Candidates for Council of State discuss where they stand

The loss of at least $6 billion in North Carolina's public pension funds since June highlights the importance of the race for treasurer, who is the state's banker and chief investment officer.

Despite the losses as stock markets crumpled, the public-employee retirement system is still able to pay all its future obligations. Making sure that holds true in the future is expected to be a priority for whichever candidate is picked Tuesday.

Richard Moore is leaving the office in January after eight years and a failed attempt to win the Democratic nomination for governor. He will be replaced by either fellow Democrat Janet Cowell or Republican Bill Daughtridge.

"I think the last couple of months, people have realized how important the treasurer and pension funds are," Cowell said.

The position is one of seven lesser-known elected offices that -- with the attorney general and lieutenant governor -- comprise the Council of State, which essentially serves as the governor's cabinet.

The treasurer's main duties include managing more than $70 billion in public money, including pension funds for 820,000 state and local government employees, teachers, emergency workers and retirees.

Moore credited balanced investment allocation for holding pension-fund losses to 12 percent for the year ending Sept. 30. About half the state's money is invested in stocks that have had a gloomy year, and the rest placed in bonds and other investments.

Cowell, of Raleigh, received a master's degree from the Wharton School of Business before taking a job in Asia as a securities analyst, a job in which she wrote investment reports on bank stocks for large money managers around the world. She is now a business consultant and state senator.

Though the treasurer is accountable for pension-fund performance, Cowell said she would expand advisory boards, saying that she wants to hear from more investment professionals who manage large pension funds.

Cowell said that a good relationship with the General Assembly is needed because legislators establish rules into how investments are spread among stocks, bonds and other investments.

Daughtridge, of Rocky Mount, has been in the state House since 2002. He received a master's degree in business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before spending two years as a financial analyst with an oil company in Houston. He returned to North Carolina in 1979 to enter the family business. The Daughtridge Group runs propane-gas, home-heating oil, and gasoline transport companies, as well as convenience stores.

One of his main focuses as treasurer would be improving the roads, sewers and schools that are crucial for economic growth. He said he would work with towns and counties on a long-term infrastructure plan. He would explore whether municipalities could borrow beyond the completion costs to make sure that there is enough set aside to maintain it.

"I believe the treasurer should have a greater role in how our debt is spent," he said. "I'm assured that we can develop a lock-box."

Like Cowell, Daughtridge said that state residents should get more up-to-date information about the status of the pension system.

"For many people, their pension is a portion of their retirement savings. They need to know what part their pension will play in" the entire picture, he said.

Insurance commissioner

Another state post where there will be a new face is insurance commissioner. Republican John Odom, Libertarian Mark McMains, and Democrat Wayne Goodwin are competing for outgoing Insurance Commissioner Jim Long's seat. He decided to step down after 24 years.

The main issue confronting the next commissioner will be preserving the plan that North Carolina created to insure coastal property. The Insurance Underwriting Association was supposed to be a last resort for property owners who could not afford private insurance. The Beach Plan has become the coast's major insurer because its prices are often lower than private policies. As a result, it has committed to insure about $72 billion in property but has only enough to pay for $2.4 billion in damage.

Odom, a former city-council member in Raleigh and small-business owner, proposes charging higher rates to out-of-state owners of North Carolina coastal property.

Goodwin, Long's assistant commissioner and a former state legislator, wants to give tax incentives for storm-proofing buildings and limit potential payouts.

Odom and Goodwin also want to shrink the state's high-risk auto-insurance pool, which now covers one out of five North Carolina drivers.

State auditor

For state auditor, Democrat Beth Wood, who worked in the auditor's office as a trainer for 10 years, is running against incumbent Leslie Merritt. Both are certified public accountants. The duties of state auditor involve checking on how state government, and nonprofit groups that get state money, operate and spend public money.

Merritt has focused on ferreting out waste and abuse of state money, and his first-term enthusiasm has generated complaints that some of his targets were politically motivated.

Last year, Merritt persuaded Senate leaders to delay action on a bill allowing residents to register to vote and cast a ballot immediately before an election. Merritt's office reported potential voter fraud, but the State Board of Elections said that Merritt's early findings were based on faulty assumptions and he backed down.

Labor commissioner

Two-term incumbent Republican Cherie Berry is pursuing re-election as labor commissioner. Her challenger is Democrat Mary Fant Donnan, a program officer for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem. Donnan was a policy analyst and research director at the N.C. Labor Department under Berry's predecessor.

The commissioner is responsible for protecting the health and safety of the state's more than 4 million workers.

Berry claims credit for reducing workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities on her watch. Her view of the job has been that the agency should work with companies as partners rather than acting as enforcer.

Donnan numbers herself among the critics who fault Berry for failing to focus on workplace injuries, including carpal tunnel syndrome, suffered by workers at poultry-processing plants.

Agriculture commissioner

Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, a Republican and Guilford County farmer, faces Democrat James Ronald "Ronnie" Ansley. Ansley, a lawyer from Wake Forest, has an undergraduate degree in agricultural education and once sold livestock feed.

Troxler has concentrated on food safety since becoming head of the state's $70 billion agribusiness industry in 2005. Ansley said he would focus on developing the state's biofuels industry using woody plants instead of corn and soybeans.

Secretary of state

Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, a Democrat, is challenged by Jack Sawyer, a Republican and real-estate lawyer and broker, for the job that is something of a state-government catchall. The secretary is responsible for enforcing ethics rules, overseeing legislative lobbyists, investigating securities fraud, and cracking down on copyright infringement.

Marshall, of Lillington, has been North Carolina's secretary of state since 1996, when she beat retired race-car driver and Randolph County commissioner Richard Petty. She served in the state Senate before becoming the first woman elected to a seat at the Council of State.

Sawyer, of Mebane, said if he is elected the agency would be audited thoroughly. He said he would post the agency's line-by-line budget on its Web site for taxpayers to see.

Superintendent of public instruction

The race for superintendent of public instruction pits Democratic incumbent June Atkinson against Republican Richard Morgan, a former House co-speaker from Moore County.

Atkinson is a former high-school teacher who worked as the Department of Public Instruction's director of instructional services before retiring. Her office has virtually no power or management duties, but she has seen her role as discussing ways to improve education.

Morgan owns an insurance agency and raises cattle. He was a GOP powerbroker in the House until 2003 when he made a deal with Democratic Speaker Jim Black to share power. Anger among conservative Republicans eventually cost him his seat in 2006. He touts his experience on the House Education Committee and says he'll be a strong schools advocate.