RALEIGH—On Tuesday, the Governor called a rare news conference to discuss the state of mental health in North Carolina in the wake of a five-part series in The News & Observer.  The series focused on failed mental health reforms dating back to a 2001 reform plan pushed through the General Assembly.  Governor Easley used the press conference on Tuesday to attempt to lay the blame for the failed mental health reforms on the General Assembly and local mental health agencies.  Easley now claims that his administration opposed the original reform plan from the beginning, but that was not the message the administration sent back in 2001 when Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom wrote the cover letter for the 2001 reform plan crediting Easley as inspiration for the proposal.  Later that year, Odom even offered an opinion article to The News & Observer touting the reform plan.  (“Easley seeks power to fix mental health” The News & Observer, March 5, 2008 http://www.newsobserver.com/2771/story/982716.html)

Chairman Linda Daves, North Carolina Republican Party, made the following statement:

“It is time for somebody, anybody from the Democrat leadership to stand up and take responsibility for the dismal state of mental health in North Carolina.  The News & Observer should be commended for shining light into the dark place of the fiasco of mental health reform.  Now it is time for leaders to step forward refusing to accept the status quo and begin the hard work of fixing the problems that have plagued mental health under the Easley administration.  Unfortunately, Governor Easley throughout his time in office has demonstrated more dexterity in passing the buck than actually offering leadership on the important issues facing our state.

One of the Democrats vying to replace Easley in the Governor’s Mansion, Richard Moore, decried the blame game going on in regards to mental health reform.  I would want to avoid the blame game too if I had been a leader in Democrat politics over the past decade.  There is plenty of blame to go around for their many failed policies.  Between Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue, the two Democrat candidates represent 38 years in the most powerful circles of Democrat politics.  How can the Democrat candidates represent the future of North Carolina when they can only offer more of the same failed programs of days gone by?  With Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue, North Carolinians are offered only more of the same disappointments they have received under Governor Easley.  There is not a leader among them.  The Republican candidates have ideas to change Raleigh and our state for the better.  They will offer solutions to the problems that have for too long gone unsolved.  They will introduce leadership, integrity, and accountability, virtues that have too long been absent amongst the powerful Democrat leadership in North Carolina.”

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