Hackney poised to become speaker

State Democrats choose reformer

State Rep. Joe Hackney, a Chapel Hill lawyer viewed as a liberal turned centrist, won the Democratic nomination Wednesday night to be House speaker, making him likely to win that powerful post in two weeks.

Hackney, 61, won among a Democratic caucus divided by race, geography and ideology over the question of who should succeed Jim Black in one of state government's most powerful positions.

Democrats hold a 68-52 House majority, which means Hackney is expected to be elected speaker when the legislature convenes Jan. 24.

"I'll make the House function fairly, openly and with deliberation," Hackney said after the vote.

The speaker switch will be the first change among state government's top three jobs -- governor, speaker and president pro tem of the Senate -- since 2001. If elected, Hackney will be gatekeeper for half the legislature, determining what bills reach the House floor for a vote. He will name the chairmen of influential House committees and members of state boards and commissions.

A passing of the gavel from Black to Hackney would mark a sharp shift in leadership style, from a man surrounded by ethics scandals to one who shepherded legislation to clean them up.

Black, 71, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, rewarded allies with tax dollars for pet projects in their districts and held power through fundraising and assembling backroom coalitions of liberals and conservatives.

Hackney won with 41 votes on the fourth ballot Wednesday after about two hours of discussion. He defeated Reps. Jim Crawford of Oxford, Dan Blue of Raleigh, Drew Saunders of Huntersville and Mickey Michaux of Durham. Hackney would enter the office with a more liberal core of support; he has overseen sweeping ethics laws that imposed strict new rules on campaign donations, gifts and financial disclosure.

Democrats held their nominating contest in an upstairs auditorium at the Legislative Building in a closed session, which is routine, but the room's glass doors provided a partial view of the speeches and vote-counting.

Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican and House minority leader, said, "I'm very optimistic that this will be a break from the past four years."

A cleanup job

Hackney, if he prevails in the legislature in two weeks, must erase the smudges left on that office: Black's admitted misjudgments in letting his political director also work as a lobbyist, findings by the state board of elections that Black broke the law and continuing state and federal criminal investigations of his office.

Black elevated his office's already potent force with money and time. With the exception of Speaker Liston Ramsey in the 1980s, the office typically changed hands every two to four years. Black's eight years, including two with a Republican co-speaker, gave him the clout of an entrenched incumbent.

He used that to scoop up campaign donations that he spread around to solidify his support.

Black was narrowly re-elected in November and announced in December that he would not run for speaker again.

House Democrats on Wednesday also nominated Reps. William Wainwright of Craven County as speaker pro tem, and Hugh Holliman of Davidson County as majority leader.

Election not assured

Hackney won the Democratic nod after weeks of jockeying by as many as seven candidates, some of whom angled for the job before Black announced he wouldn't pursue it again.

Hackney's election is not assured. Though his party has the majority, a handful of Democrats formed a coalition with Republicans in 1999 and attempted to elect Blue, even though Black had won the party's nomination. The coalition failed by only one vote.

(Mark Johnson is a reporter for The Charlotte Observer.)