Robert Orr, a hometown boy made good, is running for governor. That is good thing for Henderson County and the mountains.

As far as we can determine, no one from Hendersonville has ever run for governor, certainly no one as qualified as Orr, a respected jurist who won two statewide elections to the state Supreme Court.

Orr was born in Norfolk, Va., but he is a real local Orr, tracing his Henderson County roots to the 1800s. He grew up here, graduating from Hendersonville High School in 1964.

When he spoke at the event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Historic Courthouse, Judge Orr described a newspaper article on the original 1905 dedication.

The story reported that when the original singer had to cancel "the committee was fortunate in procuring R.K. Orr of Shaw Creek with the Shaw's Creek class to sing this lesson. Whatever was lost in not having Mr. Merrell was made up by Mr. Orr and his class."

"I'm pleased to say, as you might have guessed," Judge Orr told the gathering that day in 2005, "that R.K. Orr was my grandfather."

It's not true to say the west has never had influence. Republican Jim Holshouser of Boone was elected governor in 1972, and Liston Ramsey of Madison County was a powerful figure as House speaker from 1981 to 1989.

But anyone who has followed North Carolina politics knows that the region west of I-77 has more often gotten shorted on state aid, whether for roads, industrial recruiting or higher ed. Even our two biggest farm products, apples and nursery plants, are treated unfairly, ineligible for the kind of disaster assistance that peanut, cotton or tobacco farmers routinely receive.

"The power in this state is totally concentrated on the eastern part of the state," Orr, who is 60, said during a meet and greet at the Cedars last month. "Many of us from this part of the state consistently feel the west is being forgotten."

A Republican, Judge Orr can be expected to heavily work Henderson County and other Republican counties in the west over the next 14 months. (The primary is May 6, 2008.)

One might think that a single medium-sized county is insignificant in a statewide race but that's not the case, given the low turnout in a primary, splintering of the vote among several candidates and 40 percent threshold for nomination under North Carolina law. Henderson County and the mountains will be a factor.

This seems to be a time when voters are favoring something more than a career politician. Judge Orr fits the bill. His background as a Supreme Court judge has made him by definition less a partisan politician. He's not afraid to challenge the accepted Raleigh priorities.

Orr is ahead of the Legislature on an issue that is just starting to simmer in Raleigh. Senate leader Marc Basnight said last week that he wants to take a look at the state's industry incentive process. The wakeup call came when reports emerged about the pricetag of luring Google to Lenoir.

The world's leading Internet search engine company agreed last month to invest $600 million and create up to 210 jobs. The cost in tax breaks and other incentives? Up to $260 million.

Basnight, a Democrat from Manteo, wants to review the process to "understand what we're giving and what we're getting," he told the News & Observer of Raleigh. "It has to benefit the people of the state. If we give away $100, we'd certainly like to get more than $100 back."

Judge Orr was trying to guard the state vault long before Basnight suspected the cash was missing. As executive director of North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, he has led a fight to overturn the state law that set up the incentives. The huge subsidies, he argues, simply shift the tax burden from the rich behemoths to small businesses, strapping small counties in the bargain.

"The market capitalization for Google is $150 billion," Orr told USA Today. "Why does a small rural county have to subsidize them?"

Good question. A long campaign lies ahead, of course, but we look forward to that sort of challenge as Robert Orr of Hendersonville makes known his vision for leading North Carolina.