Wilson Daily Times: Hagan Wants Dole's U.S. Senate Seat

Wilson Daily Times
By Matt Shaw | Daily Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 16, 2008, 10:26 AM

Kay Hagan, now the Democratic front-runner for U.S. Senate, believes that the Republican incumbent, Elizabeth Dole, is vulnerable this fall.

“Libby Dole is very well-known, but when I ask people what she’s done for them, the answer is ‘nothing,”“ Hagan said in an interview Tuesday in Wilson.

In the nearly six years that Dole has been in the U.S. Senate, the number of illegal immigrants in the nation has risen from 7 million to 12 million, and the cost of a gallon of gas has risen from $1.53 to $3.41, Hagan said.

Also, Dole has been one of the Senate’s biggest backers of the war in Iraq, Hagan said. “She has voted for the war 100 percent of the time.”

Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, is the best known of the five Democrats running for Dole’s seat. A poll released Monday showed that Hagan has the support of 28 percent of likely voters in the May 6 primary election. Jim Neal, a political fund-raiser, is in second place with 7 percent. Most respondents – 58 percent – said they are undecided.

The poll found that about a third of those surveyed had seen Hagan’s TV ads, which began broadcasting last week.

“Whenever I go in restaurants or diners now, people are saying, ‘I saw you on TV,’” she said. “Obviously, what I need is more name recognition.”

Hagan was in town campaigning as part of a tour of eastern North Carolina. She visited Parker’s Barbecue and met with 40 people, including Carolyn Hunt, Sheriff Wayne Gay, Mayor Bruce Rose, Councilman A.P. Coleman and N.C. Sen. A.B. Swindell.

Hagan ran against an entrenched state senator in 1998, her first race, and beat the odds, she said during her lunchtime talk. Beating Dole is a similar challenge.

“I have two advantages – I actually live in North Carolina and my husband can vote for me,” she said to laughter.

Dole has a record now of acting against the best interest of the state’s working people, Hagan said. Dole has voted three times against raising the minimum wage, also opposing expansion of the health insurance program for the children of the working poor.

Hagan has spent six years as a co-chair of the N.C. Senate’s budget committee, which she said has given her valuable insights into the state’s needs.

She said she has also heard from many citizens during her recent travels, and that the two most pressing concerns are the costs of gas and health care. One community college instructor told her that many students are having trouble getting to class because of gas prices.

As a U.S. senator, Hagan said she would work to revoke $13 billion in tax incentives that have been given the oil companies. She said she would spend that money on research into renewable energy.

She said she also believes the country needs to divert more money to managing chronic diseases.

On Iraq, Hagan said she wants to see the troops come home, although she said she does support the military and has a nephew who is a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and another who is a Navy Seal.

Born in Shelby, Hagan attended law school at Wake Forest University, where she met her future husband, Chip. After her third child was born, she left her job with a bank to be a full-time mom. She worked as the Guilford County manager for Gov. Hunt’s 1992 and 1996 gubernatorial campaigns. He encouraged her to run for the N.C. Senate in 1998. She has now served five terms there.

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