CLEANUP CREW: A KEY TRADE-GROUP LEADER PLAYED FRONTMAN AS NORTH CAROLINA TURNED RIGHT.

AuthorMildenberg, David
PositionUPFRONT

Drain the swamp" is one of my favorite political slogans. No one really knows what it means, but it suggests that it's time to kick the entrenched out and try something new.

Lew Ebert's career in North Carolina has a "drain the swamp" motif. When he arrived as president of N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry in 2006, Democrats ran the N.C. General Assembly, led by Charlotte optometrist Jim Black and Manteo restaurateur Marc Basnight. Unemployment hovered under 5%, then more than doubled over the next four years amid a crushing recession. Ebert says the trade group had no cash and was mostly focused on its monthly magazine.

In November, Ebert left the renamed NC Chamber in a changed state. While Democrats made gains in November, Republicans retain substantial majorities in Raleigh. Two Republicans, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, remain the state's most powerful politicians. Unemployment is 3.6%. The chamber doubled its staff and is financially strong, Ebert says.

During his tenure, the chamber made a marked pivot to the right, eschewing the business community's traditionally moderate stances, according to Raleigh insiders of both political parties. Amid the recession, leaders of dominant businesses --Duke Energy, AT&T, the banks and their networks of lawyers and other professional-service providers--concluded that North Carolina had lost its edge in attracting new and expanding businesses. Taxes were too high, incentives too low, leadership too lax, regulations too stringent. The swamp...

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