State legislator joins Senate race
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
Democrat Hagan hopes to battle Dole
Rob Christensen, Staff Writer State Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro announced Tuesday that she will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole next year, saying she would be a voice against continuing the war in Iraq.
Hagan, a 54-year-old lawyer, said she would bring a fresh perspective to Washington that would be independent of powerful special interests.
"We need accountability to end the war in Iraq, so we can reinvest those resources here at home," Hagan said in a video announcement on her Web site. "How can Washington reject health care for 123,000 children while continuing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on this mismanaged war?"
Hagan had earlier this month announced she would not run for the U.S. Senate. But she changed her mind after a concerted recruitment campaign led by former Gov. Jim Hunt and New York Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Hagan is particularly close to Hunt, having been co-chairwoman of his 1992 and 1996 gubernatorial campaigns in Guilford County.
The Democratic leadership had tried to recruit state Rep. Grier Martin of Raleigh but switched to Hagan when Martin decided not to run.
Two Democrats have already announced their candidacy. Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill investment banker, said he plans to run. Also in the race is John Hendrix, a graphic artist from Cary.
Hagan said in an interview that she had talked to Neal and that both agreed to run a civil primary campaign. Hagan said Neal’s announcement last week that he is gay "didn’t have one thing to do with my decision."
It was clear that Hagan was the Democrats’ anointed candidate, and she won praise Tuesday from Democratic Gov. Mike Easley.
"Kay Hagan’s been a real champion for health care, child care, education as well as law enforcement, economic development," Easley said. "She’ll be a strong candidate. I think she’ll be as strong a candidate for the U.S. Senate as is in the country."
Asked about Neal, Easley said: "I don’t know him. I don’t know a thing about him." (more…)
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