GOP bus tour pulls into Raleigh

The Republican Party’s 2008 bus tour pulled into Raleigh this morning with the theme of change — both in Raleigh and in Washington.

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the GOP candidate for governor, promised to end "a culture of corruption in which sadly 10 people have gone to jail," Rob Christensen reports.

After 16 years of Democratic rule in Raleigh, McCrory said he would bring a new transparency to state government and would be more willing to meet with the public.

He told about 75 people at the Velvet Cloak Inn that he would be a governor who will not hide "behind the fence of the governor's mansion."

That was an apparent reference to Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, who has made fewer public appearances than his predecessors.

Traveling with McCrory, was former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, former Arkansas Congressman and former administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration Asa Hutchinson, and retired Air Force Colonel Quincy Collins, who was a fellow prisoner of war in Vietnam with GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

Hutchinson said that McCain would keep the country on "the offensive" against global terrorism.

"Senator McCain understands the world is still a dangerous place," Hutchinson added.

The bus tour began in Wilmington and Faytteville on Monday, and was to continue on to High Point and Charlotte later in the day. Sen. Elizabeth Dole was on the bus on Monday.