Durham Herald-Sun: Hagan our choice for U.S. Senator

Durham Herald-Sun
October 17, 2008

In the race for United States Senate, choosing between the incumbent, Republican Elizabeth Dole and the challenger, Democrat Kay Hagan, is a tough call.

Both are intelligent, committed women with deep ties to the state. Both have the best interests of North Carolina and the nation at heart, although you would never know that from their campaign ads.

On both sides, this has been one of the more negative campaigns we’ve seen, which is saying something in this era of negative campaigns.

But after setting aside the insults and exaggerated charges, we conclude that Hagan would be the better choice to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. We concede that she is an unproven quantity in national office, but we think her record of accomplishment and advocacy for her constituents as a state legislator gives her the potential to become an excellent U.S. senator.

At first, Hagan seemed a long shot to unseat Dole, a well-known and popular incumbent. But Dole, like John McCain, has been buffeted by external events such as the international economic crisis and the missteps of the Bush administration in foreign and domestic policy. Now, according to the latest polls, Dole’s position looks shaky.

There’s no question that Dole has a blue-chip résumé, an easy familiarity with many aspects of national and foreign policy and an insider’s knowledge of the ins and outs of the Washington bureaucracy. Dole, a native of Salisbury and alumna of Duke and Harvard law school, has worked with five presidents. Under Ronald Reagan, she became the first female Secretary of Transportation. Under President George H.W. Bush, Dole was named Secretary of Labor.

From 1991 to 1999, she served with distinction as President of the American Red Cross. Afterward, she ran unsuccessfully for president and was elected to the Senate in 2002.

One of her major successes was championing the federal tobacco buyout, a program that has helped many North Carolina farmers make the transition from tobacco to other crops or into new businesses. She also took an active role in the military base closing commission, lobbying successfully to keep existing military installations in North Carolina and expanding the ones we have.

Beyond that, Dole’s list of accomplishments is thinner. We can’t help but think she could have taken a more active role during her six years in the Senate.

For her part, Hagan has been an effective state legislator, well-respected by her Guilford County constituents for her plain-spoken advocacy. An attorney, Hagan worked in the banking industry, left to become a full-time mother, and then became active in politics, serving as the local manager for Gov. Jim Hunt’s 1992 and 1996 campaigns.

Her record after 10 years in the General Assembly is pro-business and pro-education, with a deep streak of practicality. Among her accomplishments, she points to the budgets she helped pass, legislation limiting predatory lending practices and a requirement that financial literacy to be included in public schools’ curriculums.

She has also been instrumental in pushing for North Carolina to become a leader in producing biofuels and other alternative energy sources. Initiatives like that will help drive the state’s future economy.

If elected, she pledges to focus on education by revising No Child Left Behind to make it less punitive and to increase its funding.

She said she supported a bipartisan energy bill that did away with incentives for oil companies, but also permitted offshore drilling and reinstated renewable energy tax credits.

We also like her insistence that all increases in government spending must be accompanied by cuts in other areas. Given the current deficits and the international economic crisis, our national leaders must start showing more fiscal responsibility.

The coming years will require a practical, reform-minded, hard-working senator for North Carolina. We think Hagan will fill the bill.

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