by Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
Six months ago, the race for North Carolina Senate District 23, which is comprised of Orange and Person counties, was shaping up as a much different kind of contest than the one on the ballot today.
A field of three — Carrboro Alderman John Herrera and two Orange County commissioners, Moses Carey and Mike Nelson — were preparing for at least a three-way contest to fill the seat vacated by a retiring six-term incumbent, Ellie Kinnaird.
But when Kinnaird, who had long hoped a woman would be in the field vying to replace her, decided not to retire and to go for another term, the field of candidates changed rapidly.
Though gracious about it publicly, Nelson and Herrera were not happy with the turn of events. They opted, however, to stand down, leaving only Carey, who after 23 years in county elective office, said he felt it was time to run, and committed himself to staying in and running to win.
For Kinnaird, who as Carrboro mayor and state senator has won 10 elections in a row, it was a rare political gaff. And though it may have put her in the most competitive race since her razor-thin victory over Sen. Howard Lee in 2000, she is an able campaigner.
So is her opponent. Carey, who has won six straight countywide elections himself, says he’s been lining up support not just among those who’ve pulled for him in the past, but also among voters in Roxboro and other parts of Person County. In an interview this week with The Citizen, Carey said the presidential primary has a number of people coming to events who are new to the community — or at least to local politics.
“People are getting excited,†Carey said of this year’s primary. “It’s evident by the number of people new to the community who are getting involved.â€
With a well-known opponent and a new county to work, Carey’s strategy was to start running early and to focus on his experience not just as a longtime commissioner, but also as CEO of Piedmont Health Services, a job he retired from in 2004. On the stump, he’s pushed his experience as both a businessman and an expert in health care issues.
The major difference between himself and his opponent, he said, “is the expertise I bring to the table.â€
“It’s a lot different when you’ve run a business. There were 100 people [at Piedmont] when I started and 200 when I left,†he said. Because of that, Carey said, he believes he’ll have the ear of his fellow legislators should he be elected.
“The key thing in the Legislature is credibility on the issues,†he said.
Kinnaird said she, too, is running on her wealth of experience — experience in working to keep issues important to Orange County on the front burner in Raleigh. She cites her work in getting a death penalty moratorium along with her ongoing work to reform juvenile justice as two areas where she has led in a Senate that is by many measures far to the right of Orange County politics.
Because of that emphasis, Kinnaird said, an ad for her opponent by former Orange Democratic Party chair Barry Katz, which called her ineffective, really stung.
Partly in response, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, the longtime leader of the Senate and arguably one of the most powerful politicians in the state, sent out a letter of support this week calling Kinnaird “nothing short of fantastic†and saying she is “a respected and admired voice in our legislature.†(see letter to the editor page 7).
Kinnaird said Basnight and other members of the Senate leadership personally encouraged her to run again saying her influence and willingness to raise progressive issues is an important part of keeping the Legislature in balance.
“He said it’s important because I bring up the issues very few others do,†Kinnaird said.
That differs a bit from her first few years in the chamber, when after voting against the Democrat-crafted state budget because of social services cuts, she found herself without a committee chairmanship for a year. Kinnaird said Katz’s charge that by now she should be more influential rings hollow in part because she has since chaired a number of committees, including the Appropriations Committee on Justice and Public Safety, which oversees the third-largest part of the state budget, and in part because getting progressive issues through the Legislature is not simply a case of swinging around one’s clout.
“It takes knowing how the system works,†she said.
Person County battle
Both candidates have been spending plenty of time north of the Orange County line. Carey, who says the Orange County race could be “tight,†hopes to tap into restive voters in Person.
People there, he said, “are ready for a change.â€
He made the pitch to them that he’ll be effective in trying to help that county recover from last year’s closing of the Collins and Aiken plant, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,100 jobs. Economic development and finding ways to improve the quality of schools, Carey said, are the main things on the minds of Person voters.
Kinnaird said she’s spent at least one day a week in Person County since the county was added to her district in 2004. Economic development, she said, is a key issue there, with a longtime push for widening U.S. 501 being the lynchpin to many in the county.
“I feel like I have a good connection with the county,†she said. The Legislature has been open to the widening, she said, which would eliminate the highway’s two-lane stretch between Roxboro and the Virginia border. She’s pledged to work hard to convey the need to the state Department of Transportation, which has not been supportive of the project.
Home stretch
Both candidates are keeping hectic schedules, especially with early voting already in full swing.
Kinnaird said that for the next couple of weeks she’ll continue to remind voters of her experience and ability to move legislation. If returned to Raleigh, she said, she’ll make fixing the mental health crisis a top priority. She also wants the state to pursue a fairer deal for state workers, including exploring collective bargaining for state employees. And with state revenue projects dropping like a stone in recent weeks, much of the battle in Raleigh, she said, could be defensive — making sure vital programs don’t get cut.
Carey said that in addition to making the rounds of forums, meetings and campaign events, his next few weeks will include getting more volunteers assembled to work the early-voting polling places, reminding voters that there’s more to this year’s primary than the presidential preference.
“We want to make sure people vote the whole ballot,†he said.
He’ll also continue to get his ads and flyers in front of voters. “We’re going to step up our visibility in the media.â€
On the Web:
Carey For Senate
www.careyforsenate.com
Ellie Kinnard
elliekinnaird.org/