THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 26, 1994 TAG: 9411260091
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Long : 184 lines
Two years ago this month, even before he was sworn in as the state's No. 2 official, Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker was drawn into a test of wills with state Senate leaders - a test that set the tone of his first few months in office.
Today, as one of the few remaining Democratic leaders in the General Assembly, Wicker faces new challenges in promoting his progressive agenda while working with an increasingly conservative Republican membership.
In late 1992, the lieutenant governor's office was the target of public efforts by state Senate leaders to limit its power. Discussions ranged from usurping remaining appointive duties to doing away with the office of lieutenant governor altogether.
Many supporters of Manteo Democrat Marc Basnight, leader of the debate on the lieutenant governor's office, said at the time that the mild-mannered Wicker would be no match for the aggressive, tenacious Basnight. Basnight was about to be nominated president pro tem of the Senate, and as such he would share leadership with the lieutenant governor.
But after the legislature convened in 1993, the attacks on Wicker's powers died down and he went on to finish the first half of his term with high marks for his performance.
``All of that discussion . . . was the result of nervousness of certain members of the Senate leadership about me . . . coming from the House,'' Wicker said in a recent interview from his ornate office in the state capitol, just down the hall from Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'s office and one floor below the rooms where his father, Shelton, served in the state House.
``Not having any defined parameters has been an advantage to me,'' Wicker said. ``I've had the latitude to set my own agenda, working in tandem with the governor and working with the leadership of the General Assembly from whence I came.''
Wicker, 42, of Sanford is among the baby-boom politicians who were part of the nation's vast social upheaval in the 1960s and '70s and who came to power in federal and state government in 1992.
Wicker's classic good looks and athletic build, reminiscent of his days on Sanford's Central High School championship football teams, make the youngest lieutenant governor in recent years seem even younger than he is.
His friends say Wicker's pleasant demeanor belies an ability to focus on issues and causes his opponents to underestimate his strong political will.
Under the state constitution, the lieutenant governor is the Senate's highest-ranking officer. Wicker presides over the Senate and votes in that chamber in case of a tie. The Senate's operating rules also give the lieutenant governor appointive powers for various state commissions and governing bodies.
But largely, the role of the office is undefined.
``I don't think it's the office that makes the person. It's the person that makes the office,'' Wicker said.
He worked for the last two years to carve out a niche for himself, with assignments that carry as much political risk as political reward.
During this time, Wicker took the lead in developing a proposal for government to help groups of small businesses form pools to buy health insurance at lower rates and with better benefits than otherwise available - the only major piece of health insurance reform approved by state lawmakers in 1993.
Wicker was also the major force behind legislation to lower the limit for blood alcohol content from .10 to .08. The legislation prompted a working relationship between Wicker and Basnight, who holds the Senate's second-highest position as president pro-tem.
As lieutenant governor, Wicker has chaired the State Community College Board and spearheaded the selection of a new system president to replace retiring president and former Gov. Robert Scott.
He has headed the State Health Plan Purchasing Alliance Board, the health care panel he helped create; he heads a local government council created by Hunt; and he serves as a member of the State Board of Education, one of the lieutenant governor's few positions specified in the state constitution.
Much of Wicker's political philosophy can be traced back to his childhood as the son on a state legislator in Sanford, in North Carolina's Sandhills.
Today home to about 20,000 people, Sanford was incorporated in 1874, mostly by Civil War veterans drawn to the area by the railroads. Known as the brick-making capital of the world, Sanford is also home to some of the nation's best-known industries, such as Coty cosmetics.
Its streets bear the names of its prominent families: Horner Boulevard, for the family that publishes the local newspaper; McIver Street, for the owner of a downtown store.
Not surprisingly, Wicker's family is honored with two streets - Wicker, for his father's family, and Burns, for his mother's. The two families have produced several county commissioners and civic leaders.
At age 9, Wicker sat in the gallery of the state capitol building in Raleigh, then home of the state legislature, and watched his father, who served in the state House for 14 years, take an unpopular stand.
The elder Wicker supported an unpopular sales tax on food, because proceeds from the tax would be used to better the state's public school system.
The younger Wicker will continue to face challenges over the next two years. Since his election as lieutenant governor, Wicker has been excluded from a caucus of Democratic senators, a continuing sign of friction with some members of that chamber.
Senate Democrats are scheduled to gather next week in Raleigh to nominate their leaders and plan strategy for the next two years - and for the second time, Wicker has been excluded.
And the threats to Wicker's appointive powers are expected to continue.
Basnight said this week that this month's gain by Republicans and the Democrats' narrow majority in the Senate will not deter his continuing effort to strip Wicker of his remaining appointive powers.
``I haven't changed in my belief that those powers belong to the president pro tem,'' Basnight said. ``Nothing has changed. The election hasn't changed anything.''
In 1989, when Lt. Gov. Jim Gardner became the first Republican to hold the job this century, the Senate stripped the office of its powers to assign members and bills to committees and to make some appointments. Most of those powers had been given to the lieutenant governor under Hunt's tenure in that office from 1972-76.
The senators argued in 1989 that the lieutenant governor, as a member of the executive branch, should not have the power to organize one wing of the legislative branch.
For several months in 1992, Basnight lobbied his fellow legislators for support of a proposal to strip the lieutenant governor's remaining appointive powers and transfer them to the Senate president pro tem.
Basnight maintained then - and does now - that until the appointment powers of the Senate president pro tem equal those of the speaker of the House, the Senate post will not be considered as powerful or have the respect that the speaker's office does.
But after meeting resistance from Democrats in the legislature, including many in the House, where Wicker served for 10 years, efforts to strip Wicker of his remaining appointive powers and eliminate the office altogether were dropped.
Wicker said that while he may have taken over the office of lieutenant governor at a low point in its legislative power, his other responsibilities have given him the opportunity to make more of a difference in people's lives than if he had concentrated on the legislature.
``There's a difference between power and effectiveness. I'd rather be effective and not have power,'' he said. ``To make a difference in the lives of citizens, you have to be effective. That's much more important than any power.''
But Wicker also said he would continue to oppose efforts to take away his remaining appointive powers. ``They're extremely important, because these boards set policy in a variety of areas,'' he said. ``I want to make sure that a progressive voice is heard on those commissions.''
Some political observers believe that the recent Republican gains in the legislature will put additional strains on the Basnight-Wicker relationship.
``Hunt, Basnight and Wicker will be a political triumvirate,'' said Ran Coble, executive director of the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a Raleigh think tank. ``Senator Basnight and Lieutenant Governor Wicker will be very weary of each other, and there are likely to be a lot of meetings between all of them.''
But Basnight will increasingly need Wicker - his use of the gavel to control debate and ability to break ties - during the next two years, some observers say.
As lieutenant governor, Wicker hopes to continue his focus on economic development, juvenile justice and education issues as part of his progressive agenda.
And as the last generally regarded progressive Democrat in a leadership position in the General Assembly, Wicker says he's willing to take stands on issues that may be unpopular with the more conservative factions of the legislature.
``I'm heeding the message that was given by the voters. But I maintain a progressive, forward-thinking philosophy,'' Wicker said. ``That's the kind of person I am. That's the kind of person I am going to continue to be.''
``My feeling is I'll just take each issue on a case-by-case basis,'' he said. ``But I'm going to stand up for what I think is right. I will, when I feel like I'm right, stand alone.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Wicker
DENNIS A. WICKER
AGE: 42
HOME: Sanford
OCCUPATION: Lawyer.
EDUCATION: Phi Beta Kappa, bachelor's degree from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1974; Wake Forest Law School,
1978.
FAMILY: wife, Alisa, and two sons.
POLITICAL: State representative, 1981-1992; elected lieutenant
governor, 1992; chairman, State Board of Community Colleges;
chairman, State Health Plan Purchasing Alliance Board; chairman,
Small Business Council; chairman, N.C. Local Government Partnership
Council; chairman, Governor's Task Force on
Driving while Impaired, member, state Board of Education.
MOST ADMIRED AMERICANS: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr.,
Abraham Lincoln and former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan, D-Texas.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE
by CNB