Candidate Hood Richardson Challenges the Veracity of Senator Basnight's Comments on his Record | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: We are putting this information in the Visiting Writer section for the irrefutable fact that Hood is a visiting writer, and moreover, I need keep other articles up of the front-page, and I want to keep Hood's comments up on the front-page until the end of this election cycle, unless I get a response from Senator Basnight. That's right: Hood's comments will stay up on BCN's front-page until the Senator responds in an article of his own choosing.

    The Senator's camp will not need to pay for an ad, they just need to send me an article in a text file, and I will post it immediately. We are averaging 38,500 hits per day here at BCN, so I would suggest a response from the Senator. I know I would respond to these allegations.

    You would think that the people of Manteo would be mighty ticked off too that he build that 5 mile bridge to the front door of his restaurant at Nags Head completely bypassing Manteo...


    Sen. Basnight, What has happened to Truth in Advertising?

    Please take the time to read and share this information with your friends in District One: Couties of Beaufort, Camden, Currituck, Dare, Hyde, Pasquotank, Tyrrell, Washington.

    Http://hoodforsenate.com/post/63/12/senator-basnights-record.html

    A Response to Sen. Basnight's big, expensive ads in the WDN and other supporting newspapers

    In the 10-24-10 Washington Daily News and other news papers, Sen. Basnight took out a half page ad to try to defend his record which has been attacked by the State GOP and others. There are several points we think worthy of note:

    1. The Senator did not even respond to the reports that he has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from special interests, a substantial portion of which has been found to be illegal.

    2. He still has not explained what Rusty Carter expected for his $84,000 in illegal contributions, or those of Hobbs Uphurch.

    3. He says it was Republicans that would have passed legislation that would have raised homeowners' insurance rates. Well, how can that be if they don't have a majority in a single committee nor could they have passed anything on the floor?

    4. Insurance rates are a real problem. But the problem is the way Sen. Basnight has set up the insurance rule making apparatus in this state. He and the Democrats have given the Democrat Insurance Commissioner the power to set unfair rates. That is why the East is getting sabotaged.

    5. Sen. Basnight's ad does not acknowledge that it has been on his watch that the insurance problem was created and he has had many chances to reform insurance regulation in this state in the 24 years he's been in Raleigh and it has only gotten worse. When you are in charge you need to man up to not getting the job done when the job does not get done.

    6. Sen. Basnight brags about "what I've done for the East" yet we all know that most of what is done goes to the Piedmont. Just look at how much money they've sucked out of the East and sent to wealthy counties in the Piedmont in what they call economic development incentives. The East has gotten the short end of the stick for years and Sen. Basnight has let that happen.

    7. And he fails to explain why he will not allow We The People to vote on the Defense of Marriage Act, an amendment to prevent unjust taking of private property to sell to developers, or why he would not let the Senate vote on whether illegal aliens should be afforded a community college education at taxpayer expense.

    8. Likewise, Sen. Basnight brags about "every road and bridge" that's been built he has "had a hand in it." Well, what about the ones that have NOT been built. Didn't he have a hand in that? US 17 has been shortchanged for years. And he failed to seize the opportunity to put the US 17 By-pass east of Washington to help more of Beaufort County. US 264 has been shortchanged. And it has been on his watch and because of his favors to the Extreme Environmentalists that regulations that have blocked the Bonner bridge replacement were allowed to be enacted. If he "had a hand in" DOT projects, he had a hand in decisions not to build what was needed. In the meantime, most of the money has gone to urban counties. Did he have a hand in those decisions? As President of the Senate, of course he did.

    9. But Sen. Basnight's argument that he pulls strings with his power position in the Senate is just exactly what is wrong with this state. It is corrupt with special interests. A better thing would have been for special interests to be put out of the decision-making and an equitable system used that is not based on "who you know" and how much money you contribute to some politician.

    Sen. Basnight is smart enough to know that allocating DOT funds politically will ultimately be a very bad thing for the East. He would have served the East better while he was in power by changing the system so that the system was equitable for ALL parts of the state, including the East.

    Senator Basnight's gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars donated by big special interest money from outside the district so he can buy big ads in papers that endorse him. Expect a flood of TV ads also. It is just more of the good ole boy "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" that has corrupted our system of government. Every time you see some of this big spending in campaign ads remind yourself where that money came from and ask "why?" And decide whether you want a government that operates on special interest money.