I just shook the hand of the next Governor of North Carolina!


He's quite charming. Amiable. Pleasant. Comes off very nicely in a cocktail reception setting.
VERY well attended fundraiser in a private home on Franklin Street.

He gave a short speech at the end. He gets it. He hears the frustration and his answer is "North Carolina is better
than this".

He gets the issues about funding for public schools and respect for teachers. He understands the stupidity
of turning down federal expansion money for Medicaid. He is a graduate of UNC - Chapel Hill so he really
understands what the Repubs are trying to do to ruin this great University system. He knows that
giving religious bigots a pass is wrong, if as magistrates--public servants--they don't want to perform marriages for gays. I could go on and on. All the time he was talking you felt as though he was talking to you as a neighbor.

He also understands the Dems have to recruit some good candidates--and he says they are--to successfully run and take
over seats in the state legislature in order to protect the Governor's veto. He says he's optimistic--and I certainly hope he's right!

I have never met him personally, but I know people who have. He has that right combination of down- home Eastern N.C. and sophistication that so many of our Democratic governors have had--a Jim Hunt type. Education is a big deal and a love for the innate beauty of N.C.
I know people who have run into him swimming at the YMCA in Raleigh.

Did drilling off the coast come up? I have sent him some small contributions via e-mail and I'm always looking for a place to say something about the coastal drilling, but have never seen a place for comments.

There is a contact page here on his website:

http://www.roycooper.com/contact


He mentioned Jim Hunt--and the teacher pay statistics when Hunt was governor--vs now--and I thought I saw Jim Hunt
in the crowd.

I'd gotten so down-hearted because of the state of politics that I'd stopped following anybody in the state. He sounds like what we need -- NC always does better when the Dems run the place. How people forget that is beyond me.

Hopefully, we'll get a good Dem to run against our crooked sheriff (Terry Johnson). How many indictments does that guy need before he gets the boot?

If he runs, he'll have my vote! Thanks for going to this and for reporting back!