Attorney Michael Lee announces bid for state senate seat

Local Wilmington attorney Michael Lee announced today with an email to supporters his intention to run for the 2010 state senate seat representing New Hanover County. That seat is currently occupied by Sen. Julia Boseman who said she does not intend to run for re-election.

Lee wrote that it may seem early to start campaigning, but believes the times demand an early start.

“This next election cycle is simply too important to wait and circumstances are far from normal. North Carolina’s economy is still reeling, unemployment is higher than the national average, and yet our legislature still raised taxes by over 1 billion dollars.  I need your help to get North Carolina back on the right track,” Lee wrote in the email. He also said that because of Boseman’s intention not to seek re-election, there is the possibility of “a spirited Republican primary.”

Lee’s name may be familiar to local voters because he ran against Boseman for the seat in 2008. Lee lost the seat to Boseman by about 3,000 votes. Lee is an attorney at the Wilmington office of Smith Moore Leatherwood.

On his campaign web site, Lee lists his top priorities as bringing more high-paying jobs to New Hanover County, reforming the state’s education system, maintaining roads and bridges and creating “common sense” tax and spending and illegal immigration.