Fitzsimon File

Most folks are describing Governor-elect Beverly Perdue's choices to lead her transition team as no surprise. The transition trio are campaign manager Zach Ambrose, her current Chief of Staff Don Hobart, and Norris Tolson, who has held virtually every cabinet post in North Carolina and currently runs the N.C. Biotech Center.

It is true that picking three loyal, politically well-connected white men to head the gubernatorial transition efforts didn't raise any eyebrows, but it was a surprise of sorts. You would think that a politician battling the perception that she is part of the entrenched Democratic leadership and therefore beholden to it would take advantage of an easy, no-risk opportunity to send a different message.

Nothing against Ambrose, Hobart, or Tolson. They are all smart guys and it's understandable why Perdue would want them to play key roles in her transition to the governor's mansion and her administration, though Tolson says he'll stay put at the Biotech Center.

But why not appoint a couple people from outside the beltline to help lead the effort to begin what Perdue says will be a different way of running the governor's office? How about a person of color for starters, and someone from anywhere but Raleigh, someone who has grown up outside the beltline around the capital?

Maybe somebody from Charlotte. There seem to be some hard feelings to repair there. A progressive business leader would make sense in this era of economic uncertainty.

Perdue made community colleges a centerpiece of her campaign. Former Community College President Martin Lancaster would be a logical choice to help with transition. He also served in the General Assembly and Congress and knows his way around.

Even if Perdue wants Ambrose, Hobart, and Tolson to make the real decisions about transition efforts, expanding the diversity of the transition leadership would have symbolic importance, not to mention the public relations value.

That brings to mind other ways that Perdue can show it is a new day in Raleigh's focus-group- driven, special-interest-dominated politics. First, she can read Rob Schofield latest weekly briefing about what she can do to reassure her progressive base in the state.

Then she can make it clear that she really doesn't believe the nasty rhetoric about immigrants that marked her last-minute campaign attacks on Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory. Perdue's campaign aired two radio ads that blasted McCrory for being soft on illegal immigration, paraphrasing comments he made about immigrants building things in the state, and asking if was running for governor of Tijuana.

Perdue knows better than that and her ads make it more difficult to a have a thoughtful public debate about immigration.

There is a growing national consensus that the election of Barack Obama as the next president signals a new day in America. Obama talks often of an inclusive society built on respect for each other and commitment to the common good.

That is along way from demonizing a segment of the population for political advantage. North Carolina needs a transition to more hopeful rhetoric and more compassionate leadership from elected officials.

That ought to start at the top. Adding a Latino to the transition leadership seems the least she can do. It is not only a new day in America. It is a new day in North Carolina too and our next governor needs to start acting like it.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.