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Senate changes again; GOP has new issue (Charlotte Observer)

The decision of nine-term state Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, to step down after this term ends continues the march of Democrats out of the legislature — and adds to the speculation that Republicans will capture a number of Democratic seats and take over the Senate next year.

In fact, Republicans Tuesday announced plans to push legislation that would exempt North Carolina from any federal requirement that every resident be required to purchase health care of pay a penalty. The bill likely won’t pass in the coming short session, but it certainly would give Republican candidates a hot-button issue to campaign on this year. Republican leaders say they see their proposal as a positive initiative because they hear from so many people who don’t like the health reform bill moving through the U.S. Senate.

Albertson, who also served four years in the House before moving to the Senate, is a popular county and gospel music singer with a flowing beard and an easy way with people. Lately he also has been a Senate appropriations committee chair and principal budget writer. At 78, he says he’s exhausted. He joins four other Senate Democrats who won’t run again, including Sen. David Hoyle of Gaston County, R.C. Soles, the dean of the Senate and longest-serving legislator, of Columbus County(who has been indicted by a grand jury for shooting an intruder at his home), and Julia Bozeman, D-New Hanover. Already resigned from the Senate are former Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, and David Weinstein, D-Robeson.

The decision of these six Eastern N.C. Democrats to leave changes the power structure of the state Senate dramatically. It robs Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight of veteran lawmakers from the East and furthers a shift of power from the East to the West, where Democratic Sen. Martin Nesbitt of Buncombe County will become the new majority leader. And it creates four vacancies to be filled by voters this fall and two other seats (Rand’s and Weinstein’s) where the Democratic incumbents will not have an established record of winning their districts. Republicans are enthusiastic about the possibility of winning six seats this fall and changing the Senate from a 30 to 20 advantage for Democrats to at least 26-24 in favor of Republicans.

Another departure will be Sen. Eddie Goodall, R-Union, who is not running again, but whose seat is regarded as a safe one for the GOP.

Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, House Republican leader Skip Stam, R-Wake and State Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer announced plans Tuesday to file legislation in the short session (and next year, if the first try fails) that would exempt North Carolina from any federal requirement that residents purchase health insurance. Here’s part of a press release the GOP put out:

“Raleigh, N.C. — The Republican leaders of the State Senate and House were joined by the Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party today promising to fight the federal take-over of healthcare and protect an individual’s right to make decisions about their own health coverage. The Republican leadership promised a legislative initiative called the Health Care Protection Act (HCPA).

“Republicans will not stand idly by and watch as citizens’ rights to make their own health care decisions are taken from them by the federal government,” said Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), “The people of North Carolina are overwhelmingly opposed to this blatant abuse of power. We are proud to be their legislative voice by putting forth this common sense initiative.”

“House Republican Leader Paul Stam (R-Wake) said the initiative should be supported by Democrats and Republicans alike. “This should not be about partisan politics; it should be about the individual freedom of our citizens.” Stam noted that either a general statue or a constitutional amendment will be presented during the short session in May. If the Democratic majority blocks the initiative, it will be submitted again the first week of next year’s session, when he believes Republicans will hold a majority.”

I don’t doubt that the Republican are serious about trying to exempt North Carolina from any federal law requiring the purchase of health insurance, though I think it would have a long and hard court fight ahead of it. But regardless of whether such a law would stand up to legal scrutiny, you have to admit it would make a mighty good campaign issue to energize the Republican Party’s base and encourage support for Republican candidates this fall. The issue might help Republicans gain control of the Senate and also take over the House, where Democrats have a 68-52 edge. If Republicans can pick up a net of nine seats, they’d have enough for a 61-59 majority.
Posted by Jack Betts at 2:14 PM
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Colorado pols woo federal transportation chief and his department’s dollars (Denver Post)

Colorado politicians were very nice to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on his visit Friday to Denver.

With good reason.

LaHood’s department is weighing whether to funnel more than $1.5 billion from a variety of federal programs to transportation projects around the state.

The Regional Transportation District hopes to get $1 billion from the federal agency for a public-private partnership that would build FasTracks trains to Denver International Airport and Arvada/Wheat Ridge.

Officials working on the redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station as a FasTracks hub want $300 million in loans from LaHood’s department. And communities throughout Colorado have bid for more than $500 million in so-called TIGER transportation grants that will be doled out by the secretary.

TIGER stands for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, and the money comes from the federal stimulus measure passed by Congress last year.

LaHood was in Denver to present the keynote address at a jobs forum sponsored by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet at the University of Denver. Nearly 200 local government and business leaders from around the state attended.

Chief among the supplicants was Denver Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper, who not only praised LaHood and his department at the jobs forum, but even cooked dinner for the transportation secretary at the mayor’s home on Thursday night. The menu was “surf and turf,” Hickenlooper said.

“It’s about relationships,” the mayor said of the spadework needed to win federal support for Colorado projects.

LaHood has $1.5 billion in TIGER funds to distribute nationally. He said decisions on which communities will get the money will be made by the end of this month.

Government and business officials in the U.S. 36 corridor have asked LaHood’s department for up to $200 million to extend high-occupancy vehicle/high-occupancy toll lanes on the Boulder Turnpike from Federal Boulevard to Boulder.

LaHood, who met with U.S. 36 coalition members on Friday, did not say whether the highway corridor would get TIGER money.

But referring to “important projects” in metro Denver, including the train to DIA, LaHood said, “They are on our radar; we know how important they are.”

The secretary praised state and local leaders for preparing the studies and reviews that are prerequisites for winning federal transportation dollars.

LaHood, a Republican former congressman from central Illinois, said recovery from tough economic times requires bipartisanship and collaboration.

“We didn’t sit around crying in our beer,” LaHood said, recalling cooperation between local government leaders and Caterpillar Inc., a major employer in his home base of Peoria, when an earlier recession threatened jobs at Caterpillar.

Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or [email protected]

By Jeffrey Leib
The Denver Post
Posted: 01/16/2010 01:00:00 AM MST

New Transit-Funding Rules Make Streetcars More Desirable (Wall Street Journal)

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration said it was revamping rules on federal transit funding to funnel more of the money to streetcars, bus routes and other projects that promote “livability.”

The new policy announced Wednesday, part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to use transportation and housing programs to reduce driving, contain sprawl and create transit-related jobs, could lift the fortunes of makers of light-rail and other transit equipment sold to states and cities.

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Bloomberg News

A Denver Light Rail car is wired at a factory in Sacramento in October.
Among more than 80 cities that could now qualify for funding are Seattle; Cincinnati; Boise, Idaho; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.), who led the push for a federal program designed to promote transit projects. Transit-industry officials said many projects had been stymied by a Bush administration policy requiring the government to evaluate projects based largely on reducing commuting times at the lowest possible expense.

HNTB Corp., an infrastructure firm that serves federal, state, and other clients, is working on a commuter-rail project in Indianapolis that could benefit from the change, said Liz Rao, the firm’s national public-transit services chairwoman.

The company is also working with clients on high-speed rail lines in California that will be “major hubs” for communities, said Ms. Rao, who expects to see steel and rail-car makers and companies in the solar-power industry benefit from the change.

Chandra Brown, president of streetcar maker United Streetcar LLC in Clackamas, Ore., said the company has been working for years to get the funding formula reworked. The old “method was ‘how do you move the most people the greatest distance in the quickest time,’ but that’s not necessarily indicative of the benefits,” she said, adding that the change “makes sure projects get credit for being green.”

United Streetcar, which typically sells streetcars for between $3 million and $4 million each, currently has about $50 million in streetcar orders, including six under contract with Portland, Ore., and seven with Tucson, Ariz., she said.

Of the 80 or so cities considering streetcar development, about a dozen are “very close” to actually implementing a system, she said. “This will trickle down to us, so we’ll be hiring more welders and fitters and machinists and electricians that are going to be putting these cars together.”

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who announced the policy change at a conference in Washington, said the shift would determine how the Federal Transit Administration awards some $2 billion a year in transit-construction funds. This money, awarded under a program known as “New Starts and Small Starts,” is intended to help state and regional agencies build commuter rail, light rail, heavy rail and bus rapid-transit projects.

Mr. LaHood said the administration would immediately rescind the “budget restrictions” enacted by the Bush administration and focus on evaluating projects based on the environmental, community and economic-development benefits, as well as on congestion relief.

Jeff Rosen, a general counsel for the Department of Transportation during the Bush administration and now a partner in Washington law firm Kirkland & Ellis, said one danger of using noneconomic criteria was that it risked politicizing the process. “When jurisdictions are pushing to get their projects approved, if there are not clear economic criteria, there’s more risk” that influential members of Congress will win favor, Mr. Rosen said. He also said that using criteria geared toward multiple “soft” objectives raised the risks of “achieving none of them.”

Mr. Blumenauer said many cities are in varying stages of streetcar planning, but “nobody was applying

[for the program] because they couldn’t figure out how to make it work.”

Portland, which managed to receive $75 million of funding under the program last year to expand its existing downtown streetcar, has generated significant new development alongside the streetcar, including retail space, housing and offices, said Mr. Blumenauer.

President Barack Obama has pushed agency heads to work together to encourage cities and suburbs to promote walking, biking and public transportation as alternatives to driving. Mr. Obama has called for the DOT and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, for example, to coordinate plans for transit and housing projects so people can find jobs and housing closer to transportation hubs.

Under the new policy, some dollars that might have gone to projects that emphasized longer commutes, such as a rail line between major cities, could now be shifted to smaller local projects that serve more-compact areas.

Federal Transit Administration Chief Peter Rogoff cited the planned expansion of light-rail service in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as an example of a project that could benefit. The FTA wants the plans for light-rail service between the Twin Cities to be altered so that lower-income, mostly minority communities between the cities have greater access to the line.

Write to Melanie Trottman at [email protected] and Josh Mitchell at [email protected]

By MELANIE TROTTMAN And JOSH MITCHELL

Region will lose legislative power (Washington Daily News)

Population reports suggest that portions of eastern North Carolina will lose legislative strength in 2011 — an unwelcome reduction in power to a region already struggling to stay ahead of the economic curve.

This is a likelihood that some local officials fear could place areas like Beaufort County at a disadvantage when it comes to state funding and projects.

“I think we’re definitely going to see a shift in representation due to the population increase in North Carolina,” state Rep. Tim Spear, D-Washington, said Tuesday.

The problem is illuminated in an October 2009 report from the Program on Public Life, which is located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The report notes that 2010 census projections show an overall 10-year growth rate of 19 percent across the state.

The report suggests that areas that have lost population, or expanded below the state’s average growth, could suffer during the next round of legislative redistricting.

State data show that Beaufort County is among the counties that have added people at a rate under the state average.

Among the counties that have lost population in the past decade are Hyde, Martin and Washington counties.

The numbers present ominous signs for the redrawing of legislative lines, a process that is handled by the N.C. General Assembly after each U.S. census.

That process is slated to unfold in 2011.

With the central portion of the state growing at a phenomenally higher rate than some other locations in the east and west, counties like Wake are poised to gain representation in the state’s legislative bodies, while counties like Beaufort could suffer a more diluted influence.

The Program on Public Life report shows that Wake County “is likely to gain two House seats and one Senate seat.”

According to the report, “Counties whose population rose by more than 19% will gain representation — either a whole seat or a larger fraction of a seat” in the Legislature.

“Counties that lost population or even gained less than the statewide average will lose representation,” the report continues.

“In effect, what we have is a weakening of the legislative power and the legislative authority from rural members of the House and Senate,” Spear observed.

Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life, stated, “It’s difficult to speak of the east as a whole.”

He added that portions of the east are growing, including Pitt and New Hanover counties.

“The way you have to read those projections is that those counties that are growing above the state average are likely to gain some strength,” he said Tuesday. “Those that are declining are likely to lose strength.”

Beaufort County is projected to post 4.3-percent population growth over the 2000 Census, for a total population of 46,877 in 2010, the program’s report reads.

Official numbers tracked by the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management reveal Beaufort County’s modest growth of 2.1 percent over a seven-year period ending in 2007. That’s compared to 12.4 percent growth statewide during the same period.

“There is no good news in the shift in population to the Piedmont or the increased population in the Piedmont as compared to the east,” Tom Thompson, head of Beaufort County’s Economic Development Commission, said Tuesday.

As the state’s power centers consolidate their electoral strength, the east could see a range of assaults, from more of a focus on environmental regulations concentrating on coastal counties to less transportation money.

“That really pains me to say that because 17 is not even finished yet,” Thompson said, referring to the eastern-driven push to convert U.S. Highway 17 to four lanes from the Virginia line to the South Carolina border.

Thompson expects court cases to be launched in response to redistricting issues.

“There always are,” he said. “The only solution, as I see it, is to try to get as cohesive an eastern delegation together as possible to fight for things in the east.”

Spear said rural areas will have to strive all the more to build on the local coalitions they’ve already formed, adding that the process will be long-term because redistricting occurs every 10 years.

“In the meantime, it’s going to mean that legislators like myself and other like representatives and senators in the rural areas are going to have our work cut out for us,” he said. “There will be more competition for these dollars, and we’re just going to have to work harder to make sure that our people are represented.”

By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 2:20 AM EST

State may build rail line in northeast Charlotte (Charlotte Observer)

State transportation officials will hold a public meeting tonight at University Meadows Elementary School to discuss changes that could speed rail travel between Charlotte and Raleigh, but also cause the closing of several crossings in northeast Charlotte and the Harrisburg area.

The N.C. Department of Transportation is considering building a second rail line next to the existing N.C. Railroad-Norfolk Southern Line. The new track would run from near Orr Road in northeast Charlotte to just south of N.C. 49 in Concord.

It is part of a bigger project that would include a new track farther north in North Carolina, to speed rail travel. That project, the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, is designed to provide much faster passenger and freight service between Charlotte and Washington.

Part of the project involves improving train safety, and planners say that would require closing some public and private crossings.

Other proposals include improvements to crossings in the Orr Road/Newell-Hickory Grove Road area in Charlotte, and on Caldwell and Pharr roads in Cabarrus County. Crossing and intersection improvements at Robinson Church Road in northeast Charlotte also are being considered.

However, planners also have proposed closing several crossings, including Pharr Mill, Shamrock and Hickory Ridge roads near Harrisburg, and Newell-Hickory Grove and Orr roads in Charlotte.

“At this point, nothing is set,” said Tim Gibbs of Charlotte’s transportation department. “What we have now are proposals.”

The proposals have set off concerns, however, among some Harrisburg-area residents, who say closing intersections would cause problems for residents who would have to travel farther for shopping and other trips.

By Steve Lyttle
[email protected]
Posted: Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010

New highway program needs to be comprehensive, forward thinking, LaHood says (The Trucker News Services)

Regional and local transportation authorities must be empowered to invest in all kinds of projects, LaHood told the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood today called on Congress to pass what he called a “comprehensive, forward-looking reauthorization program.”

Addressing the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, LaHood said he recognized that there is a lot of capacity and demand for additional transportation investments across the country that neither stimulus packages nor a newer jobs bill can provide.

The current reauthorization bill expired last year and has been extended by Congress.

“We need to empower regional and local transportation authorities to invest in the kinds of projects that will spur economic growth, enhance livability and preserve the qualities that make each area special,” LaHood said. “To achieve our priorities, we’ll pursue more flexible partnerships with states, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, transportation agencies and local communities. And we’ll continue to break down our ‘stovepipe’ mentality so we can focus on investing our tax dollars in projects that really matter.”

During his address at the meeting, LaHood announced that in a dramatic change from existing policy, he was proposing that new funding guidelines for major transit projects be based on livability issues such as economic development opportunities and environmental benefits, in addition to cost and time saved, which are currently the primary criteria.

LaHood revealed the Obama administration’s plans to change how projects are selected to receive federal financial assistance in the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) New Starts and Small Starts programs.

As part of this initiative, the FTA will immediately rescind budget restrictions issued by the Bush administration in March of 2005 that focused primarily on how much a project shortened commute times in comparison to its cost, LaHood said.

“Our new policy for selecting major transit projects will work to promote livability rather than hinder it,” LaHood said. “We want to base our decisions on how much transit helps the environment, how much it improves development opportunities and how it makes our communities better places to live.”

The change will apply to how the Federal Transit Administration evaluates major transit projects going forward. In making funding decisions, the FTA will now evaluate the environmental, community and economic development benefits provided by transit projects, as well as the congestion relief benefits from such projects.

“This new approach will help us do a much better job of aligning our priorities and values with our transit investments,” FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff said. “No longer will we ignore the many benefits that accrue to our environment and our communities when we build or expand rail and bus rapid transit systems.”

FTA will soon initiate a separate rulemaking process, inviting public comment on ways to appropriately measure all the benefits that result from such investments.

“The bottom line is, we’re going to ensure that our priorities, and the outcomes people care about, drive our investments – and not the other way around,” LaHood said.

The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].
1/13/2010

LaHood rescinds Bush transit spending restrictions (News and Observer)

WASHINGTON Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Wednesday rescinded Bush administration restrictions on federal transit grants so that a wider range of projects will be eligible and local transit systems will receive money faster.

LaHood told a conference of transportation officials and researchers that the Obama administration wants greater flexibility to help pay for bus, rail and other transit projects that could provide an economic boost, benefit the environment or improve the “livability” of communities.

Former President George W. Bush, who felt transit systems should rely more on local revenue and less on federal funds, adopted a policy in 2005 that restricted federal grants to transit construction projects and equipment purchases that could be shown to reduce traffic congestion and commute times and that met narrow cost-benefit rules.

The Bush policy, which was primarily helpful to suburban commuters, delayed money going to some projects by as long as four years as the government repeatedly kicked back applications to transit agencies until they could show they complied with the rules, said Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.

The policy also created transportation “nightmares” for some transit agencies that had to reshape their projects to follow the federal rules, Rogoff said. Officials in Charlotte, N.C., for example, wanted to buy trains and build platforms to accommodate up to three cars, but they couldn’t justify the cost under the Bush restrictions, he said.

Local officials scaled back the project to two-car trains, but ridership has exceeded expectations and platforms will now have to be enlarged and extra cars added at greater expense than if the original plan had been approved, Rogoff said.

“It’s not that we’re going to ignore cost – we always want to be sure people aren’t building Taj Mahal projects – but everything was cost before,” Rogoff said.

Trolleys, inner city buses, and bike and pedestrian projects are some types of projects that improve the ability of people to move around cities that will now be eligible for grants even though they don’t necessarily shorten the time of long commutes, he said.

Rogoff cited two projects in particular that might benefit from the new policy: Special bus lanes and rapid transit buses in New York, and light-rail trains that will connect Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota. He said he is troubled “from a civil rights perspective” that the Minnesota project may not build train stations in black and Asian neighborhoods of St. Paul because they wouldn’t comply with the Bush policy’s cost-effectiveness rules.

The new policy “will allow that (train) service to do a better job of serving those communities,” Rogoff said.

Published Wed, Jan 13, 2010 04:39 PM
Modified Wed, Jan 13, 2010 04:39 PM

Goodall won’t run again; takes lobby job (The Enquirer-Journal)

N.C. Sen. Eddie Goodall, R-Union, announced he would not seek reelection for his senate seat one day after N.C. Rep. Curtis Blackwood, R-Union, announced he would not seek reelection for the N.C. House.

Goodall and Blackwood said they did not collaborate on their decisions and it was just coincidence that the announcements came so close together.

Goodall was hired by the N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools, a group “committed to creating a unified voice for North Carolina’s public charter school movement,” according to its Web site. He called it an “honor” to serve Union County, but that it was time for him to get back in the work force.

In the legislature, Goodall frequently supported the expansion of charter schools throughout the state. He said he wants to push a bill this year that will increase the cap on charter schools in the state from 100 to 106, though he might have to recuse himself from votes due to his position with his new employer.

Goodall’s announcement came as a surprise to many around the county. Union County Republican chairman Jim Bention said the vacant seats will be “hard shoes to fill” and Union would “feel the ripple of their loss.” The legislators, who will finish their 2010 terms, will have served a combined 14 years in the General Assembly.

Rep. Pryor Gibson, the only Democrat from Union County to hold a state office, said that while he did not often vote the same way as Goodall or Blackwood, they were always professional and “represented their constituents well.”

“The people of Union County could always depend on them for expressing what they thought was best,” he said.

Looking toward the short session this year, Gibson said the state was facing the “largest budget shortfall in generations,” and surmised the budget would play a major role in any campaign.

Traditionally, Union has been a Republican county. In fact, registered Republicans outnumber Democrats about three to one in Blackwood’s western District 68; that did not mean the local Democratic party would ignore the race.

Mike Cognac, former Marvin mayor and the Democratic candidate against Blackwood two years ago, said the party would undoubtedly choose candidates and get their names out early.

“The party has been pretty active in soliciting candidates to run,” Cognac, an activist in the Union Democratic party, said.

“The lesson learned is that it’s not good for our party to not contest races even though on paper our chances don’t look all that good.”

Cognac said that it was important for both parties be represented in a race in order to keep each other accountable.

“You need to have a voice of opposition,” he said, pointing out that Blackwood was forced to go on the record on controversial issues he otherwise might be able to escape if a race is uncontested.

Cognac didn’t rule himself out as a candidate, but called himself a “long shot,” to run.

Political pundits are predicting the 2010 races to have a lasting impact and Republican leader Bention said this year would be one of the most important elections in history.

“We’ve seen the effects of the current administration, both in D.C. and especially here in Raleigh. We’ve seen just how the government should not be run,” he said.”2010 will be an opportunity for the people to show and express their concerns which I believe will lead to record changes at both levels.”
by Jason deBruyn

Blackwood won’t seek fifth term (The Enquirer-Journal)

Curtis Blackwood announced Thursday he will not run for a fifth term as representative of North Carolina’s District 68.

“Having spent over 10 percent of my life here in Raleigh, and believing in term limits, I have consulted with my family and believe that it is time to move onto other things,” Blackwood said in a press release sent by his office. “You certainly don’t need or deserve a professional politician.”

Blackwood expressed concern that ‘conservatives’ will take control of the District 68 seat in the next election, but said in the release that the longer a person serves in politics, “The more they tend to take on the point of view of the institution, rather than the people they serve.”

He plans to travel and spend time with his wife and family.

Joe Gerber announced his intentions to run for the seat as a Republican in December. The official filing date to become a candidate is Feb. 3.

Gerber is a proponent of term limits as well.

“I feel like four terms is enough,” Gerber said. “After four terms, you become what I consider a career politician.”

Blackwood’s announcement won’t affect Gerber’s campaign, the candidate said.

“I always felt I stood a very good chance,” Gerber said.

Gerber plans to focus on term limits, domestic violence and infrastructure needs during his campaign.

Blackwood’s announcement is good news, according to Nancy Rorie, a Union County resident and past president of N.C. Democratic Women. She is not aware of any Democrats in Union County who have expressed interest in running for the Dist. 68 seat.

“A Republican is going to win in that district, so I hope it’s a Republican who will represent all the citizens of Union County well,” Rorie said.
by Alan Jenkins

Albertson bows out (News and Observer)

State Sen. Charlie Albertson will not run for re-election.

His decision creates another seat left open by a departing veteran Democrat.

Albertson, 78, will have spent 22 years in the legislature when his term ends. He was elected to two House terms before winning election to the Senate.

Veteran Senate Democrats, including David Hoyle of Gaston County and R.C. Soles of Tabor City, have said they will not seek re-election. Former senators Tony Rand and David Weinstein resigned mid-term and moved on to jobs in Gov. Beverly Perdue’s administration.

Albertson, a Senate budget chairman, said he was not influenced by all the depatures. He said it’s just time for him to go.
“This job gets a little tougher all the time, with the money being short like it is,” said Albertson, who lives in Duplin County. “It takes a lot out of a person.”

Albertson said wants to continue in government service, and would be open to appointment to a government board.
“I do love this state and would love to make a contribution as long as I can,” he said.

Update: Senate leader Marc Basnight praised Albertson’s leadership on agricultural and environmental issues, and says he’ll be missed.

“Charlie is so quick with a joke and a smile, and he makes everyone around him smile too,” Basnight said in a statement. “I am so blessed to call him my friend and I will truly miss seeing him every day in the Senate.”

Submitted by lbonner on January 15, 2010 – 11:12am.
Tags: Charlie Albertson | N.C. Senate | Under the Dome