Pro-business Hoyle to leave N.C. Senate (The Charlotte Observer)
Wednesday’s decision by David Hoyle not to seek another term signals the loss of one of business’s strongest legislative allies and the continued shakeup of Democratic leadership in the state Senate.
“You are seeing a sea change in the philosophical balance of power in the Senate,” said John Davis, a pro-business legislative analyst. “The Senate has always been the safe harbor for business. The Senate is no longer the safe harbor.”
Hoyle, a nine-term senator from Gaston County, is the second top Senate Democrat to signal his departure. Last month, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand of Fayetteville announced plans to resign by the end of the year.
Their departures mean further shakeups in the Democratic caucus. Sen. David Weinstein of Lumberton stepped down in September, and Sen. Julia Boseman of Wilmington has announced that she won’t run. Widely publicized personal issues could make it hard for veteran Sen. R.C. Soles of Columbus County to run.
Hoyle, 70, said he decided it’s time to go.
“Been there long enough,” he said. “Eighteen years. It’s not the service that gets you down; it’s the campaigning and the political mess you have to go through to serve. I don’t want to put up with it anymore.”
Hoyle, a co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has been ranked the third most effective senator for the past decade by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research. He trails only Rand and his own Raleigh roommate, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight of Manteo.
“Truly there was not a better senator to serve North Carolina in my 25 years,” Basnight said Wednesday. “For Charlotte, they ought to build some monument to this guy.”
Hoyle, a developer, represented the interests of business on issues such as tort reform, cutting the corporate income tax, workers’ compensation and tax incentives for business.
“For years now, the business community has relied on Sen. Hoyle to look after the interests of business large and small in North Carolina,” said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican. “Business has fewer friends in the Senate in the Democratic caucus.”
Go-to guy is moving on
Bob Morgan, Charlotte Chamber president, called Hoyle “a go-to guy on so many economic development issues.”
Davis, former executive director for NCFREE, said the departures of Hoyle and Rand will mark the end of an era. When he started analyzing the legislature in 1992, half of the Democratic senators ran a business. Now there’s only a shrinking handful.
“The ‘business progressives’ have been in power for a long time, and Basnight, Rand and Hoyle were the classic business progressives,” he said.
Hoyle’s departure could have a political cost for Democrats. At one point, he was the only Democratic elected official in Gaston County. In 2008, he spent $739,000 – and won 51 percent of the vote.
Critics have questioned Hoyle’s votes for a proposed Gaston County expressway when he and his family owned 327 acres at a planned exit. He was never charged with violating ethics laws. But he said he grew weary of such criticism, along with political attacks.
“Bottom line,” he said, “is I’ve done my time. I’ve served. And it’s time for me to move on.”
Staff writers Mark Johnson and Ben Niolet contributed.
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Published Thu, Dec 10, 2009 05:30 AM
Modified Thu, Dec 10, 2009 05:49 AM
