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Patrick Ballantine, a former GOP candidate for governor, has returned to Raleigh as a lobbyist.

Ballantine, who lost to former Gov. Mike Easley in 2004, is lobbying for aluminum giant Alcoa, Lorillard Tobacco, Universal Leaf Tobacco and a group called Advocates for Free Commerce, as clients in his new firm Ballantine Co.

Ballantine was elected Senate minority leader in 1999 when he represented New Hanover in the legislature. He resigned his Senate seat in 2004 to focus on his run for governor.

George Holding's campaign for 13th congressional district has a new TV ad, picking up on strategist Carter Wrenn's comments last week that Paul Coble's campaign was "coming unglued."

Why else would Coble criticize Holding for prosecuting former Sen. John Edwards and investigating former Gov. Mike Easley, the ad asks? "Coble's campaign is falling apart, and it's not pretty," the ad says.

What rattled the Holding campaign were remarks Coble made to an online magazine that covers the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the Edwards prosecution was politically motivated and that there was practically no payoff in the Easley case. Wastes of money and done to advance Holding's political career, Coble suggested.

Another day, another war over a political ad in the race between 13^th congressional district Republican primary candidates George Holding and Paul Coble.

A super PAC that is supporting Holding, The American Foundations Committee Inc., takes a shot at Coble in a new TV advertisement. Coble is a member of the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

“Paul Coble is a typical Washington politician and his record proves it,” the ad says. “Coble criticizes Congress for  increasing the debt by 50 percent, but since 2006, Paul Coble has  supported the commission raising its debt 93 percent. The numbers to remember: Paul Coble has run for office nine times, supported increasing the county debt 93 percent. Paul Coble – 9, 9, nein.”

That prompted a retort from Coble’s campaign today: “George Holding doesn’t care that his attack ads are untrue.”

More at Four is gone.

With the move from the state Department of Public Instruction to the state Department of Health and Human Services comes a name change for the pre-school program Gov. Mike Easley started.

It's now called the NC Prekindergarten Program, or NCPK.

Going from a rhyme to an alphabet test is not the biggest change, of course. Now, 80 percent of parents will be required to pay a fee.

If North Carolina voters could bring back a former governor, it would be Democrat Jim Hunt, according to a new poll.

A survey asked this question: “Which former governor would you most want running North Carolina right no: Jim Holshouser, Jim Hunt, Jim Martin, or Mike Easley.

The survey found 38 percent preferred Hunt, 15 percent chose Martin, 15 percent said Easley,   7 percent said Holshouser, and 27  percent were not sure.

“Given that Governor Hunt served four terms and in many ways created the modern North Carolina governorship, it's unsurprising that he leads this list,” said Damon Circosta, executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education which commissioned the poll. "What is striking is that one-in-four voters are unsure of which former governor they would most like to see in office today -- perhaps indicative of how many voters have moved to the state in recent years, and as such are not well versed in North Carolina politics form the past few decades."

Martin, a Republican, served two terms(1985-1993) as did Easley, a Democrat (2001-2009. Holshouser, a Republican, served one term(1973-77.)

The poll was conducted April 18-20 by Public Policy Polling of Raleigh of 796 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

Mike who?

That was Gov.  Bev Perdue's response when asked when asked recently about former Gov. Mike Easley.

“I haven't spoken to the governor since probably the inauguration,” Perdue said during her end of the year interviews with reporters.

Easley and Perdue broke shortly after he left office. Easley felt she turned on him, when she turned over the Highway Patrol's travel records that Easley had previously tried to keep private. She also tried to keep her distance from him as as he became the target of federal and state and investigation that lead in November to Easley copping a plea to a felony relating to not reporting a plane flight.

While Perdue's own popularity has plunged during the recession, Easley is political poison.

A new survey shows that Easley has a favorable rating of 19 percent, an unfavorable rating of 52 percent, with 29 percent not sure. That is according to a survey taken by Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh-based polling firm with Democratic leanings. The survey of 520 North Carolina voters was conducted Dec. 17-19 and had a margin of error of 4.3 percent.

The State Board of Elections voted unanimously today to fine former state Sen. Fred Hobbs $150,000 for illegal campaign contributions and refer the matter for criminal prosecution.

Over the last decade, Hobbs, a Democrat, used employees of his Pinehurst engineering firm to send at least $148,000 in illegal contributions to the campaigns of Gov. Bev Perdue, former Gov. Mike Easley, Senate president pro tem Marc Basnight and former Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker.

Elections Board chairman Larry Leake said those campaigns have not yet given back the illegal contributions.

A spokesman for Basnight said Thursday that he had sent a check for $109,000 to the elections board to disgorge the illegal funds from his campaign. Perdue's campaign said it would immediately return approximately $20,000.

“The Perdue Committee does not wish to accept or retain any contributions that were made illegally or inappropriately," said Marc Farinella, Perdue's spokesman. "Given the settlement of the matter today, the committee will send these funds to the SBOE as soon as we have confirmation of the amount, which we expect will be today.”

Under an agreement with the elections board, Hobbs admitted guilt to violating a state law that limits individual contributions to $4,000 per candidate, per election cycle. He also admitted violating a state law forbidding an individual from giving money to other people to give in their name.

Hobbs was not at the hearing, but his lawyer was there to immediately hand a $150,000 cashiers check to the board clerk after the agreed fine was issued. The case files, which have been sealed due to the pending criminal investigation, are in the hands of the Moore County district attorney.

When former Gov. Mike Easley accepted a plea bargain last week, he was in familiar territory.

While Easley was a district attorney in the Southeastern part of the state in the 1980s he accepted many plea bargains from more than 60 percent of the people he was prosecuting.

That became an issue an issue in the 1990 Democratic Senate primary. One of  Easley's opponent's , state Sen. R.P. “Bo” Thomas referred to Easley as “the plea bargain king.”

Easley responded at the time, saying that negotiated pleas often are necessary to put criminals in  jail, especially in getting small-time dealers to testify against drug kingpins.

“The plea bargain is one of the the greatest tools a prosecutor has if he knows how to use it,” Easley said. 

Last week, Easley entered his own plea bargain, pleading guilty to a single felony charge of knowingly filing a false campaign report.

Caroll Leggett, a former chief deputy attorney general for North Carolina and chief of staff for former U.S. Sen. Robert Morgan, suggests that one of the reasons Mike Easley became the state's first govenor convicted of a felony is because he kept himself too isolated.

In a column in today's Winston-Salem Journal, Leggett recounts how Easley mantained a very small circle of friends and advisors and interacted with the public far less than other governors.

Easley has a very small comfort zone. He rewarded buddies with enviable appointments in his administration. A handful of top fundraisers were in his inner circle. They belonged to the right country clubs and made sure that Easley belonged to the right one, also. They owned planes that were at his beck and call, allowing him to disappear and leave Easley watchers scratching their heads.

Disappear? It became the operative word as his administration moved into the second term. The governor became increasingly reclusive. With offices in both the Capitol and the Administration Building, Easley seemingly preferred the small manned-up room at the north end of the mansion’s second floor living quarters — an office that his Highway Patrol security team, some 25 strong, referred to as “The Eagle’s Nest.”

The speculation on the streets of the State Capital went from amusing “Where’s Waldo” talk to rumors of a depressed, withdrawn recluse occasionally yelling down the grand stairwell of the executive mansion and telling visitors or staff below to hold the noise down. Rules were promulgated about use of stairs and elevators, assuring that mansion staff would not encounter the governor coming or going.

Toward the end of his second term, his Highway Patrol security team was openly complicit, covering his tracks and even using decoy cars as they spirited him away from obligatory appearances so he could avoid interaction with media. Woodworking, not governing, seemed to be his one passion — not making bird houses, but elaborate pieces of furniture.

It’s a story with a sad ending. A respected former district attorney, attorney general and governor who is now a convicted felon. A proud state whose reputation is besmirched. Michael Easley is a tragic figure.

Perhaps he is the governor who never should have been. Maybe there’s a lesson here. Maybe Sarah Palin was right. If you don’t like it, quit.