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.

Hackney said a general concern for the environment pushed him to run for the legislature in 1980, following in his great-great-grandfather's footsteps. He earned his liberal reputation by sponsoring many environmental laws, quashing bills that banned abortion and making many attempts to suspend executions so that the fairness of the death penalty could be studied. Hackney also has moved tougher penalties for drunken driving and domestic violence.

In recent years, he has moved toward the center by supporting the lottery and a $242 million incentive package to bring computer-maker Dell to the Triad. When the Carrboro Town Council unanimously sought state legislation last year allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, Hackney said he wouldn't support it.

Still, conservatives were quick to point out Hackney's liberal voting record shortly after he was elected. The Civitas Institute, a Raleigh think tank, published a report accusing the major news media of painting Hackney as a centrist. "He cannot hide from his true liberal nature," the report said.

The institute's principal backer, former Rep. Art Pope, a Raleigh Republican, had a more charitable view of Hackney.

"He's partisan," Pope said, "but fair."

Businessmen's qualms

Being liberal is often equated with being anti-business, and Hackney's campaign for speaker elicited concern from business leaders. They mostly supported Rep. Jim Crawford, an Oxford Democrat who is a businessman and developer.

But two other pro-business Democrats and speaker candidates -- Reps. Hugh Holliman of Lexington and Joe Tolson of Edgecombe County -- eased some of those fears when they dropped out of the race and endorsed Hackney, said Brad Crone, a Democratic consultant. Holliman, who later successfully ran for House majority leader, said he stayed neutral in the race, but Hackney said that Holliman pledged his support when he closed his speaker campaign.

After Hackney became the Democratic nominee, he and Holliman met with business leaders to calm their fears. Hackney also met with Crawford and two other speaker hopefuls who ran strong campaigns -- Reps. Dan Blue of Raleigh and Drew Saunders of Mecklenburg County -- to assure them that they would be an important part of his team.

At his first news conference as speaker, Hackney took plenty of questions from reporters who were testing whether he would still push hard for the causes for which he is known. Hackney didn't back away from his personal views, but he insisted that his agenda would take a back seat to that of the House Democratic caucus. He also said Republicans won't be shut out of the legislative process.

"It gives people more confidence in government if you can do what you are doing in a civil way," Hackney said.

He also showed a side that his colleagues have seen for years at legislative conferences and other functions: the ability to crack a joke.

"I've been speaker for two hours, and the price of gas is already under $2," he said.

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