The News & Observer reports today that Governor Perdue has hired a new communications adviser (who will not be part of the communications staff?!) and while the newspaper makes an issue of the hire in the midst of tight budgeting, of greater interest (at least to me) is who it is. Pearse Edwards is leaving the administration of Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire to join Perdue:
Edwards “will be advising not only communications but policy and government relations,” (Perdue spokesman Tim) Crowley said.
Edwards,
a North Carolina native, has been Gregoire’s communications and
external relations director since January 2008, according to news
accounts. He previously worked for Microsoft and former Washington Gov.
Gary Locke, who is now the U.S. secretary of commerce.
In a similar role for Gregoire, Edwards likely contributed to a letter she sent (PDF, brilliantly critiqued by our friends at the Washington Policy Center) to the state’s congressional delegation in June urging members to vote in favor of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade energy tax legislation. As I blogged about last month, Gregoire has made a habit of fudging data on melting snow-pack and has passed around a laughable document that shows how many “green jobs” (like truck drivers!) are created thanks to policies that limit fossil fuel use. The crowning gesture, however, was this:
As for Gregoire, she is far down the global warming road and has shown
no sign of turning back, despite mounting evidence of global cooling
the last decade (despite increasing CO2 emissions). When the Washington
legislature refused to approve the state?s participation
in WCI?s cap-and-trade agreement, the governor issued an executive
order implementing the program anyway. ?I wanted cap-and-trade,? she
told the Los Angeles Times. ?I didn?t get it.?
This is the shop where Pearse Edwards has dwelt for the last several years. Doesn’t hold promise for how honestly Gov. Perdue will pursue her agenda, and whether he will affect her tactics. Watch.
