When Gov. Bev Perdue announced last week that she would not run for a second term, waves rolled through the state Democratic Party, churning up names for her possible replacement.
Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton announced Thursday that he would run, and on Saturday evening Rep. Bill Faison, D-Orange, also announced his candidacy. Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and former UNC system President Erskine Bowles also have been mentioned as candidates.
Closer to home, Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, a popular local Democrat who has focused on economic development, said he would not rule out a run for the position.
Dalton and Bowles — and other possible candidates who have served in statewide positions — could have a leg up on mayors such as Foxx and Joines, state political watchers say.
Winning statewide political office requires name recognition in all of North Carolina's 100 counties, not just a few, so would-be candidates who already have that name recognition are, from the jump, ahead of candidates who do not, some said.
"As party officials and insiders look who to coalesce around, they're probably going to give the first look to … someone with statewide name recognition," said John Dinan, a political science professor at Wake Forest University. "Lt. Gov. Dalton doesn't have the highest name recognition, but he won the votes of a good number of North Carolina voters four years ago."
Dinan said other candidates who have served in state or federal positions — such as former Congressman Bob Etheridge, who also has not ruled out a gubernatorial run — would likely come to a statewide campaign with more name recognition than a politician who had served only at the local level.
Perdue and her predecessor, Gov. Mike Easley, both were lieutenant governor before being elected governor. R. Gregg Cherry, North Carolina's governor from 1945 to 1949, is the most recent governor to have also served as mayor. Cherry served five terms in the state House of Representatives between being mayor of Gastonia and governor of the state.
That is not to say Foxx or Joines could not win the nomination, Dinan said. But each would have to raise a substantial amount of money to buy advertisements in regions outside his home county.
Mayors could have a small advantage in statewide races, however, Dinan said. He or she can point to real decisions made as someone holding an executive office, and also to his or her economic development decisions.
Joines, who is in his third four-year term as Winston-Salem's mayor, has ample local support. He receives campaign donations from numerous local business executives, and his supporters say he is able to bridge the divides between the wealthy and the middle class, between neighborhoods and among races.
"He has a way of bridging people, different cultures, different diversities, all things," said Winston-Salem City Council member D.D. Adams. "He works really well when it comes to people and being able to figure out a win-win. Even though everyone may not agree with it, at the end of the day, we can live with it."
Nathan Tabor, chairman of the Forsyth County Republican Party, has butted heads with Joines over local political issues, including public financing of BB&T Ballpark, the minor league baseball stadium. But Tabor said he believed Joines could have success as a governor.
"The mayor's been very successful in his tenure in the electoral process," Tabor said. "He doesn't have the unethical baggage that Perdue has. His positives are, he's well-connected within Forsyth County and the city of Winston."
Joines said last week that he would wait until at least Monday to announce whether he planned to make a bid for the Democratic nomination for governor. He said he had not considered a gubernatorial campaign until Perdue announced she was not running again.
"I'm so much enjoying being mayor," he said.
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