Candidate Biography (submitted by candidate):

I was born December 21, 1934 in Sanford, North Carolina. I am married to former Etta Brown Howard. I have four children, namely, Joni Ramey, Jim L. Love, Jr., Melody Watts and Mark W. Love. I am a past Deacon of First Baptist Church of Sanford, Mason and Paul Harris Fellow Rotarian. I was awarded the Jaycees Distinguished Service Award as Lee County’s Young Man of the Year in 1966.

I was educated in the public schools of Lee County where I was an outstanding student and athlete. Upon graduation from high school I enrolled in the University of North Carolina where I was the starting catcher on the baseball team. During my senior year I was named a Distinguished Air Force ROTC cadet and received my commission as an officer in the United States Air Force.

I received my law degree from the University of North Carolina Law School in 1960, and was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar in September, 1960. I served as the law clerk to J. Wallace Winborne, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Thereafter, I was engaged in the general practice of law in Sanford, NC, including Solicitor of the Lee Criminal Court and Assistant Solicitor of Lee County Superior Court. I was a past President of the Eleventh Judicial District Barn Association.

I was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives for ten years (1967-1977) to represent Harnett and Lee Counties; and served as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the 1975-1976 Session. I have represented District 51 (Lee and part of Harnett County) in the 2007 and 2009 session of the North Carolina General Assembly.

Like every family in North Carolina who has to tighten their budget, so does the state. That's why I went through the budget line by line. We cut spending by $2.4 billion last year. That's a cut of over 10% - the largest budget cut in state history. In fact, the state government spent LESS money this year than it did the year before. We even cut our own legislation travel budget by 90%. We made these cuts to protect resources for our local schools, community colleges, and to create more jobs here in North Carolina. Even in tough times our kids' education should still be a top priority because it is key to jobs, our economic recovery and our future.

But there is more to do to get North Carolina back on track. We must:

• Protect North Carolina small businesses because they are the backbone of our economic recovery
• Preserve our community colleges
• Hold the line on taxes on middle class families and on state spending
• Get North Carolinians back to work with worker retraining programs and small business incubators