Mary Fant Donnan has picked up the endorsement of one of her former opponents in the Democratic primary for state labor commissioner.

Robin Anderson is urging other Democrats to support Donnan in her primary runoff with John Brooks, a former labor commissioner.

The runoff is June 24.

John C. Brooks will run on his experience.

The former labor commissioner said today that he will focus on his 16 years in office in a primary runoff against Mary Fant Donnan to regain his old job.

Brooks, who served from 1977 to 1993, noted that the rest of the Democratic slate for Council of State positions will have only 32 collective years of statewide experience, counting Attorney General Roy Cooper's and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's eight years, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall's 12 years and Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson's four years. 

(That's actually a little generous, since Atkinson didn't take office until August of 2005.)

Brooks said he would add more experience to the Democratic ticket.

"Their cumulative experience on the Council of State is the lowest it's been in the last 75 years," he said. (Partly because of the loss of more than two decades from Insurance Commissioner Jim Long, Dome would like to note.) "If I'm added to the slate, I'll add 50 percent more experience." 

Needless to say, Donnan has never held statewide elected office.

There will not be a recount in the labor race.

The State Board of Elections has refused to grant a ballot recount to the third- and fourth-place finishers in this month's Democratic primary for labor commissioner.

The board was split 2-2 Thursday on the requests brought by Ty Richardson and Robin Anderson. A tie means the request failed. A fifth board member couldn't participate, the Associated Press reports.

The board’s decision means a runoff between leading vote-getter Mary Fant Donnan and second-place finisher John Brooks will go as scheduled June 24.

State law allows the board to order a mandatory recount or a discretionary recount. State elections director Gary Bartlett said the board determined that neither one applied in this case.

Richardson was less than 2,000 votes behind Brooks. Anderson was about 5,000 votes behind.

Brooks said he had been expecting the board to approve a recount.

"I guess I'm surprised that there's not going to be one," he said.