Daily Advance: U.S. Senate Hopeful Visits Edenton

Hagan among first to oppose Navy’s OLF

The Daily Advance
By BOB MONTGOMERY
Published Monday, April 07, 2008

EDENTON – Many voters in northeastern North Carolina may not have been familiar with Kay Hagan, that is until Sunday.

Hagan, a 10-year Democratic state senator from Greensboro, is running in hopes of having a chance to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

Sunday afternoon, Hagan was at Nothin’ Fancy Café in Edenton speaking to voters and getting the word out about her campaign.

“I really want to go to Washington to make a change,” said Hagan, a five-term state senator. She also is co-chair of the state’s budget committee, which has produced balanced budgets that have been endorsed by Gov. Mike Easley.

Hagan, who is a native of Shelby, spent the weekend campaigning throughout northeastern North Carolina. She was accompanied by her husband Chip and their 24-year-old son Tilden.

Before Hagan gets a chance to run against Dole, she must first win the May 6 primary, which means defeating, among others, Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill investment banker. But Chip Hagan said he believes his wife is the best candidate because she has the necessary skills and experience to be an effective leader.

“Kay is the only one with legislative experience,” he said. “She’s a real problem solver and results-oriented senator. That’s what we’ve been missing in North Carolina.”

Hagan also was several years ago among the first vocal opponents of the U.S. Navy’s plans to build an outlying landing field in eastern North Carolina. While Washington County was recently ruled out as a site, Hagan said she joins Camden and Gates county residents in their opposition of the Navy’s latest list of possible OLF sites. Chip Hagan, speaking on behalf of his wife, summed up her attitude about a North Carolina-based OLF.

“Like Governor Easley said, it’s a gold mine,” he said. “Virginia gets the mine and we get the shaft.”

Hagan said she also opposes the war in Iraq, and said more money (in billions of dollars) is spent funding the war in two months than North Carolina’s budget spends in an entire year.

Within the state, middle class families from Asheville to Fayetteville are complaining about having to work harder while earning less and paying more for gas, she said.
“I don’t care if you call it a recession or not, people see it as a recession,” she said.
Hagan said President Bush’s plan to give taxpayers rebates averaging $600 each will help families make ends meet in the short-term, but won’t be nearly enough too pull the country out of its economic slump.

If given the opportunity, Hagan said she would take money being spent on the war to work here in the United States and North Carolina, pumping more into veterans benefits, health care, education and creating jobs that “put people to work.” Some of that work would include rebuilding the state’s highway and bridge infrastructure and schools.

Hagan spent Saturday night at a Dare County Democrats fundraiser in Manteo, then Sunday morning she stopped for coffee and a service at St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church in Elizabeth City. There, she ran into U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-1st District, who kicked off an Obama rally earlier Sunday morning.

From Elizabeth City, she went to Edenton and then on to Windsor to meet with Bertie County Democrats.

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