Help Wanted
With the race for the Democratic nomination for governor tightening, it’s looking less and less like either Richard Moore or Beverly Perdue are going to blink and veer onto the federal side of the ballot to take on Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
With the two most well-funded and visible Dems not inclined to take on Liddy, the party has had a big help wanted sign hanging with no takers talking about it — at least out loud.
That changed last week when Rep. Brad Miller uttered that he’s talked with party officials about a possible Senate run.
Judging from the response, you’d have thought he came down from the mountain to share a vision. There is nothing the mainstream media loves more than covering a horse race and they were all over it.
Within a few days there was even a poll from Public Policy Polling showing Miller trailing 33 to 44 — not bad for a first blush against an incumbent.
Miller says no matter who runs it’ll be a tough race. Liddy added an Amen to that last week. Her campaign announced it’s already raised $1.7 million in the first quarter of this year.
Not so Gallant
State Auditor Les Merritt may have taken some heat over outside consulting work, but it hasn’t caused him to temper his criticism when he finds something out of whack in the books.
His office released a report Monday detailing the state’s seven-year effort to buy Gallants Channel — a chunk of the historic Beaufort waterfront — and last year’s Pepsi Sail debacle. The two were intertwined, Merritt said, because the improvements to the waterfront were linked to the event.
The auditor spared no one blame, including the state’s Division of Cultural Resources, the Department of Agriculture, the Natural Heritage Trust Fund, the state Maritime Museum and the non-profit that supports it, the Friends of the Maritime Museum. The section on the channel purchase outlines a bungled transfer of the land, skipped oversight procedures, unreported liens and unpaid bills. The section on the Pepsi Sail event notes that the poorly planned Tall Ships event, which had expected to raise $2 to $4 million, resulted in a loss of more than $1.8 million. Not to mention 4,400 ticket refunds to unhappy, overheated customers.
Judging from the positive spin, though, it’s hard to imagine that Merritt forwarded the same report to the Friends of the Maritime Museum, which co-coordinated the Pepsi Sail event.
The other agencies generally took their lumps, but in their official response the Friends note that, “This audit of property transactions and the 2006 tall ships event in Beaufort offers a sound basis for going forward with one of North Carolina’s most popular and successful museums.â€
And further on, the friends offer this amazing piece of spin on the positive outcome from forcing large crowds of people to wait around in the heat: “The audit report paints a generally accurate picture of Pepsi Americas’ Sail 2006. The event fell short of expectations in several ways, though it was far from a total flop. Thousands of visitors enjoyed themselves despite the heat and disappointing turnout of ships. The various public safety agencies that took part reported that both the planning process and execution of their plan provided practice in mutual cooperation that will prove invaluable in the event of a disaster in the region.â€
Sometimes, people make this job too easy.