The announcement by NC Sen. Kay Hagan (D-Guilford) that she will seek the US Senate seat currently held by Republican US Sen. Elizabeth Dole comes three weeks after a staffer confirmed for YES! Weekly the accuracy of an Associated Press story stating that she would not run for US Senate.
In the meantime, Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal entered the race. Neal is running on a platform of fiscal conservatism and ending the war in Iraq, but what generated the most attention was Neal’s frank and unapologetic admission that he’s gay.
Here’s what Neal’s website says about his stance on Iraq:
In broad strokes: “Our troops have done everything we asked — and I don’t want to see any more of them die.”
The bold position: “It’s time to bring them home to the heroes’ welcome they have earned, to rejoin their families, resume their careers, and be part of their communities again.”
The caveat: “To guarantee we don’t have to send them back in a few years, we need to redeploy small strategic units in the region to counter terrorism and train Iraqi security forces.”
So why did Hagan change her mind and decide to join the fray?
“I’ve been inundated by requests from Democrats and Republicans throughout North Carolina to reconsider my position,” she told me in a phone conversation today. “I think that people don’t see her and don’t know what she’s done for them. The mood around the state is that we need change. I want to be that fresh voice in Washington.”
Hagan is critical of Bush’s handling of the Iraqi war — as are virtually all Democrats and most Republican these days.
“We need accountability to end the war in Iraq so we can reinvest those resources here at home,” she says in her official announcement. “How can Washington reject healthcare for 123,000 North Carolina children, while continuing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on this mismanaged war?”
Hagan indicates that she does not favor Congress cutting off funding for the war.
She told me: “First and foremost, the president got us in the war, and it’s up to him to decide when to bring the troops home. I come from a military family, and I want to emphasize that I want to be sure that the men and women in the military have all the equipment they need.”
Hagan stresses her political stewardship as a state lawmaker.
“I’ve spent nine years in Raleigh,” she says. “I think I bring accountability to the budgetary process, and I’m a results-oriented leader. I want to bring those qualities to Washington on behalf of the people of North Carolina.”
Should anyone wonder (as I did) whether Hagan’s running to keep her Democratic rival, Jim Neal, from winning, she transfers the focus to the finish line — Election Day 2008.
“I am running against Liddy Dole,” Hagan says, “so that Kay Hagan can be the next US senator from North Carolina.”
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