THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300356
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY RONALD L. SPEER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: 121 lines
His tailored, deep-blue suit and polished black shoes matched the formal garb of his colleagues from the big cities.
He stood ramrod straight when the state and national colors were carried into the Senate chambers. He bowed when a Baptist preacher prayed that he and the 49 other senators would do good things this session.
And for 16 minutes he held the attention of the overflowing crowd as he outlined his dreams for North Carolina after unanimously winning a third term as speaker pro tem of the Senate, which politicians say makes him the second most powerful Democrat in the state.
The rest of the day he was the Marc Basnight that his friends and kinfolk on the Outer Banks and Elizabeth City and Tyrrell County and Currituck know and love.
``Hi, I'm Marc Basnight,'' he greeted a new sergeant-at-arms, one of the few strangers he encountered at the opening of the 1997 legislative session. He kidded old friends, hugged their wives or slapped their husbands on the back, called their kids by name and flashed his trademark smile.
He could have been working the crowd at his Nags Head restaurant or a cafe in Columbia in a T-shirt, jeans and sockless Topsiders.
But the crowd in the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh included many of the state's movers and shakers who will decide the fate of classrooms and colleges, the purity of the state's rivers and sounds and seas, the opportunities for the poor and the handicapped and the elderly, the demand for cleaner campaigns, and the roads and bridges and buildings that could attract businesses and provide needed jobs.
Those same power brokers will help decide who will be the next governor when James B. Hunt Jr. steps down in four years. And Marc Basnight, the Democrat from Dare County, is on the early list of candidates, although he just grins when the question is raised.
There's no question that he ruled the Senate on Wednesday, although Lt. Gov. Dennis A. Wicker is the official leader of the august body that drifted to their seats at the noon opening to a violinist's regal melodies. Wicker spoke for four minutes to start off the session.
Basnight talked for 16 minutes, and although he had no written text, he clearly knew what he wanted to say, never stumbling as he called on his colleagues to help make North Carolina a place ``where everyone is given an equal opportunity to become what they want to become.''
Sandy Basnight and one of their daughters, Caroline, sat in his seat while he spoke. Two of his brothers, Saint Basnight of Manteo and E.J. Basnight of Pennsylvania, were in a pack of fans seated in a special Basnight corner on the floor. Six Dare County commissioners were there, along with other local officials from the 1st District. Many joined Basnight at a reception honoring Sen. Frank Balance of Gatesville, a Basnight lieutenant chosen unamimously as deputy president pro tem.
After visiting his office that is punctuated with photographs of the Outer Banks, and talking with his seven-person staff that occupies a wall wing of the Legislative Building, many well-wishers saluted Basnight at an evening party marking the beginning of his seventh Senate term.
He's picked up polish since he came to the Senate as a barefoot Don Quixote tilting at windmills in 1985, say legislative oldtimers, particularly as a speaker. But his friends contend he's still the same man - and nobody brags about being a critic of the genial legislator who can be a very tough negotiator.
``I've known Marc for 20 years, and he is still is open and himself,'' said Sen. David Doyle of Gadsden. ``With Marc, what you see is what you get.
``What got him to where he is? His way with people. If he could get one-on-one with everybody in the state, he'd get every vote.''
A predecessor, Monk Harrington, who was president pro tem for 26 years, said Basnight's political clout ``has been the most important thing that has happened to northeast North Carolina, on the roads, in the medical college at Greenville, everywhere.''
But a stack of hundreds and hundreds of cans of food brought at Basnight's request to give to the hungry was a reminder that there is still lots to do in North Carolina.
``Our people want us to build a strong future for a growing state,'' Basnight told the senators.
``That means promising ALL our children an excellent education. It means taking care of our rivers and our land. It means building the infrastructure that brings in good jobs. It means caring for our people who are the most vulnerable: children, the elderly, the ill, those who are challenged by mental and physical disabilities. It means campaign finance reform.''
People who have spent much time in coffee shops or hardware stores or gathering places in the northeast would have recognized the cadence, and would have heard the words.
Basnight has been warming up for months with his less-worldly friends back home, asking for ideas.
Now he has to convince his fellow senators and their constituents in their home towns that it's time to march.
One of his supporters, Corolla developer Buck Thornton, is ready. He's designed a bumper sticker that says: ``BASNIGHT - 2000.''
The next governor will be chosen in 2000. ILLUSTRATION: Basnight is re-elected
Senate members Wednesday unanimously re-elected Dare County Democrat
Marc Basnight to a third term as president pro tem of the Senate,
which politicians say makes him the second most powerful Democrat in
the state. At left, Basnight puts on his dress shoes in his
Legislative Building office as family members and legislators wait
for him to be sworn in. At right, Basnight extends a hand to a North
Carolina Supreme Court justice after Basnight's re-election.
[Color Photos]
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
As his daughter Caroline, above, holds the Bible, Senate President
Pro Tem Marc Basnight takes the oath of office Wednesday in Raleigh.
At right, Basnight gets an embrace from his wife, Sandy, after
taking the oath as the 1997 North Carolina legislative session
opened.