The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., Capitol Column.

By Amy Gardner, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jun. 3--It's official: John Merritt, Gov. Mike Easley's equivalent to a chief of staff and his most prominent lightning rod for the past 18 months, is leaving the administration at the end of the month.

Word that Merritt would leave has been circulating Raleigh for months. Some of it may have been wishful thinking; Merritt has irked more than his share of politicians, from city and county leaders to state Sen. Marc Basnight to Easley's own press operation. The press office finally confirmed the rumors with a statement Monday.

Merritt chuckled when asked whether he was leaving voluntarily or Easley had asked him to go, but said little to explain his decision. The veteran party operative and business executive had said when Easley hired him in the fall of 2001 that he was unlikely to stay for more than a year.

Merritt, who lives in Wilmington, was the longtime chief aide to former U.S. Rep. Charlie Rose and worked as staff director of the Joint Committee on Printing in Congress. He and Easley, both Rocky Mount natives, are chums from their undergraduate days at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

At the time of Merritt's hiring, speculation circulated that he would help Easley mend fences with party leaders, some of whom the governor had alienated with his distaste for party patronage.

But Merritt, who has focused on economic development issues, has alienated even more. Last year, city and county leaders accused him of threatening to withhold money for state projects in their regions when they were considering suing over state aid that Easley had cut to balance the budget. And he irritated Basnight, the powerful Democratic leader of the state Senate, by using his seat on the ...