Bob Scott has his flaws, but he had guts.

The Scott legacy will be tarnished by Meg Scott Phipp’s imprisonment – and by the IRS investigation of Scott supporters when he was governor. But Bob Scott deserves a lot of credit for modernizing North Carolina – sometimes in the face of tough opposition.

Like proposing a tobacco tax in the 1960s. Forty years later, Governors and legislators are still wary of that.

Or passing a reorganization of the university system, which was opposed by a lot of the university powers-that-were.

Scott pushed through a rewrite of the state Constitution – and the reorganization of state government into Cabinet departments. One change was making the Lieutenant Governor’s office full-time – with paid staff. Jim Hunt, elected in 1972, was the first full-time lieutenant governor.

Scott helped Hunt another way, appointing Hunt to chair a commission that opened up the state party to minorities, women and young people. That was part of the reorganization of the Democratic Party after 1968.

Scott and Hunt later had their problems. Scott ran against Hunt for the nomination in 1980 and got crushed. Hunt carried all 100 counties and 70 percent of the vote. Scott was mad because he thought Hunt should have made him president of the community colleges. Hunt let the community colleges board make the decision. Scott got the job later.

Both Hunt and Scott were farm boys. (Rob Christensen wrongly reported that Scott was the last governor who milked a cow.) Hunt’s parents were strong supporters of Governor/Senator Kerr Scott, Bob’s father. Kerr Scott appointed Hunt’s mother to be the first woman on the Board of Health. And a familiar part of Hunt lore is that he got interested in politics at age 13 when Kerr Scott paved the road that went by his family’s farm in Wilson County.

Today, that would be called pork-barrel politics. For better and worse, Bob Scott was that kind of politician. It led him and his family into trouble. But his failings shouldn’t totally overshadow his guts and his gifts.

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