news-record.com

North Carolina's Man of Mystery was at it again last week.

Gov. Mike Easley, with other governors, met with President-elect Barack Obama in Philadelphia to discuss a possible economic stimulus package. Easley reportedly was given a few minutes to talk about North Carolina's home foreclosure prevention program, considered a national model.

After the meeting, Easley didn't return directly to Raleigh. Why not, and where he was going, briefly became a bit of a puzzle.

The News & Observer of Raleigh started digging. Flight plans filed for the state jet showed that it departed Philadelphia for Reagan National Airport just outside Washington. Three hours later, it was scheduled to leave for Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A quick trip south for some fun in the sun? Not at all, a spokeswoman for the governor told the paper. Easley was on a business trip, but for "security reasons" she couldn't specify.

Aha. Maybe Easley, a former prosecutor, was going undercover in pursuit of drug-traffickers.

That would explain his frequent disappearances from public view during the past eight years.

He's no Jim Hunt, who was so comfortable in the governor's office that he spent 16 years there, becoming possibly the state's most familiar and visible leader ever.

Even now, if Hunt and Easley walked side-by-side down any Main Street in North Carolina, probably most people would greet Hunt as "Governor" and ask, "Who's the other guy?"

Easley seems reclusive by comparison, rarely publicizing his schedule and making relatively few appearances.

He's also acted at times as if he's indifferent to some of the state's most pressing problems. Those include breakdowns in the probation and mental-health systems, transportation misspending and political corruption.

Mental-health reform is the most egregious example. Launched in 2001, Easley's first year in office, it turned into a wasteful fiasco. When its failures finally were documented and publicized, Easley's response was to claim he'd opposed it from the start. If that was true, his opposition was silent, and his appointed health and human services chief was an early advocate. Easley flunked the leadership test on that one.

On the other hand, he's been out front and vigorous in attacking other issues.

His tenure is book-ended by recessions that cut deeply into state revenues. He seized control both times, ordering steep spending reductions -- sometimes passing the pain to local governments, which didn't do much for his popularity.

He also pushed hard for education initiatives, some of them funded by a new state lottery, which he also championed as a top priority.

You can argue, as I do, that it does the state no credit to run a gambling operation. Nor has North Carolina really achieved much progress in public education. Nevertheless, Easley exhibited strong leadership to enact his agenda.

He also was forceful in dealing with drought, rightly insisting that the state must play a larger role in managing water resources.

This brings us back to last week's travels. It was tempting, for a short while, to wonder whether the governor was setting off on another free-spending junket, but in fact that was not the case.

Not long after citing security concerns as a reason for withholding information, the governor's staff disclosed the not-so-sensitive news that Easley was speaking to the winter meeting of the National Attorneys General Association, again on the subject of preventing home foreclosures. The office even followed up with a detailed press release.

Why the initial reluctance? Who knows? It's just Easley's style. He doesn't lack for talent, and he can be affable and engaging when he wants. He just chooses to keep the press and public guessing much of the time.

Frankly, I prefer a governor who always takes an interest in all of the state's areas of responsibility and keeps the public informed about his activities. That way, you know the guy you voted for, or didn't, is actually working on your behalf.

The next governor, Bev Perdue, promises to be much more visible. She's off to a good start already during the transition period.

She barely eked out a majority of the vote Nov. 4 and isn't without shortcomings, but I believe she will be much more open with the public and let people get to know their governor.

And what's next for Easley, who leaves office next month?

That's another mystery.