Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight's endorsement of Sen. Martin Nesbitt, of Asheville, for majority leader has left Sen. Dan Clodfelter, of Charlotte (right), with few directions to go to pursue the job.

Basnight, of Manteo, wrote to his Democratic colleagues (see link below) on Friday encouraging them to support Nesbitt to replace outgoing Majority Leader Tony Rand, of Fayetteville.

"For our state to endure these difficult economic times, we need to focus all of our energies and efforts on creating jobs, improving education and health care, and giving everyone in North Carolina a chance at success," Basnight wrote. "Martin Nesbitt has fought for these important priorities throughout his decades of public service."

Several Democratic senators last week said Clodfelter was running for the majority leader's job, but the same day Basnight's letter appeared, Clodfelter refused to say whether he was a candidate.

The difficulty for him is that Nesbitt carries considerable loyalty among the more liberal wing of the Democratic caucus, while the more conservative and business-oriented side of the party remains loyal to Basnight. Those obstacles, along with Clodfelter's history of irritating colleagues with his brusque manner, leave a limited number of senators from whom Clodfelter might gain support.

Sen. Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, won hefty support on Friday when Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight dispatched a letter endorsing Nesbitt for the post of Senate majority leader.

Basnight sent the letter to fellow Senate Democrats, who will pick a replacement for Sen. Tony Rand, of Fayetteville, who is resigning from the legislature and will be leaving by the end of the year, the Asheville Citizen Times reports.

Several Democratic senators last week said Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat, was also seeking the post, but Clodfelter refused to say whether he was a candidate.

"I'm not at that point," he told the newspaper, though he added, "I’m not telling you I’m not a candidate."

Clodfelter said the talk about who gets the majority leader's post is happening too fast.

The state's teacher lobby seems to be leaning one way on who it supports to replace Senate majority leader Tony Rand.

But the lobby isn't taking any chances on backing the wrong candidate, either.

In an e-mail to members, the N.C. Association of Educators says that Sen. Martin Nesbitt has emerged as the frontrunner to replace Rand in the second-in-command position within the chamber. The headline on its Nesbitt brief reads, "K-12 Champion Vies for Senate Majority Leader."

Sen. Nesbitt's success comes as no surprise to Buncombe County Association of Educators President Anna Austin, who lunches with the mountain senator regularly. "Sen. Nesbitt checks in with me every week during session and its not surprising to watch issues we bounce around at a lunch table in Ashevillle make it into state law," she said.   

The next item is about Sen. Dan Clodfelter and is written under the decidedly more staid headline: "Charlotte Democrat Eyes Leadership Post." 

The write-up is positive on Clodfelter.

We have immense respect for Sen. Clodfelter, especially his support for public education and a modernized tax structure," said NCAE Vice President Rodney Ellis.  "As educators, we also admire Sen. Clodfelter's  incredible intellect.  He is a strong leader and whatever happens within the caucus, we hope that Sen. Clodfelter continues to lead on tax reform."    

The race to succeed Sen. Tony Rand as Senate majority leader is on, and Senators Martin Nesbitt, of Asheville, and Dan Clodfelter, of Charlotte, are the early entries.

The two have been making calls to their fellow Democrats in the Senate. Both hail from the more liberal side of the caucus, compared to the more conservative, business-friendly team of Rand, from Fayeteville, and Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, of Manteo.

Nesbitt, (above) an Asheville lawyer, chairs the Judiciary 1 committee and is a veteran of intracaucus jockeying from his 11 terms in the House. He has focused many of his efforts on health care and mental health reform. The conservative Civitas Institute ranked him as the most liberal senator.

Clodfelter, (below) a Charlotte lawyer and former city council member, is a co-chair of the tax-writing finance committee and has long been viewed as a future candidate for president pro tem when Basnight retires.

Neither senator returned Dome's calls. Seems they might have some votes to line up.

Sen. Dan Clodfelter, one of the chief advocates of a tax reform plan, said Wednesday that lawmakers won't try to overhaul the system in the budget they're about to write.

"We’ve got to do something immediate just to bring the budget in balance," Clodfelter said. "School is opening in three weeks' time. We cannot leave folks hanging."

Clodfelter and other Senate leaders were pushing a plan that would lower tax rates but, among other steps, extend the sales tax to more services. The proposal tried to address the structural problem in the tax system that repeatedly has been highlighted by study commissions and experts: that it doesn't keep revenue stable enough to sustain the state through economic downturns.

Clodfelter said Senate leaders realized they were proposing a major change and intentionally didn't outline details in hopes that lawmakers in the House and Senate would hammer out the mechanics together.

"We were trying to see if we could do it differently," Clodfelter said.

There isn't enough time now, though, and the legislature needs to put together a budget. Clodfelter said Senate leaders will continue to work on the reform plan in the coming months and said it has momentum now.

Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat and key budget negotiator, said the budget is late because the House hasn't bought into a Senate plan to reform the state's tax code.

Earlier Monday House Speaker Joe Hackney said he believed late July was too late to start an ambitious reform movement. Clodfelter said the delay is because the House hasn't gotten on board.

"We've been waiting for the House folks to pick up the challenge with us," Clodfelter said Monday night. "If it's late, it's because we were waiting on them."

Clodfelter has been a vocal advocate of the plan to lower the overall sales tax rate while taxing a host of new services and items such as car repairs or movie tickets. Even while lowering the sales tax rate for everyone, the new services could raise up to $1 billion in new taxes, he said.

Clodfelter is running a Senate finance committee meeting Tuesday in which he said he would demonstrate why the reform is needed. The Senate's budget proposal, which cleared the chamber April 9, was balanced in part on the revenue raised by a reform plan.

There is no bill yet outlining a tax reform plan. Clodfelter said one woud be coming.

He said the state cannot rush a badly conceived solution through to balance the state budget. The latest proposal, which was scuttled late last week, included some bad ideas, he said.

"We've got to get this right," Clodfelter said. "A one-cent sales tax increase is not a good thing."

Gov. Beverly Perdue succeeded Thursday in blocking a tax package deal struck between the House and Senate just 24 hours earlier.

Senate leaders said they would start over on what taxes to raise and how much because of objections Perdue raised to a proposed 2 percent surcharge on all income tax brackets. Perdue also is insisting on no reduction in per pupil spending for public schools, said Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat and co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

"What we're going to do is regroup and replan," Hoyle said.

House leaders generated further confusion when they insisted that the tax deal was still viable.

"It's still on the table," said Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat and senior chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

House leaders also said they would be writing their own version of the spending side of the budget.

Legislative leaders, already three weeks late in crafting a budget, reached a tax deal yesterday that included the income tax surcharge, a 1-cent hike in the sales tax and a group of alcohol and tobacco tax increases to raise $982 million.

House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat, expressed frustration that Perdue blew up the compromise. Perdue's staff has been privy to negotiations.

"We would certainly appreciate it, if she has any problems with that plan, that she'd let us know," Holliman said.

Perdue, a Democrat, wants another $200 million, and Hoyle said Democratic leaders don't know where that money will come from.

More after the jump.

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Lawmakers are in hot pursuit of a tax plan, which may come through tonight. Or not.

Today, the Senate side proposed a new option to close a gaping budget hole — a three-quarter cent sales tax hike, unspecified sin taxes and a 2 percent surcharge on income tax for everyone, reports Ben Niolet.

Budget negotiators were in and out of closed door meetings all afternoon. House Speaker Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, said there is appetite to close the finance deal this evening.

But at one point, Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat, left the room in a huff, saying, "No deal. There is no deal coming out."

State Auditor Beth Wood told legislators that state agencies need better oversight of vendor contracts.

Citing three recent audits involving the state Department of Health and Human Services, the state health plan, and and office supply purchases that revealed poor monitoring and other deficiences,  Wood said contracts the state signs should be reviewed by a "cold eye," Lynn Bonner reports

The auditor's office cannot make agencies change the way they do business, Wood said, but she suggested legislators consider some action that would prevent mistakes that lead to waste.

The legislature's Program Evaluation Oversight Committee has invited Wood to make regular reports on audit findings.

"We want to make sure audit reports don't just sit on the shelf," said Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat.

If the program evaluation staff finds patterns of problems identified in state audits, Wood will be invited to the committee to talk about them, said evaluation division director John Turcotte.