Gov. Michael Easley (D) Elected 2000, 2d term up Jan. 2009
Born:	Mar. 23, 1950, Nash County
Home:	Southport
Education:	U. of N.C. (Chapel Hill), B.A. 1972; N.C. Central U., J.D. 1975
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Mary)
Elected  Office:	NC Atty. Gen., 1992-2000.
Professional Career:	Asst. D.A., N.C. 13th Dist., 1976-78, 1979-82; N.C. Dist. Atty., 1982-90; private practice, 1978-79, 1990-92.
Office	State Capitol, Raleigh 27603, 919-733-4240; Fax: 919-733-5166; Web: www.state.nc.us.
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Mike Easley, a Democrat, was elected governor of North Carolina in 2000, the first time either party won a third consecutive term since 1968. Easley grew up on a tobacco farm near Rocky Mount, 50 miles east of Raleigh, and graduated from the University of North Carolina and North Carolina Central University Law School. He has spent his whole adult life in government. He served as an assistant district attorney and in 1982, at 31, became district attorney in three southeast counties. In 1992 he took a big step upward by winning election statewide as attorney general. He backed the death penalty and supported gun rights. He appeared in $1 million worth of public service ads, many warning about predatory lending to old people; his constant appearances irritated Republicans, who pushed through a law banning such appearances in election years.

Reelected in 1996, Easley started running for governor in 1999, obviously a strong candidate but by no means the favorite. His main Democratic primary opponent, Lieutenant Governor Dennis Wicker, was endorsed by teachers' unions, feminist groups and black leaders. But Easley won the May primary by 59%-36%. Meanwhile, the Republican nomination went to former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot. Easley called for prescription drugs for seniors and HMO regulation, improvements in public schools and a lottery to fund education. He avoided the national Democratic Party and didn't attend the convention in Los Angeles. Vinroot opposed the lottery but said he would allow a referendum; he pledged not to raise taxes and called for school vouchers for low-income children in failing schools.

For most of the campaign, Easley ran about 10% ahead in polls. Then, when the presidential candidates debated at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem on October 11, Vinroot tied Easley to Al Gore. One ad called Easley an "Al Gore liberal." Easley attacked Vinroot for his support of vouchers and opposition to a lottery. Easley had more money, and in the last week ran an ad with an endorsement from North Carolina's Andy Griffith. That helped portray him as a down-home, rural Carolinian, running against a city slicker. Even as George W. Bush was carrying North Carolina, Easley won 52%-46%.

Easley came to the governorship at a time when voters were used to an expanding economy and used to the leadership talents of Jim Hunt, elected in 1976 and 1980 and again in 1992 and 1996, and at a time when North Carolina's booming economy was slowing down. As the first North Carolina governor never to have been a legislator in nearly 50 years, he lacked the horsetrading skills that are useful in dealing with a legislature and did not spend much time negotiating with legislative leaders. He attracted more attention dealing with emergencies--three ice storms and seven hurricanes in his first term--and when he slammed into the speedway wall at 120 m.p.h. at Lowes's Motor Speedway in Concord in 2003. "It was fun for about four or five laps, but the last part wasn't too good. I was pushing and the car was running tight and it got loose on me and I wrecked." In his first years Easley had some success. In September 2001 he persuaded the legislature to pass his budget with money for his More at Four academic preschool program and smaller class sizes for grades K-3; he proposed a 1% increase in the sales tax and the legislature passed that and an income tax increase as well. He passed programs for HMO regulation and prescription drugs for seniors, character enhancement and school accountability report cards. But as time went on he faced severe fiscal problems. In February 2002 he used executive power to take money from trust funds and withhold money from local governments to stanch a $1.2 billion shortfall. In May 2002 he presented a budget which cut overall spending and depended on receipts from an as yet unapproved lottery, but provided money for More at Four and more teachers in early grades and cut aid to local governments; they could increase their sales taxes by a half-percent if they liked. In June 2002 the state Senate rejected his education spending increases; in July 2002 the House, with Republicans solidly against, blocked his plan to cut local aid. In response Easley cut 2,600 state jobs. In September the House rejected putting the lottery on the ballot 69-50. But a budget agreement was reached that month protecting Easley's More at Four and class size proposals and gave state agency heads greater flexibility in making cuts.

In November 2002 Republicans gained seven seats in the state Senate and emerged with a 61-59 majority in the House (though a January 2003 party switch left the House evenly divided). The next day Easley astonished legislators by vetoing his first bill. The Founding Fathers of North Carolina, suspicious of executive tyranny, had written a state constitution in which the governor had no veto; only in 1996 did the voters grant the governor a limited veto. Hunt had never used it; Easley did, on a bill designating appointments to boards and commissions. The legislature, summoned to the required special session to consider override, let it stand: The first veto by a governor of North Carolina since Josiah Martin vetoed a bill in 1774. Faced with another budget shortfall, Easley got the legislature to extend the 2001 tax increase, but later called for a small cut in the corporate tax rate. In 2004, as revenues started coming in more generously, Easley got $60 million for More for Four and reducing K-3 class sizes. He claims that North Carolina fourth graders lead the nation in math scores and rank above average in reading and near the top in writing, and that North Carolina leads the nation in high school graduates going on to college. Easley also pushed through $3 billion in bonds for university and community college facilities and $700 million in bonds for transportation and infrastructure. He pushed a One North Carolina Agenda which he claims has brought in 12,000 jobs and $1 billion in investment since 2001 and Job Development Investment Grants which he claims has brought in 8,600 jobs and $1.3 billion investment since 2003. In November 2004 he persuaded the legislature to pass $242 million in incentives to get Dell to build a plant with 2,000 jobs in Winston-Salem.

Easley entered the 2004 campaign year with good but not stellar job ratings and there was a serious contest for the Republican nomination. The favorite was Richard Vinroot, running in his third straight gubernatorial race; he directed most of his fire at Easley. "I told you this fellow would raise taxes." Former one-term Congressman Bill Cobey ran with the endorsement of former Senator Jesse Helms; he and Vinroot represented the two wings of the party that had clashed in many primaries before. But the nomination went to the third candidate, state Senator Patrick Ballantine, who resigned in April and campaigned as a strong conservative. The primary was delayed from May until July because of a pending lawsuit over legislative districting. Ballantine won, with 30.4% of the votes to 30.0% for Vinroot--much lower than his 2000 showing--and 27% for Cobey. When the results were announced, Vinroot declined to ask for the runoff he was entitled to under state law since no candidate got 40%.

Easley won 56%-43%. He won the votes of 43% of whites and 87% of blacks; he won at least 44% among every income group and 51% among college graduates and 19% of Republicans. He won 21% among white conservative Protestants and 34% of evangelicals and born-again Christians. The negative ads helped: he won only 51% of those who said they were voting for a candidate but 73% among those who said they were voting primarily against his opponent. Easley carried all of east Carolina except for three counties on the coast and Johnston County outside Raleigh; he carried all the big metropolitan counties but lost in the Piedmont textile counties and in several mountain counties.

Going into his second term, Easley continued to press for a lottery; all the surrounding states have them now. "We're the only state in America that plays the lottery and gives away the proceeds. We are building new schools in South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee while we're packing our kids in trailers here at home." And he said he would press the legislature to pass a Learn and Earn program which would let high school students take classes at community colleges and worked toward an associate's or bachelor's degree as well as a high school diploma. Democrats made gains in legislative elections and again had majorities in both houses.

National Democrats, noting that the only presidents their party has elected in the last 40 years were Southern governors, began casting an eye on Easley (who, with Mark Warner of Virginia, Phil Bredesen of Tennessee and Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana are the only Democratic governors in the 11 Confederate states). But he seems unlikely to be a candidate. When his wife was asked about his political future in October 2004, she said, "What else would he run for? He's happy being in North Carolina." When asked about his legacy, Easley has quipped that he wants to be forgotten, to have no portrait made and no jails named after him. He has not been active in the Democratic Governors Association or in other national Democratic groups. And it seems unlikely that he would run against fellow Tar Heel John Edwards, who certainly might run again in 2008.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2004 general	Michael Easley (D)	1,939,154	56%
	Patrick Ballantine (R)	1,495,021	43%
	Other	52,513	2%
2004 primary	Michael Easley (D)	379,498	85%
	Rickey Kipfer (D)	65,061	15%
2000 general	Michael Easley (D)	1,530,324	52%
	Richard Vinroot (R)	1,360,960	46%
	Other	50,778	2%