BY MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
CARRBORO, N.C. - One sunny day in March, Kay Hagan stood outside an organic food co-op here, talking up support for her U.S. Senate campaign.

Chatting with potential voters, Hagan, a Democrat, framed herself as an experienced pragmatist, even as some voters wished that she would move to the left.

One voter wanted to know about universal health care. Hagan said her concern is how to pay for it.

Another disagreed with Hagan’s support for state tax incentives to corporations.

A third, Mary Hughes Brookhart of Orange County, said she supports Hagan but wishes Hagan would be “more courageous” on the issue of same-sex marriage. Hagan opposes same-sex marriage but says gay couples should have financial, medical and other rights.

Her main opponent in the Democratic primary, Jim Neal, is well to the left of Hagan on virtually every issue. Both want to take on the Republican incumbent, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, in the fall.

Hagan is the more moderate candidate with close ties to the state’s Democratic establishment, and after nine years as a state legislator, she is either an experienced leader or a typical government insider, depending on which campaign you ask.

Neal, an investment banker from Chapel Hill, is running as an upstart outsider. He has never held public office and is relying on a grassroots network of supporters to counteract Hagan’s strong support from businesses and powerful Democratic politicians, including Gov. Mike Easley and N.C. Senate leader Marc Basnight.

Three other little-known candidates - Marcus Williams, Duskin Lassiter and Howard Staley - are also running in the May 6 Democratic primary, but none of them has run a significant statewide campaign.

Both Hagan and Neal agree on one thing: Dole symbolizes a broken system in Washington, D.C.

“I think people in North Carolina are upset with what Washington has been doing,” Hagan said. “We want to have leaders who do agree with what North Carolinians agree with, and I think North Carolinians do want this war to end, and I think they do want us to be investing in renewable energy.”

Neal goes a step further, criticizing both the political system in Washington and the system in Raleigh. Hagan, as a key budget writer in the N.C. Senate, is one of the leaders of the latter.

“I’m running against a lot of powerful interests that are part of the political establishment who simply don’t want someone who is not a member of the club to crash the gates,” Neal said.

Hagan and Neal started off the race nearly even in public-opinion polls, but Neal has had a hard time getting traction and raising money.

In federal campaign finance reports filed in mid-April, Hagan reported having $317,000 on hand after raising $1.5 million since last fall. Neal, in contrast, raised $250,000 since he started his campaign and reporting having only $18,000 on hand.
With her larger campaign war chest, Hagan has been able to run TV ads, while Neal has not. Those ads have propelled her to a large lead in the polls. A tracking poll this week by the Raleigh firm Public Policy Polling showed Hagan with her biggest lead yet: she had 36 percent to Neal’s 8 percent, with a large number of voters still undecided.

Hagan has cemented her status as the front-runner through a campaign strategy of focusing almost exclusively on a general-election battle against Dole, not on Neal or the other Democrats running in the primary. She has refused to debate Neal one-on-one (although the two have appeared at debates at forums where the other candidates were present). And her campaign frequently sends out material critiquing Dole but almost never mentions Neal.

Neal, on the other hand, never misses an opportunity to attack Hagan, who he brands as “Republican-lite.” Neal says that he would be more electable in November because he can provide the biggest contrast with Dole.
“Given a choice between a Republican and a Republican, people will choose the real Republican,” Neal said.

Neal pledges to vote to withdraw funding from U.S. troops in Iraq - a measure that few congressional Democrats have been willing to support. Neal also expressed ambivalence recently about the war in Afghanistan, saying that Osama bin Laden is merely a figurehead and that his capture is not critical.

Hagan says that she wants to withdraw troops from Iraq, but says it must be done responsibly, using benchmarks and diplomacy. She would not vote to cut off funding. She said that she “would certainly hope” that all combat troops could be out of Iraq within two years, as the two Democratic presidential candidates have promised.

Hagan and Neal also differ on Supreme Court nominees. Hagan would not rule out the possibility of supporting a nominee who does not support abortion rights. She said she would look at a nominee’s entire judicial record and would not have any “litmus test.”

Neal said that there should be a litmus test on the issue of abortion and promised to oppose any nominee who opposed abortion rights.

Some Democrats have long said that Dole is vulnerable in her re-election bid, but Democrats had a tough time last year recruiting a big-name candidate to run against her. Even Hagan initially ruled out a run, and for a short time Neal was the only announced candidate. Then, after being courted by national Democrats, Hagan jumped into the race.

Neal is trying to become the nation’s first openly gay senator. He said he believes his sexual orientation motivated party officials to persuade Hagan to change her mind.

“People were threatened by me, who I am,” Neal said. “They were threatened by the fact that I happen to be gay. They wanted to focus on that. They were afraid that people would come out and vote against me because of that.”

Hagan said she does not believe Neal’s sexuality is an issue in the race.