Mike Easley

Michael Francis Easley (born March 23, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 72nd governor of North Carolina from 2001 to 2009.

He is the first

governor of North Carolina to have been convicted of a Felony.

The conviction was later expunged by the Chief Judge of the Superior Court of Wake County.

A member of the Democratic Party, Easley was North Carolina's second Catholic governor.

Mike Easley was born on March 23, 1950, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, to Henry Alexander Easley and Huldah Marie Easley.

He grew up on his family's 60-acre farm in Nash County and was one of seven children in a large Irish Catholic family.

Easley attended a local Catholic school before transferring and later graduating from Rocky Mount Senior High School in 1968.

Easley attended Belmont Abbey College for two years before transferring to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned a degree with honors in political science in 1972.

While at UNC he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

He then attended the North Carolina Central University School of Law, earning his J.D. degree, with honors, in 1976.

While a law student, Easley served as managing editor of the school's Law Review.

Easley became an assistant district attorney for the 13th Judicial District in 1976.

He was elected District Attorney, one of the youngest ever in the state, in 1982.

A Democrat, Easley ran unsuccessfully in that party's 1990 primary for the U.S. Senate; he lost to former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, who himself lost to incumbent Jesse Helms.

Easley was elected North Carolina Attorney General in 1992 and sworn in on January 9, 1993.

He won reelection in 1996.

In the 1996 election for attorney general, Easley garnered 59.07% of the vote, compared with opponent Robert H. Edmonds Jr.'s 40.93% of votes.

This represented a margin of victory of 446,169 votes.

In 2000, Easley ran to succeed the term-limited Hunt as Governor of North Carolina.

He defeated incumbent Lieutenant Governor Dennis A. Wicker in the Democratic primary, and then successfully challenged Republican Richard Vinroot, former mayor of Charlotte, in the general election.

In the closing weeks of the 2000 gubernatorial race, actor Andy Griffith filmed an ad endorsing Easley, which some observers believe led to Easley's victory, called the "Mayberry Miracle".

Easley was reelected in 2004, running against New Hanover County state senator Patrick J. Ballantine.

Presenting the award, Harvard noted that in "2006-2007, rates of grade promotion and graduation for Learn and Earn participants were higher than the statewide average, with nearly half the Learn and Earn high schools seeing 100 percent promotion rates".

Harvard also observed that these numbers have not "been skewed by "creaming" that is counting of only high scoring children. The program purposely targets kids at risk, those for whom English is a second language[,] and those who would be first-generation college students."

Easley also initiated a program to enable North Carolina students to attain a debt-free undergraduate education by receiving EARN Grants of up to $8,000 over two years.

In 2007 Easley wrote and published a children's book, Look Out, College, Here I Come! the proceeds of which fund a North Carolina education charity.

His tenure faced budget shortfalls, tough economic times, and natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods.

Easley received mixed reviews on his handling of fiscal problems in the state.

His supporters claimed many of the budget shortfall situations were created before he even took office, during the Hunt administration, while his detractors criticized his support of raising sales taxes multiple times to cover the cost of new state programs.

Education reform was a centerpiece of Easley's tenure as governor, to such an extent that in 2008, Easley received the inaugural "America's Greatest Education Governor" award from the National Education Association.

The award was created to showcase "public officials who have demonstrated exemplary achievements and accomplishments in advancing public education".

Easley was commended by the NEA for his focus on improving teacher working conditions and for affording teachers a "seat at the table" in discussions surrounding the implementation of education reforms in the state.

One of Easley's major programs was More at Four, an academic pre-kindergarten for at-risk children.

More at Four has received praise from groups such as the National Education Association.

Another signature program of Easley's was the "Learn and Earn" initiative, which enabled North Carolina high school students to earn college credit by taking online courses at no cost to them or to their families.

The "Learn and Earn" program received the Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard Kennedy School.

Easley is married to Mary Easley (née Pipines), who worked in the Provost's Office at North Carolina State University until June 8, 2009.

She is a former law professor at North Carolina Central University and also worked for ten years as a prosecutor.

The two have one son, Michael F. Easley Jr.