In July, Merz Pharmaceuticals relocated its headquarters to Raleigh, and Pat McCrory was there to celebrate. A fine thing for the governor to do, except for one strange fact: Merz was relocating from High Point. In effect, McCrory celebrated the loss of 193 jobs in one of his state’s longest-suffering cities.

It was indicative of a broader confusion in McCrory’s regional politics. The governor still seems to have a weak sense how the whole state interlocks. As a result, he hopscotches from one isolated initiative to another, helping an area one day and undermining it the next. The result is that his policies cancel each other out, and no one ends up better off.

McCrory ran as a Metro Mayor. His campaign proposed to rebalance state policy’s pro-rural tilt. Upon taking office, he implemented some of these, notably a “strategic mobility formula” for road-building. But at the same time, he has aided the legislature’s War on Cities. Without a second thought, he rubber stamped bills that deprived cities of important revenue streams and let electric whirligigs loose on Jordan Lake. And he let Tim Moffitt steal Asheville’s water system. Some city advocate.

The governor recently said his “major emphasis in economic development” was to help small towns. But when the Conservative Revolutionaries launched a frontal assault on the Rural Center, McCrory supported them. Whatever its flaws, the Rural Center served a WPA-style role of relief-through-jobs. McCrory helped to defund both it and the Golden Leaf Foundation, which served a similar function. Some rural advocate.

The transportation plan elevates these contradictions to a new echelon of absurdity. After shaving $3 billion off our revenues, he wants to go $1 billion dollars into debt for the low-value rural projects his “strategic mobility formula” was meant to de-emphasize. If you know what he’s doing, you’re one step ahead of him.

Alexander H. Jones

Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.