Moore Brings Campaign to County

Richard Moore, a Democratic candidate for governor, campaigned Thursday in Moore County.

Moore is facing Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and Dave Nielsen in the Democratic Primary on May 6.

During his visit, Moore stopped by The Pilot where he talked about his plan for the state and answered questions from members of the newspaper's staff.

Moore, the current state treasurer and former state secretary of crime control and public safety, said jobs, education, health care and infrastructure were key issues in this campaign. He proposed a new way to draw jobs to North Carolina.

"I don't think we do a good enough job of proactively marketing the state of North Carolina," Moore said.

Moore touted specific brands in North Carolina such as Pinehurst, the Research Triangle, the University of North Carolina system, the coast and the mountains. He proposed active recruitment of businesses to the area.

"It's about going through all 100 counties and saying to them, 'What are your strengths,'" Moore said. "

Moore said that if he is elected he would make North Carolina's spending go further. He said better decision-making is needed. He said departments such as Health and Human Services and Transportation need to be cleaned up.

"DOT is overly political and overly bureaucratic," Moore said. "I will take the politics out of the closed doors and move the politics into the sunshine."

He also said he would do away with slush funds and make sure that DOT board members got out of the fund-raising business.

"I don't want any contractor or developer to feel like they've got to write a check to get customer service," Moore said.

Moore touted his plan to make changes in these organizations by requiring that anyone he appoints become more accountable. He said he would require appointees to give back 10 to 20 percent of their salaries and then give those employees an opportunity to give him the job criteria they wished to be judged on. If they meet that criteria, they would be eligible to get that money at the end of the year, he said.

"It would be the beginning of performance pay," Moore said. "It's the way of the world, and that's how I think I can bring some real performance-based improvements into these agencies."

Moore also said he supports the state's annexation laws.

"I don't think it always works great, but I'd be scared to change it," Moore said.

He said he hopes municipalities would use the law "reasonably" and, "not gobble up people in their ETJ (extra territorial jurisdiction) and then not provide them any services.

"You do have some outrageous cases around the country, and I don't blame them (residents) when all of a sudden their tax bill triples, and they get nothing."

He also said that by diluting the law, it would stall progress.

"If you weaken it too much you are going to create islands and then nobody is going to be able to do anything."