Orange County’s Joe Hackney, a Chapel Hill attorney who grew up near Silk Hope in Chatham County, was nominated for Speaker by House Democrats in a meeting at the legislature.
“We stand here united and ready to go to work,” Hackney said after being elected on the fourth ballot.
Hugh Holliman of Lexington was named to Hackney’s old post of Majority Leader and William Wainwright of Havelock, co-chair of the House Finance Committee was named Speaker Pro Tem.
In his position as Majority Leader, Hackney often delivered the summary for Democrats in floor debates. Here’s his speech at the end of the debate on the budget last year. Call it the straining-at-gnats speech and it has a funny moment with Paul Stam.
Audio: Floor Speech on the 2006 budget by Joe Hackney
RALEIGH – Democratic members of the state House nominated Rep. Joe Hackney of Orange County tonight to be the next House speaker.
If elected by the full House when it convenes Jan. 24, Hackney would serve a two-year term as speaker. One of the most powerful people in state government, the speaker chooses chairmen for House committees, referees disputes among House members and leads negotiations with the Senate and with Gov. Mike Easley.
Will build this post as things roll in.
Fuller story, but nothing new yet, on the Char-O site.
AP:
Hackney, 61, a lawyer, joined the General Assembly in 1981 and often has been viewed as the chief spokesman for the party’s liberal wing, pushing for a moratorium on the death penalty and public financing of political campaigns.
But Hackey has said his past four years leading Democrats as the party’s leader show he can govern from the middle and push a centrist agenda focusing on education, health care and economic incentives.