THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605120163
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Long : 261 lines
Marc Basnight is on the move.
The Manteo Democrat, it seems, has been running hard from the moment he arrived in Raleigh 12 years ago after serving on the state Transportation Board.
Basnight's rise to the Senate's most powerful position has been, in a sense, amazing. In a body heavily populated by lawyers and graduates of UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Duke and N.C. State, the Manteo contractor's formal education ended when he graduated in 1966 from Manteo High School.
But in a recent survey by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, Basnight, president pro tem of the Senate, was chosen the Senate's most effective member.
His legislative colleagues on both sides of the aisle say the reason he gets things done is simple.
``He's effective because he cares,'' said Sen. Beverly Perdue, D-Craven. ``It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, little or big, black or white, he treats everyone the same. He believes that what he's doing is in the best interest of the State of North Carolina. He honestly doesn't think about the political ramifications. He does things because he believes they're right.''
Her opinions are echoed by Basnight's colleagues, by his hometown pals who share coffee with him every morning he's in Manteo, and by shopkeepers, gas station attendants and cafe cooks on the highways of the state.
He is known as a man who gets along with everyone - powerful executives, admiring waitresses, even reporters.
He often works 20 hours a day, does most of the driving as he races around the state drumming up support for other Democrats, and put 45,000 miles on his car last year.
``He's a whirlwind,'' says his press secretary, Bret Kinsella. ``He has such a diverse base of interests - education, the environment - that he's sometimes unpredictable. But he's always moving.''
``I was on my way here and stopped at a gas station,'' Basnight said last week as he prepared for the opening of the General Assembly on Monday, when he'll turn 49.
``And I was talking to the guy who worked there about the presidential race. The guy said, `Bill's gonna get four more years because he's gonna get me an extra 90 cents an hour.'
``That's when you find out how much issues mean to people. That 90 cents really matters to that guy in the gas station.''
With all this movement, all this activity, it would seem Marc Basnight was born to be a politician. But before his first run for the Senate, Basnight contends, he was a reluctant politician.
``I never had a passion to seek political office,'' Basnight said. ``I wanted to be a successful businessman, provide for my family and give something back to the community. But being in business and living on the Outer Banks in my time of growing up, I quickly realized that the greatest contribution I could make would be to influence change as it pertains to attitudes and perceptions Raleigh holds about northeastern North Carolina. To touch and reach Raleigh, I have to touch and respond to the people who live in my district.''
The Dare County of Marc Basnight's youth was North Carolina's sparsely developed outback, where fishing provided a living for most of the residents. A few cottages began to pop up on the Outer Banks in the years after World War II, when he was a boy. Basnight's hometown of Manteo was a hamlet, with dirt streets and a few family businesses. The waters of the ocean and the sounds provided a livelihood for adults, and joy for youngsters.
Reared by his mother, Cora Mae, Basnight grew up in a family of seven children.
``Mom and Dad didn't live together,'' Basnight said. ``They separated before I really knew Dad. But my Mom did an excellent job of keeping our family together. We lived in a house with one room for the boys and one room for the girls. I slept in the room with my Mom until I was 16. When my brother Saint went into the Army, I got the room to myself.''
Basnight would later come to know his father and work in his construction business. But it was his mother who had the biggest influence growing up.
``It doesn't take a lot to be successful,'' Basnight said. ``My mother taught us that material things were not as important as taking care of your family, and doing what was right. My mother taught me the joy of living simply. We lived close to the land. We gathered slop for the hogs, and killed hogs in the fall. It was a happy time.''
While Basnight the adult was a reluctant candidate, his youth was not without a political memory.
``I remember in 1960 putting out signs for John Fitzgerald Kennedy,'' Basnight said.
Basnight also campaigned actively for Raleigh Democrat Mel Broughton in his unsuccessful bid for governor.
``Marc worked really hard for Mel,'' said Basnight's brother-in-law, Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr. ``After that race, he said he'd never get involved in politics again.''
But Basnight would run another day. Basnight's political career began its rise in 1977, largely with the help of three men, the late Manteo pharmacist and businessman Keith Fearing, oil man Walter Davis, who has a home on the Outer Banks, and Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.
``Keith was a gem of a man,'' Basnight said. ``He wanted to see people succeed. Keith believed in giving people a hand up, not a handout. Keith understood that everybody in their life at some time or another has difficulty, and sometimes we have to be willing to help and understand the problems of others. That's what I hope this office is about.''
Fearing, who died in 1995, was Basnight's earliest political mentor.
``I really miss Keith,'' Basnight said.
The second, and perhaps most controversial of Basnight's political influences has been Elizabeth City native Walter Davis. Basnight's critics claim that Davis, who owns a multimillion dollar Texas oil concern in Midland, controls the senator by pumping big bucks into his campaigns. But charges of undue influence have never been substantiated. For his part, Basnight downplays Davis' role.
``Walter Davis gave me a vision, and helped me understand that there's a larger world out there,'' Basnight said. ``I look up to Mr. Davis a great deal. He's done a great deal for education in North Carolina, and helped give a lot of kids whose families can't afford it get a chance at an education. He also helps a lot of people who are in need.
``But he's never asked me to vote a certain way on a bill, and never wanted anything for himself. In fact, we've had disagreements on philosophy and policy many times.''
Basnight's biggest political push came from Hunt, who appointed Basnight to the powerful Board of Transportation in 1977.
``What I saw in Marc Basnight was an energy and a burning desire to change things,'' Hunt said. ``He'd fight as hard as he could for something he believes in.''
After six years on the board, Basnight ran successfully for the Senate, and is unopposed this year as he seeks his seventh term.
Basnight is known by his colleagues in the legislature as a consensus builder. In a place where the ability to get along with others is critical to success, Basnight thrives.
``I remember when I first met him, I liked him,'' said Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland. ``He really gets along well with people. And he really took to the process of how things get done here. Some people come here, and never grasp it. But for him, it was a natural thing.
``And it may sound hokey, but he does what he thinks is best for the state.''
Basnight said he was never intimidated by the Senate.
``I don't believe it ever bothered me,'' he said. ``I've always felt that I was no better and no worse than anyone else. I just wanted the opportunity to contribute, and make things better.''
Perdue, co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Basnight, a former chairman of the committee, has managed to accomplished things not often seen in Raleigh.
``When he was chairman of the appropriations, he got his first two budgets through with virtually no change,'' she said. ``That's virtually unheard of in Raleigh.''
Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker, the presiding officer in the Senate, says Basnight's strength is the ability to see all points of view.
``He puts his views on the table, and wants other to do the same,'' he said. ``From there, he builds consensus.''
That ability has impressed his Republican counterpart in the House, Speaker Harold Brubaker, R-Randolph.
``He's an absolutely great guy to work with,'' Brubaker said. ``He and I are both small-business men, and we share the same philosophy on things. We disagree on matters of policy. But we always seem to work things out.''
Brubaker said the solid working relationship began the day the GOP took control in the House.
``It started from day one,'' Brubaker said. ``We have an arrangement now, that whenever he calls me or comes by, I drop what I'm doing to talk to him. And he does the same for me.''
Brubaker said the two have never engaged in a heated word, either on the floor or behind closed doors.
``We've never gone at each other's throats,'' Brubaker said. ``We have disagreed on issues. But if there's a big partisan fight going on, we can sit down and talk and work things out.''
Brubaker pointed to an example.
``We had an 18-bill budget, and the co-chairs of the Senate and House committees couldn't agree,'' Brubaker said. ``Marc and I sat down, and in about 10 minutes, we had worked things out. He's a bottom-line guy. He knows how far he can go, and he understands how to get consensus. That's how he's accomplished what he has.''
Basnight, however, downplays his role as a conciliator.
``I think we all have that ability,'' Basnight said.``Someone has to bring things to a consensus. I think that's a part of being part of the leadership. I don't mind changing positions, if I believe the position I'm taking turns out to be wrong. We have to be flexible.''
But on certain matters, Basnight can be a bulldog. A strong supporter of funding for education, those closest to him say that they've ``seen the hair stand up on the back of his neck'' when he hits a bureaucratic roadblock.
``Some stupid bureaucratic rule that serves no purpose makes me mad,'' he said. ``If you want to accomplish some goal, and there's some roadblock that keeps you from doing what's right, that's bad. That's not what government should be.''
Basnight is also angry when some of the state's poorer counties don't get their share of educational funding.
``I don't think the children of Tyrrell or Hyde County should be denied money for their education because of where they live. We should give every kid in this state a chance for a quality education.''
Basnight regrets that he never went to college, and he has made education the focus of much of his legislative agenda.
``I feel bad about my lack of formal education,'' he said. ``I'm humbled to be where I am. I don't think I've done anything special.''
And he's still awed at times by the company he keeps. He returned earlier this year from a speech in Asheville and told friends that he was proud to speak in a building where three presidents had been heard.
Basnight supporters believe he has a natural ability to lead, an uncanny knack of being able to connect with people, and to get things done.
``He's the hottest politician in North Carolina,'' said Owens, a 40-year veteran of politics and the governor's regional representative.
``In four years he'll be the next governor of the state of North Carolina. He has the gift. He's definitely governor material. Marc's concerned about his lack of formal education. But I believe people in the state are tired of business as usual. They want someone who will get things done, and he has,''
Owens has watched Basnight mature as a political figure.
``When he first went to the Senate, he would get a lot of the old-timers who had been there for a while, grab them by the arm, and tell them a story, and they'd love it. Eventually, those folks in the leadership took him under their wing,'' Owens said.
Owens said that until Basnight emerged as a leader in the Senate, eastern North Carolina was a political wasteland, with little influence in Raleigh.
``It's not just a characterization, it's a fact,'' Owens said. ``I've been in politics and government for more than 40 years. And eastern North Carolina has only emerged in the last six to eight years. And it's because of Marc Basnight. Some people try to make a big deal out of his ties to Walter Davis. Mr. Davis has backed him well, and I'm not talking about money. I don't know anything about that. But Marc Basnight has done this on his own.''
Basnight, however, has downplayed his role.
``Nobody ever does anything on his own,'' Basnight said.
Basnight says he has no interest in higher office, though at one time, he considered a run for Congress.
``I'm happy in the Senate,'' Basnight said. ``There are great people here, and I really enjoy it. I don't have any interest in being anywhere else. And I'll be here as long as the people of my district want me to be. I don't have some grand plan for higher office. I like it here.''
But with major contributors like NationsBank, textile executives Charles Hayes and William Armfield of Greensboro, and others, some say the issue may be out of his hands.
``There are a lot of big hitters in this state who believe that he'll be governor. The people like Charlie Hayes or the CEO of NationsBank are governor-makers in this state. They like his leadership, and his ability to get things done,'' Owens said.
On a recent afternoon in Raleigh, following a 30-minute meeting with Hunt, Basnight walked through the corridors of the Capitol, shaking hands with security guards, interns, schoolchildren. If there was a hand to shake, he shook it.
As he stepped into the midday sun, Basnight pointed to the street in front of the historic, gray building.
``This is my meeting zone,'' Basnight said. ``I come out here, sometimes for 15 minutes, sometimes for an hour, and just talk to people, anybody that comes by. That's where I get a feel for what people think.''
As he walked down the stairs, he was asked if he ever slowed down.
``I take deep breaths sometimes,'' he said. ``But I feel that we're only given this opportunity, and put in the places we are for only a short time. I'm very humbled by that. And because of that, we owe it to the people we serve to do the very best we can. There's not time to stop.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Sen. Marc Basnight leads participants in a benefit walk for the
March of Dimes on Roanoke Island last May.
Graphic
Color photo
MARC BASNIGHT
President pro tem of the Senate
Home: Manteo
Education: Manteo High School, 1966
Political experience:
Board of Transportation, 1977-1983
State Senate, 1984-present
A survey by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research
rated Basnight the Senate's most effective member.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY NORTH CAROLINA STATE
SENATE by CNB