With kids at his side, Faison files paperwork for governor's race

With two of his children at his side, Democratic state lawmaker Bill Faison filed paperwork Monday afternoon to run for governor, enduring questions about his messy divorce in front of a bank of television reporters reacting to today's N&O story.

Faison, pictured center, said he is ready the primary campaign, even if it gets negative. "My kids and I have discussed this and we are together in moving forward to do the right thing," he said. "Ultimately the truth is the thing that is going to win out. The truth is that my kids are with me and the truth is that I have been with them and made choices, difficult and hard choices, in their best interest.

"You'd rather things be another way but they are not. I'm content to go forward and so are they," he concluded, turning to his daughter Courtney, pictured right, and son Stone, left.

Faison, who has embraced the Occupy movement and vociferously opposed Republican legislative leaders, said he isn't trying to stake out ground to the political left of Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and former Congressman Bob Etheridge, his two likely primary opponents with moderate Democratic records.

"I would consider myself a moderate," he said. "I am socially progressive but fiscally conservative."

As for his low poll numbers, Faison said his campaign is doing its own research that "paints a very different picture." But he refused to share the numbers to vouch for his claim.