Welcome to Independent Tribune Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

independenttribune.com - Independent Tribune

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

Dalton captures lieutenant governor's race

The Associated Press

Published: November 5, 2008

RALEIGH _ Walter Dalton helped the Democrats hold on to the lieutenant governor's office Tuesday night, defeating two other candidates to become the state's No. 2 executive.

The state senator defeated Republican candidate and former colleague Robert Pittenger and Libertarian candidate Philip Rhodes on Tuesday night to replace outgoing Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.

In unofficial results, Dalton captured nearly 51 percent of the vote to Pittenger's 46 percent. Rhodes had 3 percent.

The race was widely considered a referendum on the performance of the Democrats and Perdue's eight years in office. Perdue, who won the governor's race, was barred from seeking a third term.

"I think I'll work very well with Beverly Perdue, because I have a proven record of doing so," Dalton said. "We have a very good working relationship, an established working relationship, and I do believe that we agree on those key issues ... that are important to North Carolina."

In North Carolina, the lieutenant governor is elected independently of the governor and the post is largely ceremonial. The officeholder presides over the Senate, casts tiebreaker votes and serves on some state boards, including two education panels.

Despite that, all three candidates had said they wanted to use the position to influence policy and set the state's agenda.

Dalton spent six terms in the Senate, where he worked with Perdue and other party leaders to draft North Carolina's state government budget. He said continuing the Democrats' initiatives in education, such as raising teacher pay and lowering class sizes, would be among his top priorities.

Pittenger, a Charlotte Republican and three-term lawmaker who resigned his Senate seat in May to focus on the campaign, wanted to give the Republican Party — long the minority party in the Senate — more of a voice in Raleigh, while reducing the state spending that he accused Perdue and the Democrats of increasing.

He said the Democrats' recent dominance in the legislative and executive branches has effectively shut out the GOP. He wanted the state to cut taxes, balance the budget, eliminate what he termed waste and fraud in Medicaid and restructure government, because he says the state's tax rate has discouraged businesses from locating here and has threatened small business.

Rhodes, the Libertarian and Brunswick County native, wanted to protect the interest of individuals and raise the profile of the Libertarian Party in state government. A Libertarian has never held a statewide-elected office.