper during his 14-year public career. 

Bill Hefner, a Concord Democrat who served 12 terms in Congress and became the dean of the state's delegation, died Wednesday after suffering a brain aneurism. He was 79.

Hefner decided to run for office after one day in 1974, Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer reports. He was sitting behind the mike of his gospel music radio station in Kannapolis and interviewed incumbent 8th District congressman, Republican Earl Ruth.

That night, according to friend Elvin Jackson, he went home and talked to his wife. "Shoot," he said, "if that's what it takes, I can do that."

And Hefner did. The Concord Democrat beat Ruth that year and went on to serve 24 years before stepping down in 1999. He retired to his native Alabama, where he died.

Hefner became one of North Carolina's most powerful lawmakers. For more than a decade he chaired the Appropriations Military Construction Subcommittee, one of a handful of subcommittee chairmen known as "Cardinals" for their power over the federal purse.

Hefner promised to "help restore Christian morality in the federal government," a message that resonated with his district's mostly blue-collar voters in the first election after Watergate.

"He grew up and lived with mill town folks," recalled former Gov. Jim Hunt. "He shared their values, he cared about their problems, he was one of them…It was amazing to watch him at a political rally talk to his constituents and then sing to them."

Hefner's folksy style and Washington muscle helped him get elected 12 times and buck at least two Republican tides.

Gary Pearce says Ted Kennedy was "both an inspiration and political poison to North Carolina Democrats."

Pearce, writing on his Talking About Politics blog, says Democrats loved Kennedy for the way he unabashedly fought for causes such as civil rights, education and health care.

"But we couldn't afford to be seen in public with him," writes Pearce, a veteran Democratic strategist. "As he became more liberal than his brothers ever were, he became toxic in North Carolina."

Pearce describes the 1980 Democratic National Convention, when Gov. Jim Hunt was supporting Jimmy Carter against a challenge by Kennedy. Pearce said they fought the Kennedy camp all week.

"But the last night of convention Kennedy gave the greatest political speech I've ever heard," Pearce wrote.

Former Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker is being courted as a possible opponent to Republican Sen. Richard Burr next year, and he is at least listening.

Wicker, a Sanford resident who practices law in Raleigh, said he has had conversations with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, former Gov. Jim Hunt and others, Rob Christensen reports.

"I’m still passionate about creating jobs and a higher standard for education and affordable health care," Wicker said.

"And I still have those pangs of emotion about being involved in public service. But I have been focused on my practice."

BUT.

"I’m doing some listening," Wicker said.

Wicker, 57, served two terms as lieutenant governor and six terms in the state House. He lost the Democratic nomination for governor in 2000 to Mike Easley.

The Democratic field for U.S. Senate is regarded as wide open.

One Democrat, Kenneth Lewis, a Durham attorney, has announced his candidacy. Three others, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, former state Sen. Cal Cunningham of Lexington, and Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy are looking at the race.

Polling numbers show that Burr is not very well known and his favorability ratings are lackluster, but polls suggest he could defeat any of the Democratic names being mentioned.

You'll work for a governor who has a reputation for being tough on her staff - and erratic. You'll be her "communications and policy adviser."

But she already has policy and communications advisers. And you won't be over them.

 

Uh-oh.

 

Her staff is roundly blamed for her problems. The usual: too insular, too young, too hard to reach. Also, they came from the campaign and don't know government. Or, they were in the Light Gov's office and aren't up to the Big Job. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

 

I'm sure they'll greet you with open arms and a warmly cooperative attitude.