Labor Commissioner

Labor Commissioner

Mary Fant Donnan clinched the Democratic nomination for labor commissioner on Tuesday, defeating former labor commissioner John Brooks in the Democratic primary runoff. She had about 68 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting Tuesday. Donnan will face Republican incumbent Cherie Berry in November. "I'm very excited, and this positions me well for the fall," Donnan said. "Voters are ready for and responded well to the message that there needs to be an emphasis on better supports for working families and small business."
Donnan, a program officer at the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem, finished first in the four-person party primary on May 6 but failed to get the more than 40 percent of the vote required to avoid a runoff with Brooks, the commissioner from 1977 to 1993. Both argued that Berry, who is seeking her third four-year term, has failed to protect North Carolina workers adequately or push for more apprenticeship training. Donnan, 46, worked in the labor department from 1994 to 2001. She received the endorsements of the third- and fourth-place finishers in the primary, as well as the state AFL-CIO. (Gary D. Robertson, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 6/24/08).