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Tues.: Bev's Long Day
posted at 2009-08-26 00:32 | Last modified 2009-08-26 09:44
It was all Perdue, all the time today. After six nearly invisible months in what one insider described to me as a “defensive crouch,” the Gov now seems bent on reinventing herself as the active, hands-on leader she promised she’d be on the campaign trail.
Part 1: Intersection of Sycamore and Mordecai
At 8:30 this morning, Perdue was waiting for the bus with a handful of students headed for their first day of school at Conn Elementary. At first, the assembled kids – 2nd through 4th grade – seemed more excited about a send-off visit from the neighborhood cat (“Tinkerbell,” if you must know), but that changed when Perdue’s car pulled up.
“What’s your favorite book?” Perdue asked third grader Will Alexieff. “Comic books!” Will answered after thinking for a moment. “Wrong answer!” she laughed. Meantime, Alexieff’s dad, Ilya, seized the opportunity to lobby the Governor for a stoplight at the school crosswalk across busy Wake Forest Rd.
The bus, due at 8:35, was running late, and by 8:50, with the temperature climbing, the parents were beginning to run out of small talk. Just in time, the bus finally trundled around the corner. Perdue climbed in with the kids and plunked down next to a fifth grader, King Austen.
“You’re excited?” she asked. “Um, not really," he answered. "'Cause it’s, like, school. And not a lot of kids like to go to school.”
Turns out Austen didn't realize he was talking to the Governor. "No! Really? Oh my gosh!"
Third grader Celia Nordby was less impressed. "I’m not gonna say anything,” she told Perdue, “cause I voted for the other guy. But you're a good governor."
If you missed the story, you can hear it here.
Part 2: Fifth floor, State Admin Building
Perdue reappeared early this afternoon to welcome BRAC (the Budget Reform and Accountability Commission, not the military base closure body) to its first official public meeting.
She told the panel's ten members they’re the state’s best hope for big changes, in part because none of them are elected officials subject to political pressure -- a lesson she learned as a state senator in the '90s, trying to reform boards and commissions.
Lo and behold, I found people were just flat not gonna come to the meeting, because they didn’t want to have to make the tough decisions. Because of the interest groups and the special commissions. And everybody knew that….an ox needed to be gored, but nobody wanted it to be their ox.
Perdue also warned the board that the state’s economy is performing pretty much as expected – that is, it’s not rebounding very quickly.
And as a result, the state is gonna face another challenge this time next year. And I need for you all to help me find some resources that we can deploy in a more efficient and effective way.
For more, here's my story on it.
Part 3: After the Speech
Perdue stopped in the hallway outside the BRAC meeting to take questions from reporters. Most interesting, at least in retrospect, was her answer to a question from McClatchy's Mark Johnson about releasing the State Highway Patrol’s internal report clearing the trooper who ordered the deletion of Governor Easley’s 2005 travel records.
The N&O cast her answer as a refusal to “take steps” to release the records.
"Perdue did not directly answer a reporter's question as to whether she would order the report released. She suggested she did not have the legal authority to do so."
Perdue’s answer was a bit more nuanced than that. She also took credit for pushing the SHP to hunt down and turn over the erased hard drive where the records were initially stored – a detail missing from the N&O’s story.
Here’s Johnson’s question and Perdue’s full answer.
Listen Now!
So here's my question: If a solo reporter at a small news outfit can post the audio of the governor’s answer to a key question in a corruption case, why can’t – or wouldn’t – a big investigative powerhouse like the N&O?
Comments? Drop me a line.
