North Carolina Democrats are scrambling to find a gubernatorial candidate – “Registered North Carolina voters prefer former University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles among the potential field of Democrats who could face likely Republican candidate Pat McCrory in the governor’s race, according to a poll released Monday.”

My friend and former Bowles campaign director Gary Pearce told the News and Observer:

“Nobody has the depth and level of experience that Erskine has had in public and private sectors. Just go through his résumé. He is a successful businessman. He ran the Small Business Administration. He was White House chief of staff. He was president of the University of North Carolina. He was co-chairman of the federal budget commission. And by the way, he is the guy who balanced the last budget that the federal government had. Who can beat that résumé?”

Bowles does have an impressive record. However, let’s not forget that while leading the University of North Carolina, Erskine sat on Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley’s board of directors. During that period, Morgan Stanley lost more than 62 percent of its stock value causing the company to sell a 21 percent stake to Japan’s Mitsubishi Financial Group. That was on top of a $5 billion infusion from the Chinese government.  But all of that did not stop the Morgan board to pay its CEO more than $190 million over five years as the company began to falter.

Let’s hope Erskine is a better governor, than banker.