We'll Miss Richard Moore

For eight years he's been NC's State Treasurer, and he's done a very good job, particularly with the state's pension fund. According to the N&O, "North Carolina has been rated among the top three state pension systems since 2003 in various national rankings." While the pension fund did lose money this year in the Wall Street melt-down (some 12 percent), the losses were much less than the 24 percent plunge of the S&P 500 ... primarily because Moore has been a very cautious and conservative manager of our money.

Then came his run for governor in the Democratic primary against Bev Perdue, which was pretty much a disaster from several perspectives.

Now Moore says he has lost all interest in any other elective office, which is unfortunate, because he's one of North Carolina's best public servants. We'll give him 2009 to reconsider and will hope to see him saddling up in 2010.