Cooper's out-of-state travel leaves lieutenant governor in the dark

With Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper traveling out of the state, Forest assumed the role of North Carolina's acting governor, complete with all the powers of the state's top executive.

But that was news Monday to Forest's office, which was never notified of Cooper's absence.

"We never get told when he's out of state," Jamey Falkenbury, a spokesman for the Lieutenant Governor's Office, said. "We just find out afterwards once it's on the news or something."

A provision of North Carolina's constitution automatically elevates the lieutenant to acting governor when the full-time chief executive is absent from the state. There's no constitutional requirement to notify the lieutenant governor, but Forest's staff says Cooper's failure to do so marks a significant departure from the practices of his Republican predecessor, former Gov. Pat McCrory.

"Fortunately for North Carolina, when Gov. Cooper has been out of the state, there has not been a significant natural disaster or manmade crisis that would require the authorization of the acting governor to take place," Falkenbury said. "If there was such a situation, North Carolinians could suffer from a lack of a timely response by their government."

In an email Monday afternoon, a spokesman from Cooper's office said his staff notifies the lieutenant governor "as needed" about the governor's schedule and that he "remains in communication with staff, cabinet and emergency response officials" while on the road. Since he took office in January, Cooper has left the state about a dozen times.

"He will delegate authority if ever needed," Cooper spokesman Jamal Little said in a statement.

Gerry Cohen, a lawyer who spent decades crafting laws and constitutional provisions at the General Assembly, said he knows of no law requiring the governor to inform the lieutenant governor of his absence, but the constitution is clear: When the governor is out of state, the lieutenant governor becomes the state's acting governor.

"Whether he tells anyone or not, the lieutenant governor is governor," Cohen said.

North Carolina's governor and lieutenant governor have only been from opposing parties a couple of other times going back to the 1970s, when James Holshouser became the state's first Republican governor since the turn of the century. Holshouser's chief of staff, Phil Kirk, said Tuesday that the administration "always" notified Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Hunt when the governor headed out of state.

Then again, Kirk said, Holshouser and Hunt weren't about to run against each other.

Forest is expected to run for governor in three years.

Partisan politics were also less bitter then. Kirk said Hunt never tried to take advantage of his powers as acting governor.

"They got along very well, and things were very bipartisan in those days," he said.