Perdue's withdrawl for re-election opens race for governorship

Governor Bev Perdue has faced many challenges as a governor; but Thursday, Jan. 26, surprising both supporters and critics, Perdue announced that she will be giving up the fight for re-election.

"The truth is that it's a very rare thing for an incumbent officer who is able to run for re-election, to not do so," Steven Greene, associate professor of political science, said.  "Historically speaking, whether it's North Carolina or anywhere else, politicians who get in office and can run for re-election, barring a dramatic personal scandal or barring the fact that they're 70-something years old and want to hang it up, they run for re-election."

It wasn't just surprising that Perdue wouldn't run for re-election, but few people knew about her plans prior to Thursday morning.

"There are people I know who have their ear-to-the ground in terms of state politics and everyone was totally surprised," Greene said. "It's really hard to keep things secret in politics so whatever her thought process was in this, she clearly played it very close to the chest."

Recently, Perdue wasn't known for being very popular, even among members of her own party.  According to an approval poll by Public Policy Polling, the final time Perdue had a positive approval rating was April 2009.

"Not only are republicans unhappy with her, but even people within her own party are unhappy with her," Greene said.

According to Greene, it's hard to say how much of that disapproval is due to her having been a governor during a very economically difficult time. 

"She's had for the past year, a republican legislature that she has to compromise with if she wants to do anything," Greene said. "Even though there's been a lot of vetoes and she's stood up to them a lot, certainly people who are on the more liberal end of the spectrum are probably frustrated with some of the compromises."

Perhaps Perdue herself is frustrated with slow and complex legislation too. 

"We live in highly partisan times, where some people seem more worried about scoring political points than working together to address the real challenges our state faces,"  Perdue said in a public statement.  "And it is clear to me that my race for re-election will only further politicize the fight to adequately fund our schools. A re-election campaign in this already divisive environment will make it more difficult to find any bipartisan solutions."

However, according to Greene, there were never any bipartisan solutions to begin with.

"Campaigns certainly do lead to more partisanship…[but] one the other hand there was never going to be compromise anyway," Greene said. "Perdue is saying we need to raise our sales tax to help pay for education and Republicans are saying, ‘We'll never have more taxes ever—no matter what.'"

Regardless, Perdue will give up the fight as a governor and will step aside for other candidates.

"Honestly, it probably means that democrats will have a slightly better chance of retaining the governorship," Greene said.  "For the democrats to be able to come in with … not having all the baggage of Bev Perdue, I think it's fair to say that this gives democrats a better shot."

This move certainly clears the slate in some aspects but some things still remain. According to Adam Cyr, a senior in political science, his strategy of choosing which governor candidate to support remains the same.

"I think I will still probably vote for the better candidate and who seem to know what they are doing," Cyr said.

Who the democratic candidate will be is still yet to be confirmed, but many students like Cyr are keeping their ears open.