Former NC Senate Leader Basnight dies at 73
RALEIGH, NC (WTVD) — Marc Basnight, the former longtime leader of the North Carolina State Senate died Monday at 73, his family said.
Basnight, who was ill for years with what was later diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, died at his Manteo home with family members present, according to Amy Fulk, Basnight’s chief of staff while he held the chamber’s top job.
“North Carolina lost a giant today with the passing of my friend, Senator Marc Basnight,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. “His positive influence on our public universities, transportation, environment and more will be felt for decades. A man of great power and influence, his humble, common touch made everyone he met feel special, whether pouring them a glass of tea in his restaurant or sharing a pack of nabs at a country store. He believed in North Carolina and its people, and our state is stronger because of him. Our prayers are with Vicki, Caroline and the whole family.”
Despite humble beginnings and little formal education, Basnight rose through state politics to serve in the Senate for 26 years. His nine two-year terms as Senate president pro tempore made him the longest-serving head of a legislative body in North Carolina history.
Basnight, a Democrat, served in the state Senate from 1984 to 2011.
Basnight was a legislative powerhouse involved in enacting every significant state policy of the 1990s and 2000s, including passage of the state lottery, a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars and improved public education and ethics reforms. And he made it a point of stopping to meet constituents on his weekly 190-mile commute to Raleigh to learn about their needs.
Basnight who was from Manteo, was Senate leader from 1993 until 2010 when Republicans gained control of the Senate.
“Sen. Basnight and the institution of the Senate are in many ways inseparable. He left his mark on the body, and therefore the state, over his nearly two decades of leadership,” current Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said. “Sen. Basnight loved people. I used to hear that he’d stop along the way from the Outer Banks to Raleigh just to speak to strangers and hear what they had to say. He loved people, and they loved him back. I will always remember the grace with which Sen. Basnight conducted the 2011 transition. He spared no effort and denied no request. He could wage political battle with the best of them, but he always put the institution of the Senate, as a symbol of the people’s representative government, first. He’s one of a kind, and I will miss him.”
He represented the 1st Senate District from 1984 through his resignation just before the start of what would have been his 14th term in 2011.
He resigned his seat in early 2011, weeks before Republicans took over the chamber for the first time in over a century due to electoral wins the previous November. Basnight told reporters at the time that he was already struggling with a degenerative nerve disease that affected his balance and speech.
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