Coleman Seeks Lt. Gov. Office Again

By Cash Michaels

North Carolina families aren’t being treated fairly by this economy, or their state government, says Linda Coleman, who is running once again for lieutenant governor.

She wants to change that, which is why she’s back four years after her first bid to fight first-term Lt. Governor Dan Forest, who defeated Coleman by a slim margin in 2012. She feels the arch-conservative and other GOP lawmakers leading the NC General Assembly have done more harm than good in North Carolina, especially after passage of voter suppression and HB 2 laws.

“The Republican majority running things in Raleigh continues to unravel so much of what built our great state…,” Coleman says on her campaign website, “… and all the while they’ve had a cheering partner in our lieutenant governor. It’s time for a different approach.”

If Coleman indeed wins on November 8, she would be only the second African American in the history of the state to be a member of the NC Council of State [the late Ralph Campbell Jr., former state auditor, was the first]—a constitutional panel of the state’s nine top elected officials, chaired by the governor, who make important decisions about the borrowing of money, the sale of state property, and other matters.

Beyond being the next in line constitutionally in case, for some reason, the elected governor is unable to fulfill his duties, or presiding over important events in the governor’s absence, the lieutenant governor also presides over the NC Senate, voting there only to break a tie. The lieutenant governor also chairs various state boards and commissions, including the state Board of Education and board of Community Colleges.

The office of lieutenant governor can be a springboard for a possible run for governor in the future, political observers say. Indeed, Gov. Beverly Perdue first served as a state lawmaker, then as lieutenant governor before finally winning the top seat in 2008, making history as the first woman governor in North Carolina history.

A “Lt. Gov.” Linda Coleman could one day vie to become the second.

Ms. Coleman is the mother of two, a grandmother of two, and “a proud product of the public school system of this state.”

She was born and reared in Greenville, earning her B.A. from NC A&T University on Greensboro. She later earned a masters degree in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

In her public life, and after teaching in the classroom, Coleman was elected to the Wake Board of Commissioners, chairing that body. She was then elected to the NC House, serving three terms, helping to pass the Earned Income Tax Credit “which helped put money back into the pockets of working families,” she says.

As a state lawmaker, Coleman also worked to pass the Racial Justice Act, which helped correct racial-biased death penalty sentences. Both laws have since been repealed by the Republican-led NC General Assembly.

Coleman then went on to lead the Office of State Personnel from 2009 to 2012. She left that post in 2012 to run for lieutenant governor. She lost by a razor-thin 6,800-vote margin to Dan Forest, with 2.1 million votes cast for her statewide.

Coleman is proud of what Democrats accomplished in giving women access to affordable health care in the state, tax incentives to small businesses, in addition to more funding for education.

She has blasted Lt. Gov. Forest for suggesting that public education in the state can be funded through the sale of license plates, like the special one he has on his car.

“Raleigh is just not working for us anymore. We are working for Raleigh to fund the wealthiest among us,” Coleman says, noting how Republican tax reform has shifted the tax burden from the rich to working families, and eliminated the childcare tax credit.

“We need somebody to go to Raleigh and say, “Listen, let’s start working for the people of North Carolina,” Linda Coleman says about her candidacy. “Let’s bring North Carolina back.”