Governor’s insult a great compliment

I’m fairly confident I won’t be getting a Christmas card from the Governor’s Mansion this year. Perhaps, though, I’ll get a letter saying Bev Perdue and her staff have selected me as their least favorite journalist in Wilmington.

You see, unlike some small-market reporters, I don’t lob softballs at political leaders just because they grace our little corner of the world with their presence. Perdue has found that out the hard way, and during her visit to Cape Fear Community College’s North Campus Wednesday, she decided to try to show me up in front of my peers.

“That’s just a really bad question!” the governor sniped when I began her Q&A with reporters by pointing out that she’d promised during her campaign to hold her first town hall meeting as governor in New Hanover County in mid-January and asked her why it took “longer than expected.”

“You know why,” she said. “I’ve been doing nothing but budget.”

Some reporters may have been offended or at least embarrassed by such a response from the leader of state government. Not me. I reveled in it. When a politician actually reaches a point where he or she takes a personal shot at you, you know you’re doing your job as a reporter. And in this case I’ve been doing my job holding Perdue accountable for repeatedly slighting the people of Southeastern North Carolina.

During her primary campaign, then Lt. Gov. Perdue skipped a candidates forum in Wilmington. She blamed a scheduling conflict, though she happened to find her way to town that night and met with reporters the next day. During a sit-down interview with her at UNCW in August, I asked her about refusing to take part in that forum or one scheduled for October. She said five debates in other parts of the state during the six months of the general election were sufficient. When I followed up on the issue, saying those other debates did not focus on issues important to our part of the state, she got testy, telling me the questions were generic to the whole state (they were not) and that people could watch on the Internet, even if it meant having to go to their local library to do it.

When Perdue showed up at Whitey’s restaurant a day before the October forum, I again asked her why she did not want to discuss the issues important to our area. That’s when she made the big promise. She said she would hold that first town hall here “in mid-January.” Considering inauguration day was set for Jan. 10, I thought that was a little suspect. So in the days leading up to and following Perdue taking the oath of office, I continually called her transition team and press office to find out when the meeting would be. Eventually one of her press staffers told me he’d call me when they scheduled it. He never did call.

On Monday, March 30, I requested from the Governor’s press office a list of everywhere she’d made a public appearance since taking office. The next day Perdue spokeman Tim Crowley called to make sure he understood what I wanted. “It’ll take me a day or so to get it all together,” he told me. By Friday morning, I still didn’t have it. So I called again. An hour or so later, the press office sent out a release saying Perdue would hold her town hall meeting Wednesday. About an hour after that I got my list of public appearances. Coincidence? I really don’t believe it was, especially considering I found out from a CFCC spokesman that the Governor’s office had not contacted the school about the visit until at least two days after I requested her public schedule.

That schedule shows that before coming to New Hanover County Wednesday, Gov. Perdue had made 50 public appearances across North Carolina (none closer than President Obama’s visit to Camp Lejeune Feb. 27), two trips to Washington, DC, and a trip to Williamsburg, VA. She also took a week-long vacation with her husband. So when she told me after insulting me “we haven’t moved around much,” I just laughed to myself. It seems she’s done a lot of moving in her short time in office. Just not here.

Of course the priceless moment of Wednesday was the hastily-assembled news conference at Screen Gems Studios for the governor to make “an economic development announcement.” When it fell through because Disney reportedly was not ready to commit to making a movie in Wilmington yet after all, I became convinced it was not coincidental that the announcement that never happened was scheduled just hours after I aired a story about how Perdue’s indifference toward southeastern North Carolina is a sign of a lack of political clout for this part of the state.

I respect Gov. Perdue for the office she holds, and I admire the way she doesn’t take crap from anyone. But neither do I.

Be it the governor, a member of Congress or even a presidential candidate, I am not wowed by the person or the office. Like a politician, I work for you. My job is to be the voice of my viewers in the halls of power to make sure the people who work there are held accountable for their actions and decisions and to make sure they serve you well. I hope the questions I ask, regardless of the insults with which they are answered, serve you well, too.