Richmond County Daily Journal: Senate Candidate Visits Rockingham

By Peter Williams/Richmond County Daily Journal
Published: Friday, July 25, 2008 8:39 PM CDT

Kay Hagan, a five-term state senator from Greensboro, split her time Friday between talking of her own policies and taking jabs at her challenger, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole during a campaign swing through Rockingham.

Hagan, 55, said Dole only registered to vote in North Carolina two days after then Sen. Jesse Helms announced he would retire. Dole’s husband, former Sen. Bob Dole, has roots in Kansas and for 25 years, Elizabeth Dole herself was registered to vote there. Bob Dole is still registered to vote in Kansas.

“I’ve got two things going for me,” Hagan told a crowd at Richmond County Democratic Headquarters on East Washington Street. “One is I actually live in North Carolina, and the other thing is my husband can vote for me.”

Both women were born in North Carolina, but both have lived elsewhere. Hagan was born in Shelby but the family moved to Florida when she was four years old. She graduated high school in Lakeland, Fla. in 1971 and Florida State University in 1975. She met her future husband, Chip, while attending law school at Wake Forest, where she graduated in 1978. Since then she’s lived in Greensboro.

Dole was born in Salisbury, and went on to graduate from Duke University and Harvard, and moved to Washington D.C. where she was U.S. Secretary of Transportation from 1983 through 1987, Secretary of Labor from 1989 to 1990 and president of the American Red Cross from 1991 to 1999. Dole has held the senate seat since 2002.

Hagan already support in Richmond County before Friday’s visit. In the primary election, she collected 51 percent of the vote in a five-way race, compared to 21 percent for Jim Neal, a 51-year-old investment banker from Chapel Hill. Statewide Hagan got 60 percent of the vote compared to 18 percent for Neal. Hagan outspent Neal by a three-to-one margin, according to Neal’s web site.

Dole hasn’t done as well in Richmond County. While she defeated Erskine Bowles by a margin of 1.2 million to 1 million in the statewide vote, Bowles had 6,600 votes in Richmond County, compared to 4,167 for Dole.

Hagan was born in Shelby, and her grandfather hailed from Chesterfield, S.C., about 30 miles away from Rockingham. She talked of working on her grandfather’s tobacco farm as a child. Her uncle, Lawton Chiles, served as Senator from Florida from 1971 through 1989 and was Governor of the state from 1991 through 1998.

Hagan had made an earlier stop Friday in Wadesboro, and planned to visit Laurinburg and Fayetteville later in the day.

Hagan was introduced by Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin, who was a strong supporter of Bowles. Among the crowd was Sen. William Purcell, a retired doctor from Scotland County who represents Richmond County.

“I’ve heard a lot from your colleague, Sen. Purcell,” McLaurin told Hagan. “He says Kay Hagan is ‘right on.’ He said she’s really what we need in Washington.”

In Raleigh she Hagan served as co-chair of the budget committee during her last three terms.

On Friday Hagan stressed a number of issues, including the need for job training, a national energy policy and health care.

“The stone age didn’t just end because we ran out of stones,” Hagan said. “It ended because of new technology.”

She talked of efforts to harness wind and wave energy to create electricity and the need to get troops out of the war in Iraq.

“We are not making America any safer being in this war,” she said.

She closed her remarks by saying she wanted to give Dole some ruby red slippers, a reference to the movie Wizard of Oz.

“She can get ruby red slippers so she can click her heels three times and go back to Kansas.”

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