By Julie N. Chang With just days to go until North Carolina's second primary Tuesday, lieutenant governor candidate Dan Forest made a stop in the county to campaign door-to-door. Forest, a Raleigh architect and Republican, is in a run-off election with Tony Gurley for the party's nomination. Forest won 33 percent of the 769,230 May 8 primary votes and Gurley won 25 percent. The winner will face Democrat Linda Coleman in November. The grassroots, door-to-door campaign has been a daily occurrence in Forest's camp for the past six weeks. He's stopped in one county each week day -- for a total of 30 counties -- to knock on doors. Part of the goal is to let people know about the run-off election Tuesday, Forest said. "Secondly, we're letting them know that we are coming back to earn their vote," Forest said. In the Salem area, one woman opened the door in her pajamas and a robe, but expressed interest and enthusiasm for Forest. Another woman was less enthusiastic but took a door hanger explaining Forest's platform. "I like to say that if a politician is not willing to come knock on your door before the election, they're probably not going to come knock on your door after an election," Forest said. "We have proven over the last year and a half that we are willing to do the hard work it takes to serve the people of North Carolina." If elected, Forest said he'll focus on making North Carolina "the most friendly state for business in America." Eliminating the state's corporate income tax, reducing the gas tax and creating a personal income tax bracket for small business owners are ways to attract industries and create jobs, Forest said. Businesses want to grow and reducing government regulations will help them create wealth, which in turn creates jobs, Forest said. The candidate said as he's gone from door to door, he's encountered a lot of people who are unemployed. "One of the reasons they're home in the middle of the week is because they're unemployed," Forest said. "…I think we need to elect leaders across the board, both at the local level and state level, who are willing to make the really tough decisions for the future of North Carolina. Not just now, not just for some special interest in the moment, but long term."

By Sarah Lowery Dan Forest, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of North Carolina, kicked off his statewide bus tour leading up to the May primary with two stops in the area on Tuesday. After a quick visit in the parking lot of a Hardee's, located at 6090 N. N.C. 16 in Denver, at 7:30 a.m., Forest parked his bus outside the Lincoln Cultural Center on East Main Street in Lincolnton to greet supporters for about two hours. Forest told the Times-News that he will be visiting between three and four counties a day across the state in advance of the primary election on May 8. A press release announcing the stops noted that they are open to all registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters. "We want to take the campaign to the people," he said. Forest is traveling with his wife, Alice, and three of his four children on the 32-feet-long bus, which he and campaign manager Hal Weatherman refer to as "Bubba1." On the bus are the words "Run Forest Run," a slogan they coined in reference to the 1994 film "Forrest Gump." Among the small crowd gathered outside the Lincoln Cultural Center to speak with Forest were Lincolnton Mayor John Gilleland, N.C. Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, and Lincolnton Furniture Company owner and CEO Bruce Cochrane. Prior to each stop, Forest said his campaign is sending out robo-calls to alert local voters of his visit, noting that it was important to him to allow people to come out and meet him and talk about the issues they care about. He added that the bus tour shows how hard he is working now and how hard he plans to work if elected.Forest also talked about the various small towns in North Carolina, like Lincolnton, whose downtown businesses, he said, are a "great analogy of how wealth in a nation" keeps things running. "They are keeping the vitality of the town going," he said, adding that he plans to "find ways to allow businesses to do what they do." "It's not about the rich getting richer," he noted. Forest, previously a businessman, architect and entrepreneur, resides in Raleigh with his wife and children. He is the son of U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick.

By Brant Clifton Throughout our state's history, lieutenant governors have put their own personal touch on a job with a limited scope of powers. Dan Forest, one of the two GOP candidates for lieutenant governor still standing, would like his tenure in office to be marked by principled leadership in the areas of education and economic development. Forest, an architect from Raleigh making his first run for political office, is facing off against Wake County commissioner Tony Gurley in a July 17th runoff. I caught up with Forest on his way to Memorial Day festivities in Spring Lake -- a small town outside Fayetteville which is home to quite a few service members and veterans from Fort Bragg. (He was taking a break from a home-schooling conference in Winston-Salem.) : "We finished first in the primary thanks to hard work -- outworking everyone else. That's something we're going to keep up through the runoff, the general election, and our time in office in Raleigh. We've been taking our message to all four corners of this state for the last two years. We've been to quite a few places where candidates typically don't show up during campaign season. We're letting people know how much we care -- that we're not going to forget about them once all the votes are counted." Forest said his decision to run for office was based on what he sees as a "leadership crisis" in Raleigh: "I believe I can really add something significant to the discussions in Raleigh. I am an architect. Architects are -- by nature -- visionaries, problem solvers and planners. I see the lieutenant governor job as an opportunity to use my executive and administrative skills and experience to help craft some much-needed reforms and sell them to the people of North Carolina. I am looking forward to working with Governor Pat McCrory to turn things around here in North Carolina and build a better, brighter future." Forest said his role as lieutenant governor will earn him a spot on the state Economic Development Board and a platform to push for a change in state economic policies: "Jobs and the economy are huge issues right now for our state. We've got the 44th worst business climate in The United States. We've got one of the highest corporate taxes in the nation. We've got the highest gas tax in the southeastern United States. The policies being pushed by our state government are basically telling businesses to go somewhere else. That's got to change. " Forest said he would like to take the lead in formulating a strategic plan to improve the business climate in The Tar Heel State: "We need to pay more attention to small businesses. I'd like to see a special tax bracket for small business people so they're not being punished for stepping out there and showing some initiative and taking risks. I'd also like to see the corporate income tax eliminated. It accounts for only a tiny sliver of the general fund. We really don't need it. " There has been quite a bit of debate on whether the state should be offering incentives to businesses contemplating a move to, or an expansion in, North Carolina. South Carolina and Virginia and Tennessee have had remarkable success in recent years using incentive packages to lure businesses away from North Carolina. Forest says that is not an excuse for ante-ing up in the incentives game: "All of those states have much more attractive business climates and tax situations than we do. We need to get to work on moving away from this #44 business climate ranking and moving a lot closer to #1." Forest says incentives can be quite unfair : "If we have six companies here making tires, and we offer a huge pile of money and tax breaks to a foreign company to come here, set up shop, and start making tires, how fair is that to the tire companies who have been here, long-term, investing in our state? I don't believe the government needs to be in the business of picking winners and losers." He qualified that position by saying the arrival of a "game-changer' could alter his thinking: "Let's say a giant like Boeing -- which came to Charleston -- wants to move here, build a facility, hire a lot of people, and make a long-term commitment to North Carolina. That would be a tremendous opportunity for our state. That would definitely be a "game-changer' where we might have to have a discussion about incentives -- which would have to include some strong performance-based conditions. " Forest says, as lieutenant governor, he would also be very active in education policy -- championing the ideas of school choice, vouchers and tax credits, and increased local control: "It costs $13,000 per year to educate a child in our public schools. It costs $6,000 per year to educate that same child in a private school. The difference lies in all of this money going toward capital expenditures and bureaucracy in the public schools. There is plenty of money out there to get the job done. Unfortunately, in the public schools, there is a lot of money going into the wrong places." The Raleigh Republican's campaign is replete with imagery from the beloved classic film "Forrest Gump." His campaign slogan is "Run Forest, Run" and he has been traveling the state on a brightly-colored customized bus nicknamed "Bubba." "When your name is Forest, you know you're going to hear "Run Forest, Run.' This is our way of injecting a little fun, a little levity, into the campaign process, which is often very serious and very tiring. I run into people all the time, who I don't even know, who greet me with "Run Forest, Run.' The slogan -- and its ties to the movie -- really connect with people. I've told many of my supporters that, after I'm elected lieutenant governor, they can refer to me as "Lieutenant Dan.' "