State legislator joins Senate race

Democrat Hagan hopes to battle Dole

State Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro announced Tuesday that she will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole next year, saying she would be a voice against continuing the war in Iraq.

Hagan, a 54-year-old lawyer, said she would bring a fresh perspective to Washington that would be independent of powerful special interests.

"We need accountability to end the war in Iraq, so we can reinvest those resources here at home," Hagan said in a video announcement on her Web site. "How can Washington reject health care for 123,000 children while continuing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on this mismanaged war?"

Hagan had earlier this month announced she would not run for the U.S. Senate. But she changed her mind after a concerted recruitment campaign led by former Gov. Jim Hunt and New York Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Hagan is particularly close to Hunt, having been co-chairwoman of his 1992 and 1996 gubernatorial campaigns in Guilford County.

The Democratic leadership had tried to recruit state Rep. Grier Martin of Raleigh but switched to Hagan when Martin decided not to run.

Two Democrats have already announced their candidacy. Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill investment banker, said he plans to run. Also in the race is John Hendrix, a graphic artist from Cary.

Hagan said in an interview that she had talked to Neal and that both agreed to run a civil primary campaign. Hagan said Neal's announcement last week that he is gay "didn't have one thing to do with my decision."

It was clear that Hagan was the Democrats' anointed candidate, and she won praise Tuesday from Democratic Gov. Mike Easley.

"Kay Hagan's been a real champion for health care, child care, education as well as law enforcement, economic development," Easley said. "She'll be a strong candidate. I think she'll be as strong a candidate for the U.S. Senate as is in the country."

Asked about Neal, Easley said: "I don't know him. I don't know a thing about him."

Neal won't drop out

Neal said he planned to stay in the race and would focus on getting his message out to the voters and defeating Dole.

He said he was unconcerned that leading Democrats were supporting Hagan.

"We have elections, not coronations," Neal said.

Hagan, a native of Shelby and mother of three grown children, said she has a proven record of helping produce balanced budgets, increasing access to health care for 25,000 children, capping the gas tax and providing equipment to the National Guard.

Democrats have viewed Dole as vulnerable because of her support for the war in Iraq and her ties to President Bush. But Democrats have been wary of challenging her because she is among the best-known women in American public life, having served in two Cabinet posts, run for president and served as president of the American Red Cross.

Hagan said she decided a week ago to run for the Senate. She made her announcement with a video on her Web site.

Hagan has served in the state Senate since 1998. She was considered a loyal part of the Senate Democratic leadership team headed by Marc Basnight and Tony Rand. She was noted for bringing home the bacon to Greensboro.

"I am fiscally conservative and business oriented," said Hagan, who once worked as a banker. "I'm a bottom-line individual. I'm compassionate."

As a senator, Hagan voted to create a state lottery, to raise the minimum wage, to grant financial incentives for business, to phase out video poker and to stiffen laws regulating lobbyists.

"Most people would view her as a mainstream Democrat in North Carolina who rose as close to the top as you get in the Senate," said Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch, a liberal group that monitors the legislature. "She can work well with legislative bodies, and she has the respect of her peers."

But Sen. Phil Berger, the Senate Republican leader, said that as budget chairman, Hagan presided over "some of the largest spending increases in North Carolina, growing the General Fund budget by 20 percent."

"I do think that is indicative of the fact if she is elected, she would fit in with the national Democrats," Berger said. "At the state level, she has not been one who has exercised a great deal of restraint in spending."

Hagan's entry -- depending on primary results -- could mean the Democrats would field women in the three most visible races -- Hagan for Senate, Beverly Perdue for governor and Hillary Clinton for president.

SUPPORT: Gov. Jim Hunt backs Hagan. * dome.newsobserver.com

(Staff writer Benjamin Niolet contributed to this report.)