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 Succession Repeal Essential to Restoring Good Government
by Tom Campbell
February 21, 2007
Former House Speaker Jim Black’s guilty pleas have severely damaged whatever notions we had about good government in North Carolina. Most legislators are good people with good intentions to do good things, but we now know there is far more corruption than was previously believed.
The relevant question now becomes how do we clean up government? The first and most imperative step we can take is to repeal gubernatorial succession. A brief history lesson will help explain.
In 1976, Jim Hunt won a landslide victory to become Governor. One of his agenda items was to permit a Governor to serve more than one four-year term. Hunt argued persuasively that four years wasn’t long enough for a Governor to effect meaningful change. The Governor takes office in January, mid-way through the state’s fiscal year. By the time the Governor learns the ropes the second year of the biennial budget has been approved. Half the Governor’s term is completed before the chief executive can enact legislation and spending priorities, and little more than two years would remain to see the effects of these changes before a new Governor would be elected. Hunt convinced the legislature to put the matter to the voters to change our Constitution. The battle lines were drawn, the fight was fierce, with succession winning by a close 53-48 percent margin.
The unexpected consequence to succession was that legislators suddenly felt that the balance of power shifting decidedly in favor of the governor. Lieutenant Governor Jimmy Green, a powerful and experienced former legislator, consolidated even more power with the addition of four more years. Prior to succession, the House Speaker served only one two-year term, but suddenly, outgunned by the Governor and by the President of the Senate, House members immediately recognized they had lost much of their clout and elected Gastonia’s Carl Stewart to be the first Speaker to serve two consecutive two-year terms.
Since then many legislative leaders have held power eight years or longer, especially after leaders assumed the role as chief fundraiser, doling out huge funds to candidates they favored, principally candidates who would continue to elect them as leaders.
It is undisputable that too much power concentrated too long in one person ends up disastrously. Speaker Black is exhibit A. It may be argued that it takes two years for legislative leaders to learn the ropes. The next two years the leaders can, and often do, effect positive change for the state. Evidence suggests that after four years in power, corruption, entitlement, and personal gain are more often the result.
In order to restore North Carolina’s reputation as a good government state the first step is to declare that succession was a huge mistake and repeal that section of our constitution. An argument can be made for six-year gubernatorial terms, but term limits on legislative leadership are obviously needed. These limits won’t occur until succession is repealed. .
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