News & Record: Hagan to Take on Dole

The News & Record
By Mark Binker
Wednesday, May. 7, 2008

GREENSBORO — Kay Hagan strode up Market Street, quickly passed a row of television trucks and popped up the steps of the Old Guilford County Courthouse.

“We did it,” said the newly minted Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate as she walked through the courthouse doors, flanked by campaign staff, her husband, parents and children.

By about 9 p.m., The Associated Press had called the race for Hagan, with incomplete and unofficial returns showing her with a 3-1 voter advantage over her closest rival.

Her victory sets up a showdown with Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole, who handily won her primary Tuesday night.

“I’m going to run an aggressive, modern campaign, but I’m also going to do grass roots. … I’m listening to the people,” Hagan said.

Hagan’s main rival, Chapel Hill investment adviser Jim Neal, conceded at about 10 p.m. at an election night celebration in Carrboro.

“I called Kay and I wished her congratulations for her resounding victory and I wished her every success in moving forward to unseat Senator Dole,” Neal said by phone. “Kay, without a shadow of a doubt, would be an improvement over Senator Dole and her lack of representation and lack of vision.”

Neal ran an aggressive grass-roots campaign but never raised the money to buy broadcast advertisements. That gap showed in the final weeks of the campaign, when polls revealed the margin between Hagan and Neal widening. Eventually, Neal had said, a campaign like his that relied on Internet outreach and personal contact would overcome such a disadvantage.

“We’re not there yet, but it’s only a matter of time,” he had said.

The first of the five Democrats to enter the race, Neal garnered national attention when the fact he is gay became widely reported. He won early support among progressive activists and maintained a following among more liberal voters.

Hagan, when asked how she would win over the Neal contingent, said, “I’ll be out there meeting and greeting them just like every other voter. I hope to touch as many voters as I can and certainly I will ask them to come on board and certainly I do need their support.”

Three other candidates also filed to run in the race: Lexington trucker Duskin Lassiter, Lumberton attorney Marcus Williams and Moncure podiatrist Howard Staley.

Although they attended some debates, none of the three was able to win over donors or attract the attention of media and party officials. For example, only Hagan and Neil were granted speaking spots during the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Raleigh last week.

As she celebrated Tuesday night, Hagan said she would begin the general election campaign today.

The match-up against Dole is universally considered a hard one, with Hagan trailing Dole during a recent poll by seven points. But Democrats say Dole could be vulnerable because she is closely allied with President Bush.

Hagan will aim to link Dole to the nation’s economic woes and the president’s unpopular Iraq war policy.

In glimpses of what could be central to her campaign, Dole has spoken to groups across the state about federal immigration policy, emphasizing boarder enforcement.

Dole called the upcoming election “dangerous” during a recent speech in Greensboro.

“We’ve got critically important races, from the White House, to the congressional races, to my own Senate race where they’re trying to get a filibuster-proof Senate … which means everything then can go zipping through and we won’t be able to stop the bad stuff,” Dole said.

Hagan’s primary fight helped spread her name across the state, said UNCG Political Science Professor Charles Prysby.

“It was a help,” Prysby said of the primary, “but that’s not enough because the primary is going to attract the attention of mostly committed Democrats.”

Hagan, he said, will need to spend money on television and other advertising to become known among Republican and unaffiliated voters. Political observers, including Prysby, estimate that Dole and Hagan each will spend at least $10 million in the upcoming election.

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