WS Chronicle

By GARY D. ROBERTSON

Associated Press

ROCKY MOUNT — North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper began his long-planned bid to become governor Monday evening, telling a crowd of supporters the state has traveled down a path of income inequality and poorly-funded public education under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s leadership and it’s time to turn things around. Speaking to several hundred Democratic luminaries, friends, relatives and interest group advocates at a kickoff event in his native Nash County, Cooper said if elected he would re-stake North Carolina’s claim to be a leader in the South, particularly in education and raising up the middle class.

“It’s time for a governor who measures our state by the success of regular working folks,” Cooper said at Nash Community College. “The truth is Gov. McCrory has the wrong priorities for North Carolina, giving away the store for those at the top at the expense of the middle class and our schools.”

Cooper first must win the March 15 Democratic primary before he can take on McCrory.

Ken Spaulding of Durham, a former legislator and state Board of Transportation member, announced he was a Democratic candidate for governor in August 2013.

In a statement, Spaulding said: “This will be a meaningful primary. The primary voters will have a choice between Roy Cooper, the status quo, and the establishment’s hand picked career politician who through his office has sided in court with the Republicans against the voting rights of all North Carolinians, and a candidate in me, who will never take the voters for granted and who is willing to work hard for the people’s respect and support.”

Spaulding was mentioning Cooper’s work as attorney general defending a 2013 GOP-supported election law that scaled back early voting and ended same-day registration.

Earlier Monday at a Wake County DMV office, McCrory avoided directly responding to reporters’ questions about Cooper’s entry into the race and said he’d kick off his own re-election bid soon. He talked instead about fulfilling a promise to improve Division of Motor Vehicles operations.