I'd like to use this diary to introduce you to my friend and our Treasurer down here in North Carolina, Mr. Richard Moore. He's running for Governor in 2008.
Treasurer Richard Moore and Yours Truly
You might be sick of hearing about North Carolina; Daily Kos has experienced a deluge of NC news this week. Brad Miller decided to stay in the House after a strong draft movement tempted him to run against "Do-Nothing" Liddy Dole, and Larry Kissell has been on dKos almost every day week.
BUT - with news yesterday of another plant closing in the county next to mine - in part to pay the salary of the nation's 32nd most highly compensated executive - I just have to tell you about the great work Richard Moore is doing for North Carolinians and Americans - standing up to greedy CEOs.
Young Richard and the Lawnmower his dad taught him to take apart and put back together.
Richard has a great background and a long resume - he grew up in Oxford, NC and went on to study at Wake Forest and the London School of Economics; he was the point man for rebuilding NC after Hurricanes Floyd and Fran, stepping up when FEMA wouldn't after Floyd's flooding left parts of NC in shambles; he was behind many practical innovations, such as making NC the first state in the nation to put computers in police squad cars; and under Richard's leadership as Treasurer, North Carolina's pension fund has been ranked second best in the country. But the Moore campaign's bio page can probably tell you about all of that better that I can.
I want to tell you about the great job Richard is doing for every single American: he's going up to Wall Street to fight for corporate accountability, fighting for tougher environmental standards and against corporate greed. Treasurer Moore is working with Democrats like Gov. Eliot Spitzer to bring a sense of morality back to the corporate world, and he's using North Carolina's leverage as a stockholder with a $70 billion dollar portfolio to work for these changes.
One great example is in Richard's fight against absurd CEO pay for Exxon Mobil's former executive, Lee Raymond:
If you can't see the video, the Raleigh News and Observer has the scoop:
State Treasurer Richard Moore said today the state will withhold its votes from five Exxon Mobil directors who are seeking re-election at tomorrow’s annual shareholder meeting in Dallas. All five have served on the company’s compensation committee over the last five years.
The N.C. Retirement System owns nearly 11 million shares of Exxon Mobil worth more than $660 million. The energy giant is the pension fund’s single largest holding of a publicly traded company.
He gives a pretty good reason for what he's doing. Again, the Raleigh News and Observer:
Moore said that the CEOs of the major oil companies have testified before Congress that "macroeconomic, geopolitical" forces beyond their control were behind rising oil prices.
If that's the case, Moore said, then it is wrong for those executives to be compensated as if they were directly responsible for the high profits engendered by those high prices.
"They can't have it both ways," Moore said.
Consequently, Moore said, directors who have served on Exxon Mobil's compensation committee should be fired for failing to rein in Raymond's pay and his retirement package.
Moore expressed outrage that Raymond's total compensation in his 13 years as CEO, plus the retirement package, totaled $686 million. That works out to $144,573 per day.
That's money that could be going to strengthen our pension funds, or lower gas prices. Unfortunately, not all of our public stockholders are fighting as hard for accountability as Moore is, and it might be worth it to call your state treasurer or comptroller to see what they're doing to hold big business accountable. I bet they won't be expecting it - which is sad, because there's a mission here:
Spitzer commended fellow Democrat Richard Moore ... for using his position as state treasurer to help Spitzer fight the investment firms.
Moore leveraged the state’s $75 billion pension fund by threatening to pull investments out of the companies if they didn’t meet Spitzer’s demands.
"In a world where there was no enforcement," Spitzer said, "we had to step in to ensure the integrity of the marketplace."
To quote the Treasurer, "We're sending a strong message to corporate America: We demand a higher level of service from you, and we can do more than just talk about it. We've got the clout to actually do it." I hope I don't have to explain how important this work is ... if you are a state employee, or if you have a pension, you have the power to hold these businesses accountable, to make them come up with a plan to fight global warming, to force them to pay wage workers more, and to be better corporate citizens.
While I don't have a formal relationship with the campaign, I'm doing everything I can to help Richard Moore win, because I can't begin to imagine the good our Treasurer could do with a bigger mouthpiece. For now, he's fighting in a primary against a very strong Democrat and a good candidate who, nonetheless, is yet to announce - and though both candidates are viable statewide and have impressive records of service, I'm supporting Richard for his demonstrated leadership, statewide and nationwide. Please help our Treasurer continue this fight.