THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 21, 1994 TAG: 9411210062
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 181 lines
Three weeks ago, Dare County's favorite son, Sen. Marc Basnight, was considered a shoo-in for re-election as leader of the state Senate.
In a meteoric rise, the 47-year-old Manteo contractor was chosen two years ago by fellow Democrats to serve as president pro tempore, the Senate's top post.Today he is one of the most powerful politicians in the state.
But on Nov. 8, voters elected a record number of Republicans to the state Senate, defeated many of the allies who helped Basnight's rise and decimated the Senate leadership.
Now, Basnight faces the toughest challenge of his political career rather than easy re-election as president pro tem.
The battle for the Senate has attracted some of the state's most influential Democrats and Republicans.
The GOP - which for the first time this century will rule the House - now holds 24 of 50 seats in the Senate. For the past two weeks, Republican leaders have worked to either persuade two Democrats to switch parties and usher in GOP control of the Senate or forge a coalition with a breakaway Democratic bloc.
In an interview Friday from Manteo, Basnight said that after a series of meetings last week with Democratic senators, he is confident that he will retain his post.
``I have the votes,'' he said.
But Republican leaders also were confident last week that they would be able to unseat him.
Former Gov. James G. Martin, a Republican who helped orchestrate a coalition of Republicans and Democrats to take control of the House in 1989, attended the Republican caucus in Salisbury Saturday and offered advice to current GOP senators.
``All we need to do is switch two,'' he said in an interview after the meeting. ``There are at least six conservative Democrats in the Senate who might be more comfortable in the Republican Party,'' he said. ``It's a ripe opportunity.''
Basnight is being helped by his long-time ally, Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., the state's most popular Democrat.
In a press conference Friday in Raleigh, Hunt said he believes the Democrats will coalesce behind Basnight for a second term.
``Nobody can be sure until they meet and organize themselves later this month,'' Hunt told the Associated Press. ``Marc Basnight is a strong, good leader. I am confident all Democrats will vote for him.''
Both Republicans and Democrats speculated last week that if Hunt backs Basnight, who cut his teeth a decade ago in Dare County as county chairman of Hunt's gubernatorial campaign, he will be hard to beat.
Behind his youthful good looks and disarming, country-boy demeanor, Basnight is a master of confrontation and deftly wields the power of his office. Generally regarded as one of the state's most tenacious politicians, Basnight is willing to push ahead, even in the face of overwhelming odds.
Many say Basnight will need those characteristics to remain in power.
Some Republicans privately say they have a 50-50 chance of wooing two Democrats to switch parties or forming a coalition and pulling off a coup.
One Senate Democrat scoffed at that idea.
``It makes no sense for any Democrat to (switch allegiance) at this point,'' said Sen. Roy A. Cooper III . ``It's interesting that rumors continue to fly around. People continue to want to look for a story when there is no story or the story is that Marc Basnight will be re-elected.''
But Basnight said he took the threat seriously last week, canceling most of the events he had scheduled throughout the state and the district to stay in Raleigh to meet nearly non-stop with senators individually and in small groups.
His supporters in northeast North Carolina say the region's future depends on their patron winning the power struggle.
``It will be devastating to northeastern North Carolina if he is not re-elected because he's given us the voice in the General Assembly that we've been missing,'' said newly elected state Rep. W.C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr. of Pasquotank County. ``I'd hate to even imagine what it would be like without Marc Basnight.''
Basnight, a conservative Democrat, first won a state Senate seat in 1984 representing Dare and parts of 11 other northeastern counties. Basnight did his homework and, with the help and encouragement of Kitty Hawk oilman Walter R. Davis, Basnight won the approval of the Senate leadership.
In 1990, he flirted with a race for the U.S. Congress against then-incumbent Walter B. Jones, but when several state Senate leaders retired and potential rivals lost, Basnight set his sights on that chamber's leadership.
In 1991 his friend and Senate leader Henson Barnes of Goldsboro named Basnight as appropriations committee chairman and Basnight clinched his lock on the Senate leadership post with his handling of the largest budget deficit since the Great Depression.
As president pro tem of the Senate, Basnight appoints committees and their chairmen, oversees the Senate's daily agenda and presides over the Senate in the absence of the lieutenant governor, who serves as Senate president.
For the past two years, with Democrats occupying 39 of 50 Senate seats, Basnight virtually controlled the fate of any bill in that chamber.
Basnight gets high marks from fellow senators for his open-door policy. Colleagues also cite three principle strengths: his strong leadership, ceaseless energy and ability to unite the Senate - reaching out to Republicans to build a consensus on issues.
``The thing that stands out about Marc Basnight is his ability to work with every member,'' said Sen. Frank Ballance Jr. of Warrenton, whose 2nd Senate District adjoins Basnight's home turf. ``Marc Basnight was working with Republicans when it wasn't the popular thing to do.''
Basnight also gets high ratings from his constituents. They credit him with bringing tens of millions of dollars in state funds to a region whose residents have felt neglected for years by state leaders in Raleigh.
They say Basnight has given northeasterners unprecedented, easy access to the seats of power in state politics and has brought attention to issues of particular concern to eastern North Carolinians.
Said Damon Tatem, a Nags Head tackle shop owner active in fisheries issues: ``Every fisherman in North Carolina and every consumer who eats fish owes him a debt of gratitude. I think the fisheries resource will lose a lot if he doesn't become pro tem again.''
But during the past two years, Basnight has also made some mistakes, according to some colleagues and political observers.
Basnight was involved in a well-publicized scrap with newly elected Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker of Sanford two years ago, when Basnight pressed to grab most of the lieutenant governor's appointive powers. That effort irked many Democratic leaders.
After a temporary - but embarrassing - setback on the House floor late in the 1993 session over a bill to restrict menhaden fishing off the Dare County coast, Basnight and his allies were accused of resorting to extensive arm-twisting to keep the bill alive.
The latest attack on Basnight has come from former state fisheries regulators who claim he used his political power to prevent officers from charging his constituents with fisheries violations. Basnight vigorously denied the attacks.
Most Republicans say that their efforts to try to gain control of the Senate are normal in politics. But other party members say that deposing Basnight, who generally agrees with many of the items on their agenda, isn't a good idea.
``I cannot believe the Republicans would not re-elect Marc Basnight,'' said Rep. Zeno Edwards Jr., R-Beaufort, in one recent interview.
If Basnight is re-elected, his challenges will not end with the upcoming session. Many of his most trusted allies will not return to the Senate in January, and Basnight will have to build a new inner circle.
``A good portion of the active heart of the Senate has been extracted,'' said Sen. Howard Lee, D-Orange, one of about a half dozen of the Senate's top leaders defeated in the recent election.
And although he has worked well with the GOP, the new Senate Republicans are more conservative and more aggressive, and will demand more of a voice.
Basnight will have to juggle conservative GOP demands and those of the more progressive wing of his party while trying to corral a majority that will likely be fluid and shifting on different issues.
``He may have a party majority but he doesn't have an ideological majority,'' said Ran Coble, executive director of the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a Raleigh think-tank.
``He's in a real political pickle,'' said Rep. Sam Ellis, R-Wake, in an interview Saturday. ``Marc Basnight is representing the entire Democratic Party's wishes in North Carolina and the liberal left will be weighing heavy on him to represent them.''
Senate Democrats are scheduled to caucus Nov. 30 in Raleigh to nominate their leaders, but the vote to decide Basnight's fate won't come until the legislature convenes Jan. 25.
Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, was a member of the House in 1989 during the GOP-backed takeover of that chamber. He remembers that some Democrats, who pledged their support to then speaker Liston Ramsey at the party's caucus before the session, changed their minds on the day of the vote.
``We won't know for certain what's going to happen until opening day,'' said Albertson.
This eight-week delay is clearly in the Republican Party's favor, said former-governor Martin.
The Republicans ``don't have to rush anybody,'' Martin said. ``There's a lot of time and a lot of dynamics at work. It doesn't have to happen overnight.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MARC BASNIGHT
Age: 47.
Hometown: Manteo.
Occupation: President, Basnight Construction Co.
Education: Manteo High School.
Family: Wife, Sandy; daughters, Vicki and Caroline.
Political: Member, N.C. Board of Transportation, 1977-83; member of
N.C.
Senate since 1985; president pro tem of the N.C. Senate since 1993.
His most admired Americans: Benjamin Franklin, Orville and
Wilbur Wright, Thomas A. Edison, John F. Kennedy.
Most admired politician: Former N.C. Secretary of State Thad Eure.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY NORTH CAROLINA U.S SENATE by CNB