New speaker works hard, shoots straight

'Liberal' tag didn't defeat him

When the state House speaker's race became a free-for-all shortly after the November election, many were ready to write off Rep. Joe Hackney's candidacy.

Too liberal and anti-business, they said. Not a proven fundraiser. He has bruised too many egos in debates on the House floor.

But there was no suspense when the legislative session kicked off Wednesday at high noon. Hackney, 61, an Orange County Democrat, had quietly and methodically sewn up the job.

Democratic members say Hackney won the job by being himself -- hard-working, knowledgeable, accessible and beyond reproach.

"It's his ability to listen, his ability to take action on what he's heard, his inclusiveness and just a fundamental integrity," said Rep. Ray Rapp, a Mars Hill Democrat. "He's an institution within an institution."

Hackney also succeeded in a dangerous task that could have dashed any hopes he had for the speaker's post. He co-wrote and steered the numerous ethics, lobbying and campaign finance reforms that legislators passed last session in response to several scandals involving former House Speaker Jim Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat. But Hackney, as majority leader, never used Black as a poster child, nor did he turn a deaf ear to those who had concerns about how the reforms might entrap them.

Hackney choked up a bit as he took the gavel for the first time, with his wife, Betsy, and sons Will, 19, and Dan, 23, at his side. He was sworn in with his hand on a tattered black Bible that his mother gave him 51 years ago. He said later that his emotions ran a little high as he surveyed the crowd and saw the many mentors and colleagues who cheered his election to the top post in the House, where he has been a member for 26 years.

"People were wanting me to do well and succeed, and I really appreciated that," Hackney said.

It was one of the few times that Hackney strayed a bit from his public persona. He is usually all business, and often avoids eye contact as he roams the halls of the legislative building. He does not suffer fools well.

"I told him one time his warm and pleasing personality was going to take him far one day," former Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker, a good friend, said jokingly in an interview last year. "He called me a name." The two served together in the House.

But few lawmakers have been as effective in moving legislation over the years. Early in his career, Hackney showed a talent for putting together legislation and making a case for it on the House floor. Colleagues say he learned how to build support for his bills and made compromises if they kept the spirit of his legislation alive. He did not hold grudges when he failed, but he wouldn't give up, either. He kept trying in subsequent sessions until enough people came around to his point of view.

'Smart, efficient'

"Joe's a workhorse," said state Sen. Martin L. Nesbitt Jr., an Asheville Democrat who also served alongside Hackney in the House. "Very efficient, very smart. You could trust him to do any job you had."

The son of a Chatham County dairy farmer, Hackney first went to N.C. State University. But he realized his interests were in the law and transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees there and worked as a prosecutor before forming a small private practice in Chapel Hill that he and Robert Epting still maintain.

He and his older brother, Jack, still work the family farm, where they now raise about 75 beef cattle. Last session, while in budget negotiations, Hackney got a call from a neighbor telling him to round up his cattle, which had broken through a fence and were milling in the road. His brother bailed him out.