Governing magazine’s January issue features Wake County Rep. Jim Fulghum on its cover. The story features comments from Fulghum and Rep. Tom Murry, also of Wake, as well as comments from House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate Leader Phil Berger. The focal point of the story is that state legislatures across the country are seeing high numbers of new legislators. That is certainly the case here.
The current crop of leaders, including Speaker Thom Tillis, believes that what the newcomers bring to the body in terms of new ideas and freedom from the status quo outweighs any negatives that might be associated with lack of experience. They may not yet have mastered the art of presenting a bill to committee, Tillis says, but with their MBAs or experience handling complicated cases as attorneys or their work in local government, they’ll catch on just fine. “I’ve learned that I can’t do complicated things without listening and studying first,” Fulghum says. “You can’t go into an operating room without making a plan.”
