Stan White takes nomination to succeed Basnight
Former Dare County Commissioner Stan White won the nomination Friday night to succeed outgoing state Sen. Marc Basnight.
White pulled votes from five counties to take the nomination from Arthur Williams in balloting by a Democratic committee representing seven of the eight counties in the 1st Senate District.
Williams held on to all 150 votes from his home county of Beaufort, but White emerged as the consensus candidate, earning unanimous support from Dare, Currituck, Hyde and Washington. He split the Pasquotank tally with Una Green, a delegate who voted for herself.
Former Pasquotank County Commissioner Matt Wood won all 23 of Camden County’s votes.
Two delegates from each of seven counties made up the 14-member Democratic Party 1st Senate District Executive Committee, which met in Columbia. They were allotted votes according to county population. The winner needed at least 258.5 votes.
Here are the results:
White — 284
Williams — 150
Green — 58
Wood — 23
Paul Tine, Virginia Tillett and Kathryn Fagan, all from Dare County, were eliminated in earlier rounds of voting.
State law calls for the party of a departing senator to make a nomination to fill the unexpired term. The committee’s recommendation will be sent to the governor, who must make the appointment within five days or the nominee automatically fills the seat.
Basight was re-elected to a 14th term in November but announced his resignation for health reasons earlier this month.
“It’s going to be learning curve for me,” White said after the vote. “But a little less than for others because of my prior experience on the transportation board.”
White, a member of the state Board of Transportation, said that while jobs are a high priority, the first order of business is for northeastern North Carolina to get caught up with the rest of the state on transportation and economic development.
“It’s a monumental task and we will take it one bite at a time,” he said.
White owns a real estate and construction company in Nags Head. He was chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners before he was defeated by Democrat Max Dutton in the 2006 primary.
Fourteen delegates representing seven counties met in Columbia. (Russ Lay photo)
“I am a conservative Democrat,” he said. “I had the honor of working with and for Sen. Basnight for eight years.”
Tyrrell County was picked for the meeting because it is the geographic center of the 1st Senate District and is considered politically neutral, said Chris Hardee, the party’s 3rd Congressional District Chairman.
Hardee presided over the meeting.
Hardee said the Democrats picked a nominee Friday because they wanted the district represented when the General Assembly convenes on Wednesday.
| County | Population | Total votes |
| Beaufort | 44,958 | 150 |
| Camden | 6,885 | 23 |
| Currituck | 18,190 | 61 |
| Dare | 29,967 | 100 |
| Hyde | 5,826 | 19 |
| Pasquotank | 34,897 | 116 |
| Tyrrell | 4,189 | Not organized |
| Washington | 13,723 | 46 |
Dare delegates were Dale Draper and County Democratic Chairwoman Kathy McCullough-Testa, who served as a proxy for Elizabeth Morey.
Basnight lost his position as the state’s longest-serving Senate leader with the historic GOP takeover of both houses of the General Assembly.
The Dare County Democrat said a neurological disease that has affected his speech would hamper his effectiveness to debate as a member of the minority party.
Despite Arthur Williams’ attempt at creating a pep rally atmosphere replete with a busload of supporters sporting neon-green stickers, Stan White emerged as the winner.
Going into the balloting, the three largest counties were expected to dominate. Pasquotank’s 116 votes looked to belong to Matt Wood, Beaufort’s 150 to Williams and Dare, with 100 votes, appeared split among four nominees.
Things got interesting early, as surprise nominations came from the 14 delegates. Warren Judge had apparently made the decision not to move forward, and Dare nominated Virginia Tillett, Paul Tine and Stan White.
A Beaufort delegate then nominated Kathryn Fagen, an attorney who lives in Dare, in a surprise move.
Earlier in the day, word leaked out that Una Green, one of Pasquotank’s two delegates, wanted to run and she was nominated by a delegate from another county. Green controlled 58 of Pasquotank’s votes and she voted for herself on each of the three ballots, dooming Wood’s chances.
On the first ballot Dare, split their ballot with 34 for White and 33 each for Tine and Tillett. Fagan received no votes from any delegate, but under the house rules, the candidate with the lowest total could only be dropped after the second ballot. Williams came out on top with 166 votes, adding 16 from Washington County to Beaufort’s 150.
In round two, three candidates failed to garner any votes — Fagan, Tine and Tillett. Dare gave all 100 votes to White, who also picked up all of Currituck’s 61 votes and half of Washington’s 46 and 19 from Hyde for 203 votes. WIlliams picked up seven extra votes from Washington for a total of 173. Green cast her 58 Pasquotank votes for herself, while Wood hung on with 58 Pasquotank votes and 23 from Camden.
On the third ballot, White won all the delegate votes from Currituck, Dare, Hyde and Washington, and picked up 58 more votes as one Pasquotank delegate switched from Wood to White, giving the Dare Democrat 284 votes and an absolute majority.
Williams was left with exactly what he brought to the dance, 150 Beaufort votes, while Green continued to cast her votes for herself and finished third with 58 votes.
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Join the discussion:
Duke says:
Thank you OBX Voice. It is great having up to the minute report. Good job
Beverly Boswell says:
I cry “FOUL”!!!!
Dare County Citizens Did NOT vote for Stan White. They voted for Marc Basnight. Can you say SPECIAL ELECTION???
KHer says:
I hope you do well, Stan.
Michael says:
@ Beverly…..Marc knew he was not going to retain his leadership role yet he chose to run anyway. This was all part of the master plan. Stan knew he would get this shot months ago. Typical
SOS says:
who is Una Green?????????
Janice Farr says:
Congratulations Stan! My best to you
ekim says:
Stan will be looking out for the little man,the working or his own?THIS STINKS OF GOOD OLD BOY,If stan was running for this seat i would not have voted for him,WE THE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DUPED!!!!
OCS says:
Congratulations Stan!
To those of you who did not like how this was done…..get your lawmakers in Raleigh to change the law. This was done exactly as the GS require. So….stop whining! If Bill Owens decides next week that he doesn’t want to complete his new term……..wanna guess how the vacancy will be filled?
Lastly……thanks to OBX Voice……this was superb reporting and provides a depth of understanding on how this decision evolved.
Jim says:
Last night showed how out of touch the democratic party is with the will of the people. The top two selections were both voted out of office the last time they ran for public office.
UncleKB says:
If you dont like the process, stop whining and start working to change it. I say Conratulations to Senator White and best of luck!!!!!!!!
J.C. Towler, Jr says:
Thanks for the up-to-the minute reporting on this event.
seabound says:
The process worked. The delegates acted in the best interest of the entire district and elected the best candidate based on experience and awareness of constituent needs in the district.
The Taypayer says:
Good deal! White will be easy to defeat in the next election.
Captain John says:
Even though I thought Arthur Williams had the most experience, I was pleased to see Stan selected to be our new Senator. No one could ever replace Marc but we are better off with Stan than most of the other candidates. I wish him well.
angry voter says:
Well, the “suck up” to Stan starts already!
Al Cohol says:
I agree with J. C. Towler. Yes, thanks for the up to the minute reporting.
I feel like the voters had their opportunity STOLEN from them in regards to the decision making process.
The fact that Mr. White was not re-elected during the last election is clear EVIDENCE that he would not have been the choice for Dare County.
ekim says:
This just shows how the DEMs really feel about the voter Its time to CLEAN HOUSE!!!
angry voter says:
Senator Selected not Elected!
Selena K says:
Mountain, meet Mole hill.
Stop getting so panty-wadded over this thing. White’s term will be over before you know it and he’s just a stand-in/figurehead, anyway. He won’t be re-elected and won’t do squat while holding the place-card.
In the overall Outer and Inner Banks’ normal family’s putting-food-on-the-table goal, HOW does this even matter? It doesn’t. Get over it.
KHer says:
Before he leaves his DOT post it would be great if he could get the potholes in 158 on the beach fixed!