In 1976, I decided to run for Student Government treasurer at Catawba College, concerned that the place was in a death spiral dominated by an emphasis on football, beer parties and infighting between the admnistration and\u00a0 professors over being told to pass through football players who were not able to do the class work.\u00a0 I’m a pretty shy, non-social person, so me running for SGA Treasurer against a female social butterfly who had been selected by the school as their choice was very atypical for me – but to my surprise, I won the election.<\/p>\n
Serving on the SGA as a representative was a young man (one year behind me) named Pat McCrory.\u00a0\u00a0 We immediately hit it off as he was also an outsider upset with the direction the college was headed and wanting to communicate the things we were hearing from our fellow students to the people who ran the college (nominally a Christian college supported by the United Church of Christ).\u00a0\u00a0 I was an accounting and business major and Pat was headed for a career in politics.<\/p>\n
Pat McCrory went on to become mayor of the city of Charlotte North Carolina- – and served for 7 two year terms (1995-2009) – during which time the big small town that had been run by a man named Belk (of the department store chain) was transformed into a major urban city, being the headquarters of Bank of America (formerly NCNB) and Wachovia Bank, and adding many new employers.\u00a0\u00a0 Pat McCrory’s reputation is as a very clean honest person who cooperates with business while considering the overall need of the city – exactly as I knew him to be in college.<\/p>\n
Pat ran for governor of North Carolina four years ago and lost in a surprise – he had been expected to win easily, but the Barack Obama election may have influenced the outcome.<\/p>\n
One of the regular readers here brought it to my attention that Pat is running again for governor of North Carolina and has a huge lead now – with Conservative Democrats defecting to support a Republican candidate for governor as the existing Governor has run the state into the ground.<\/p>\n
I haven’t had any contact with Pat since leaving college, but am giving serious consideration to moving to North Carolina now, perhaps to help him win, or at least provide moral support.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have read my personal story over time, you are aware I’m unhappy living in Connecticut and was already thinking about moving back to North Carolina.<\/p>\n
Here is his web site if you want to get a sense of who he is<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.patmccrory.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n If this web site goes on autopilot, that might be the reason why.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t know what the rules are for political campaigns in North Carolina, and since I haven’t had any contact yet with him or the campaign, for now I think I can still speak freely \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1976, I decided to run for Student Government treasurer at Catawba College, concerned that the place was in a death spiral dominated by an emphasis on football, beer parties and infighting between the admnistration and\u00a0 professors over being told … Continue reading