Breaking News: Ex-House Speaker Brubaker resigning | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: This is breaking news from the News and Observer regarding former Speaker of the NC House, Harold Brubaker. At some point, I'll wager that we will receive commentary from one of our many contributors.

    RALEIGH, N.C.     Rep. Harold Brubaker, the first and only Republican House speaker of the 20th century and most recently the chamber's senior budget-writer, announced Thursday he's retiring from the Legislature.

    Brubaker, from Randolph County, said he was stepping down from his seat a week after the General Assembly's short budget-adjustment session ended. Republican leaders in his district would pick a replacement candidate to run in the November election.
"With the close to this legislative session, it is clear that my work has been accomplished and future goals in my career rest outside of this legislative body," Brubaker, 65, said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

    Brubaker, the speaker from 1995 through 1998, had an upfront view of the transformation of the North Carolina Republican Party, which for decades had been little more than a speed bump for Democrats on the way to general election victories in an era of one-party government. When Brubaker arrived in the House in 1977, Democrats held a whopping 114 of the 120 seats in the chamber, partly the result of the extended post-Watergate drubbing the GOP took. The numbers steadily improved for Republicans and Brubaker, who became minority leader in the early 1980s.

    Republicans swept into power nationwide during the 1994 elections and took a 68-52 majority that year in the North Carolina House. Brubaker, who owns a real estate appraisal company in Asheboro, was the first Republican voted to the speaker's post since 1895. He embarked on carrying out an eight-point pre-election contract signed by GOP candidates.

    He succeeded at negotiating with two powerful Democrats - Gov. Jim Hunt and Senate leader Marc Basnight - by passing tax cuts and putting a referendum on the ballot that ultimately made North Carolina the final state to give its governor veto power. Democrats - and even some Republicans - chafed at the GOP's governing style under the reign of Brubaker and Rules Chairman Richard Morgan of Moore County.

    "To all my colleagues, I want to thank you for the friendship, which I will always cherish as well as a lifetime of memories from all the spirited legislative battles," Brubaker said.
Brubaker's second term as speaker was more difficult as Republicans held only a two-seat majority in the House and were squarely in the minority in the Senate.

    Brubaker returned to the House floor in 1999 after Democrats took back the majority in the 1998 elections. Even in his early 50's, Brubaker was considered an elder statesman among House Republicans, content to play a low-key role and quietly swaying viewpoints of fellow caucus members on key business-friendly legislation.

    The Pennsylvania native had one more big part to play when both the House and Senate went Republican following the 2010 elections for the first time since 1870. With Republicans lacking a deep bench of veteran committee leaders, Brubaker stayed on as senior chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

    He helped draw up a two-year budget bill in 2011 that Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed - a historic first for a spending plan - but were quickly overridden with the help of a handful of House Democrats. Brubaker remained true to his mantra of lower taxes and cutting costs. The 2011 plan let expire temporary sales and income tax increases approved by Democrats in 2009 that generated $1 billion annually.

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