The door stood open, Don Vaughan’s law office business card hung over the nameplate for predecessor Kay Hagan and the phones were fairly quiet on the freshman senator’s first real day of legislative business in Raleigh. An air of impermanency hung over the spacious office, with the expectation that the freshman Democrat from Greensboro would soon be reassigned to more modest quarters befitting his lack of seniority.
Among the matters to consider was a bill filed by Sen. Julia Boseman, a Wilmington Democrat, to allow state prosecutors to carry firearms in court.
Vaughan took a skeptical view of the legislation, but had been soliciting input from those with a stake in the matter. He picked up the phone and placed a call to Guilford County District Attorney Doug Henderson.
“Doug Henderson, how the world are you?” he began. “I am actually down doing the Lord’s work in Raleigh, and there is a bill to allow district attorneys to carry concealed weapons. And I thought before I touched it, I would touch base with you…. I know you’re a hunter like me, but you and I have never packed a weapon in the courthouse.”
Henderson expressed indifference about the initiative. So had Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby Jr., who the senator visited after disposing of an opencontainer case for a client downstairs in criminal court — a small matter that wedged nicely into the schedule between an eight-minute Senate session and a latelunch. Vaughan, Willoughby and Sen. AB Swindell, a fellow Democrat from down east, are hunting buddies.
Vaughan seems to know everybody in the relatively insular world of Raleigh politics. And he should: He first came to Raleigh as a college intern in the state Department of Human Resources in 1971, served as an economic advisor to Gov. Jim Hunt, and worked as a lobbyist in the state capital from 1993 to 2007. Vaughan has cultivated the kind of personal connections that help grease the political skids in other critical realms, too — as an undergrad student and cheerleader at UNC-Chapel Hill, in a clerkship with North Carolina Sen. Robert Morgan and law school at Wake Forest University.
Under Morgan, Vaughan worked down the hall from Kay Hagan, then an aide to her uncle, Florida Sen. Lawton Chiles. Another aide in Morgan’s office was Dennis Wicker, and later the three attended Wake Forest Law School together. Wicker, the future North Carolina lieutenant governor, was favored to succeed Jim Hunt as governor but was knocked off in the 2000 primary by Mike Easley. Wicker now works as a lobbyist in Raleigh for IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, RBC Bank and other clients.
Following his stint in the Hunt administration, Vaughan entered the private sector, working as vice-president and corporate counsel for the Stedman Corp., a Randolph County textile company, where his time overlapped with Keith Crisco, who headed the elastics division. Last month, Gov. Beverly Perdue appointed Crisco to the position of secretary of commerce. (“I’m tickled that he’s there,” Vaughan said.) Stopping for lunch at the Big Easy, a bar and Cajun eatery, Vaughan bumped into another law school classmate, who now works in the NC Justice Department. (“I know who to call,” Vaughan said.) Taking a mid-morning break, Vaughan headed down to the snack bar to get a soda and was met in the hallway by a handful of lobbyists. One, an acquaintance from the NC Bar Association, introduced him to two lobbyists for General Electric. Zeb Alley, who Vaughan later described as “the number-one lobbyist in the state,” stood against the wall watching. Formerly a state senator and legislative counsel for Gov. Hunt, Alley also represents Progress Energy and Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Co. “Don is a freshman, but believe it or not, he is well known in both the House and Senate,” Alley observed dryly.
“Give me a call, who knows,” Vaughan said, as he disengaged himself from the NC Bar Association contact, and completed the gauntlet.
In the span of a legislative workday that began before 8 a.m. with a prayer breakfast and ended around 5:30 p.m. with a reception hosted by the powerful business advocacy organization known simply as the NC Chamber at the Marble’s Kids Museum, Vaughan would come in contact with a total of 23 registered lobbyists. They represented the following entities: Blue Cross Blue Shield, General Electric, the Greensboro Partnership, Norfolk Southern Corp., the NC Association for School Administrators, NC Voters for Clean Elections, the NC Homebuilders Association, the NC Lottery, Progress Energy, Red Oak Brewery, Time Warner Cable and Wake
Technical Community
College. The world of lawmakers and lobbyist can sometimes seem to run
together in a seamless skein of social connections and informational
transactions: After the chamber reception, Vaughan left to attend a
Raleigh dinner hosted by Waste Industries, for whom he performs
government relations work in Virginia.
(State
ethics rules forbid sitting lawmakers from actively lobbying their own
body.) “They’re a great resource,” Vaughan said of lobbyists. “They
have a wealth of knowledge.”
Lobbyists don’t just educate
lawmakers on the particulars of bills, of course. They also finance
elections. Vaughan’s campaign received thousands of dollars from
political action committees or individuals associated with many of the
entities whose lobbyists chatted him up over the course of the day —
$2,000 from the NC Homebuilders Association,
$1,000 from Progress Energy, $750 from Time Warner Cable, $500 from Red
Oak Brewery and $200 from Norfolk Southern Corp. The door to Vaughan’s
office stayed open, with the exception of a meeting with Red Oak
Brewery lobbyist Mark Leggett. Pleaders of various stripes streamed
through.
“Your constituents will ask you: ‘Where is the money
going?’” said Alice Garland, a lobbyist for the state lottery, as she
handed the senator a brochure.
“Do you have it broken down by county?” Vaughan asked. “Sweet.” Next came two lobbyists from the NC Homebuilders Association.
“I
love the homebuilders,” Vaughan said. “We love you, too, Don Vaughan.”
Jessica Hayes said. “How’s the homebuilding business right now?”
Vaughan asked.
“Not so good,” Hayes replied. Then the association’s top lobbyist, Lisa D. Martin took over. “I want to talk to you about Jordan Lake,” she said. “I’m good on Jordan
Lake,” Vaughan said. She continued with her spiel anyway, averring that
lawmakers shouldn’t be swayed by environmentalists’ claims that the
situation has reached a crisis point and shouldn’t give undue weight to
media reports on the controversy.
During his campaign, Vaughan
told voters that he does not support the new administrative rules —
which impose steep costs on developers, farmers, manufacturers and
municipal governments in the Haw River watershed to reduce nutrient
levels downstream at Jordan Lake — as currently written.
After
Hayes and Martin departed, Vaughan disclosed that he had already
received a visit the previous Friday from Marlene Sanford, president of
the Triad Real Estate and Building Industries Coalition, or TREBIC, who
informed him that opponents and supporters of the rules have been
meeting to fashion a compromise that would, among other things, delay
the day when municipalities such as Greensboro and Burlington had to
retrofit their wastewater plants from 2011 to 2016. Other sessions were
shorter, and Vaughan did not ask the visitors to sit down. Three
lobbyists from Time Warner Cable dropped in to introduce themselves.
As
they were leaving, one joked, “We were wondering if we could bring in a
big flatscreen TV and put it on the wall here. That probably wouldn’t
go very well with the ethics. Aw, never mind.” A visit from Chase
Foster, lobbyist for NC Voters for Clean Elections, was similarly
brief.
“Let’s set up an appointment,” Vaughan said. “I’m all
for you.” The first day of business also included a lesson from staffer
Oliver Carter on how to check his Senate e-mail account. Vaughan
estimated that he was already getting 100- 250 e-mails a day. Carter
said the senator has received 6-10 e-mails in favor of a bill to
regulate the euthanasia of animals. At least three e-mails were from
constituents pleading for the restoration of the protest petition in
Greensboro.
The following day Vaughan and his fellow Guilford
County Democrat, Katie Dorsett, would file a bill in the Senate, while
Reps. Pricey Harrison, Maggie Jeffus, Alma Adams and Laura Wiley
introduced legislation in the House.
“Having represented
several neighborhoods on rezoning cases, I believe the protest petition
is a tool people should have,” Vaughan said. The Greensboro council
members wrangled last month over the threshold for the number of
adjacent neighbors required to trigger the protest petition, and
instructed the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress to negotiate a
compromise with TREBIC. Vaughan said he didn’t think a compromise
recommendation expected from the city council would sway state
lawmakers, who have the final say over the matter.
In addition
to the protest petition, Vaughan was planning to introduce a bill that
would impose a mandatory sentence of a night in jail for motorists that
blow more than .20 on a Breathalyzer — or two and a half times over the
legal limit of intoxication — as well as legislation that would place
signage at the foot of interstate on-ramps to notify motorists of the
speed limit.
Rep. Laura Wiley, a Republican from High Point,
visited Vaughan’s office to run through a laundry list of bills for
which she hoped to enlist Vaughan’s support.
One would clarify
the jurisdictional lines for arrests made in High Point, Guilford
County’s second largest city, which bleeds into Davidson County.
Another would streamline child-support payments.
Over the
course of the day, Vaughan called Sen. Peter Brunstetter, a Forsyth
County Republican, to inform him of his plans to support Brunstetter’s
bill to increase penalties against offenders who assault pregnant
women, e-mailed a bill relating to funeral services to Al Lineberry Jr.
of Hanes Lineberry Funeral Homes in Greensboro — a $150 donor — and
responded to a request for clemency for a constituent whose auto
insurance rate went up after an accident for which the driver contends
he was not at fault.
The most important matter before the
General Assembly this session will undoubtedly be balancing the budget
in a time of dire economic conditions.
“You’re getting a
handout about our state budget picture,” said Sen. Linda Garrou, the
Winston-Salem Democrat who cochairs the appropriations committee.
“Most
of you know it’s not a pretty picture, but we’re gonna look at it
anyway.” Indeed it was not: Fiscal research analyst Evan Rodewald said
the state faces a $2.1 billion gap between projected spending and
revenues, representing 10 percent of the total projected budget.
Meanwhile, Medicaid demand is expected to rise even as revenue sources
dry up. And the state employee health fund needs an infusion of $300
million by the end of March just to keep paying out benefits for the
current fiscal year. Financial analysts expect the state to receive
some relief from the federal stimulus package, but no one knows how
much. “Back in May we thought maybe we would not be in recession-like
conditions at this point,” said Rodewald’s colleague, Barry Boardman.
“All’s I can say is, ‘Boy were we wrong. Recession-like conditions are
here.’” He added later: “Projections suggest this will be a
twenty-month recession — the longest since the Great Depression. We’re
well into it, and we still have a long way to go with it. The earliest
indications are that we’ll come out of this as a nation by the second
quarter of 2009; some projections suggest by the third quarter.”
“Well,
that was sure gloomy,” Vaughan said, coming out of the briefing. He
stepped into the elevator and pivoted to position himself at the door,
where took the opportunity to shake hands with colleagues.
“You
can always tell these damn freshman,” said Sen. Martin Nesbitt Jr., an
Asheville Democrat. “They always stand right next to the door.” Before
the NC Chamber reception, Vaughan headed back to his condominium at New
Bern Place to catch up on his law practice and chat with his wife and
daughter back in Greensboro by video teleconference.
On the way, he bumped into Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro
Republican who held Vaughan’s state Senate seat before Kay Hagan
defeated him in 1998. Vaughan and Blust commiserated about an ethics
orientation required for all members of the General Assembly.
“God,
it’s confusing,” Vaughan said. “I’ve read all the stuff. I’ve been to
the sessions. I still don’t completely understand it.” Blust gave it
his best shot. “There were some problems a couple years ago,” he said.
“It was abused by big business, mostly through campaign finance. It was
really designed for the lawmakers, but it gets complicated with
administration. They throw the book at the small stuff. Like you can’t
get a free Tshirt because it might influence your vote. But video poker
can still give the speaker of the House $100,000. And we pat ourselves
on the back and call it reform.”
‘We were wondering if we could bring in a big flat-screen TV and put it on the wall here. That probably wouldn’t go very well with the ethics. Aw, never mind.’ — Time Warner Cable lobbyist
NC Sen. Don Vaughan (left) relaxes with a pair of lobbyists at a reception hosted by the NC Chamber business advocacy group after a day at the General Assembly. (photo by Jordan Green)
