By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton praised the newly elevated state Senate majority leader Tuesday evening, expressing confidence in the Democrats’ leadership in a body over which he presides.
While offering praise for Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, Dalton also indicated that a void was left by Sen. Tony Rand, outgoing majority leader.
Asked by the Daily News how Senate Democrats’ selection of Nesbitt could change the dynamic in the body in which that Asheville Democrat will hold much power, Dalton said, “I don’t know if you’ll see it changing that much.”
“Martin Nesbitt is a very talented senator and a good leader, and I think will do a good job as majority leader,” said Dalton, a former state senator.
“Obviously, Sen. Rand was an icon there in the Senate. I think (he) will be remembered in history as someone who did a tremendous amount while he was in the Senate,” Dalton said.
“But what will you see,” the lieutenant governor continued, “is that the duties he had not only as majority leader but as rules chair, and as someone who was active on many committees, is that you’ll see those responsibilities given to not one senator but several.”
Those several senators will “step up to the plate and give great leadership,” he said.
“I think that you will see that in the North Carolina Senate, Tony Rand will certainly be missed,” Dalton added, “and I don’t know that there will ever be another senator like him. But I also believe that there are talented senators behind him that will fill that void and that you will not see that much of a difference. It just will not be centralized with one person.”
Dalton was in the area to promote the Joining Our Businesses and Schools Commission, a program his Web site says is “forging a stronger link between high school curricula and local economies.”
Following a brief meeting with officials at Beaufort County Community College, Dalton headed to a fundraiser for state Rep. Arthur Williams, D-Beaufort.
In the meeting at BCCC, Dalton praised college officials for pushing the early-college program to benefit high-school students and future college graduates.
Asked during the interview if he would comment on issues surrounding former Gov. Mike Easley, Dalton replied, “Nope. That’s in the judicial system, and I’ll let the judicial system address that.”
Asked if he was concerned that Easley’s troubles could in any way raise questions about the legitimacy of state government and leave some problems for Dalton and Gov. Bev Perdue, Dalton was blunt.
“Well, it’s not positive from the press that you read,” he said. “You like everything to be absolutely going your way, but that’s not life. So, I trust our judicial system and I trust that justice will be done whatever that may be in that instance.”
Dalton added, “I regret that it has become a factor in the press, but I think that what you have to look at is what North Carolina is doing right now to recover from this national recession, what we’re doing to improve education and build jobs.”
In the final analysis, he said, “I think the election will be determined on those issues and not what one official did or did not do.”
Last month, as reported by The Associated Press and other media outlets, the State Board of Elections requested that prosecutors look into allegations of possible criminal activity within Easley’s campaign and administration.
The state board ordered that Easley’s campaign pay $100,000 in “fines and expenses,” AP reported.
Also, the federal government is looking into questions of whether Easley benefited from or forwarded benefits to certain real-estate developers and others, according to AP.
Asked about Democrats’ concerns over their electoral standing in next year’s mid-term elections, Dalton replied, “I ran six times in the North Carolina Senate, always a hotly contested race. I’ve never seen anything easy in politics.”
He added, “I think Democrats in North Carolina can look to the foundation that they have laid.”
He cited national-assessment scores that found the state’s fourth-graders “were rated fifth in the nation in math.”
“Site Selection magazine just named us the No. 1 state in the nation to do business,” he continued. “I think that’s a good thing. We’ve had that rating eight out of nine years. That occurred under Democratic leadership. CEO rates us No 2, Forbes rates us No. 5.”
Democrats can point to great successes, he said.
“The unfortunate thing is that we have a national recession that has overlaid and is suppressing all of the good things that I think we have done,” Dalton concluded.