01/31.07

By Gary D. Robertson,
Associated Press

Raleigh | Bob Orr, a former Supreme Court justice who now heads a conservative legal foundation, said Tuesday he wants to leave the courtroom behind for the governor's mansion.

Orr said he'll create a campaign committee in the next week so he can start raising money for a 2008 Republican gubernatorial bid and then spend the next several months meeting voters, getting their takes on the issues and talking up what he calls a reform agenda.

"I do think there's a real disenchantment with the way state government is operating," Orr said in an interview with The Associated Press. "As a candidate you need to go out and talk about positive, constructive changes that you think can and should be made."

Orr isn't the first major-party hopeful to consider a gubernatorial bid - Democrats Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue are already raising money as if they are in the race. But Orr is the first to announce plans to create a campaign committee with the sole purpose of seeking his party's nomination for governor. Gov. Mike Easley is barred by state law from seeking a third consecutive term.

Orr, 60, served on the state Court of Appeals for eight years and the Supreme Court for 10 years before stepping down in 2004 to become executive director of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law. Legal challenges by the conservative-leaning group on taxpayer-financed incentives for business and passage of the new lottery have been unsuccessful to date.

A critic of large tax breaks for businesses such as Dell Inc. and Google, the ex-judge said people are unhappy with an unfair tax system that favors big corporations. He also believes voters want an overhaul of the state's education department and a reduction in the high-school dropout rate.

"We simply do not have in place a system that is going to adequately prepare our students to compete in a world economy in 10 or 20 years," Orr said.

A Virginia native, Orr grew up in Hendersonville and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He worked in private practice in Asheville for 11 years and in the early 1980s served in the district office of Rep. William Hendon, R-N.C.

Gov. Jim Martin appointed him to the Court of Appeals in 1986. While the judicial races generally lack the intensity of other statewide campaigns, Orr is a proven winner, having won four statewide races for seats on the bench.

But he'll have to raise more money to make a serious run for the governor's office. At least two other Republicans considering a bid - state Sen. Fred Smith of Johnston County and Salisbury attorney Bill Graham - have spent significant amounts of personal money to raise their profiles.

"I think he'd be a pretty viable candidate. The question is whether he can raise the money," said Ballard Everett, a longtime state GOP political consultant. "If anybody of the three really knows politics in the state, he's the guy."

Known as "Judge Bob" while on the court, Orr wrote several significant majority opinions that offer a window into his views on issues.

He wrote a 1998 Supreme Court decision that ultimately prompted hundreds of millions of dollars in tax refunds. His final opinion, written in 2004, upheld most of the court's landmark 1997 ruling ordering a "sound and basic" education for poor students.