With six terms in the N.C. Senate and four terms as mayor of Carrboro behind her, it’s no surprise that Sen. Ellie Kinnaird spends much of her time at campaign appearances talking about what she’s done.
Kinnaird began a recent UNC forum appearance by noting that many in the room were taking advantage of one of her accomplishments – one stop early voting.
“That was my bill,” she said, noting she also helped implement a law requiring paper ballots be used throughout the state to ensure accurate vote counts.
But Kinnaird places the strongest emphasis on her successes in enacting environmental legislation.
“I’ve had a strong environmental history,” she said. “We’ve passed energy and water conservation for all new public buildings.”
Kinnaird has also worked to control sedimentation pollution, require alternative fuels in state vehicles and ban construction materials in landfills.
Kinnaird’s tenure in the Senate has involved a wide variety of issues, including many that have become important in light of the current economic crisis.
Kinnaird said she and her colleagues in the General Assembly take credit for reducing the impact of the mortgage crisis in North Carolina,
“We stopped predatory lending in this state six years ago,” she said.
Kinnaird also supported raising the minimum wage and helped secure funding for the new Cancer Center at UNC Hospitals, which will open next year.
She agrees with her opponent, Jon “Greg” Bass that teacher salary increases are needed, and she also supports charter schools.
But she doesn’t support Bass’s plan to raise cigarette and beer taxes to improve schools. She thinks money for this purpose should be raised at the local level with property and other taxes, which she credits for the success of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system.
She also differs from Bass in her opposition to offshore drilling in North Carolina, which Bass supports as a way to reduce gas prices.
“Apparently that’s one of the most environmentally rich areas, and you can destroy that,” Kinnaird said.
Despite her laundry list of accomplishments, Kinnaird, 76, is not ready to retire from her senate seat, as she has a number of goals she hopes to attain during her seventh term if reelected.
“My main concern is this mental health bill,” she said. “That’s going to be a very difficult bill to get through.”
She is also concerned about the number of families on the waiting list to receive child care subsidies, and wants to improve that system. And she wants to avoid cutting programs for juveniles when the General Assembly balances the budget (which faces a huge deficit), as well as implemented California emission standards in North Carolina.
While the challengers in General Assembly races have lamented effects of redistricting and gerrymandering on the strength of competition in the campaigns, Kinnaird blames the low salary of the office as the reason many races are uncontested. She said being a senator is a full time job and has quit her law practice as a result, but the job only pays about $13,000 per year.
Kinnaird’s seniority in the legislature has put her in several major leadership positions in the Senate. She co-chairs both the Senate appropriations on justice and safety committee and the agriculture, environment and natural resources committee.
