Keeping score: Rand was right

Keeping score -- and Rand was right
For those who keep tabs of the score, a couple of weeks ago former N.C. Free analyst John Davis projected that Republicans might pick up enough support to control the state Senate. Among those he forecast might win were Kathy Harrington, Republican challenger to longtime Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston.
Senate Democratic leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, said it wouldn't happen, that perhaps no more than a couple Democrats might be in jeopardy. Tuesday's election proved Rand right. Democrats lost a net of just one seat in the Senate, and Hoyle, long a champion of open government in the Senate, won his race with 51.5 percent of the vote in a Republican-voting county. It's a sign of the Senate Finance Committee chairman's political strength that he has consistently won in a county that usually favors the other party. Hoyle had gotten criticism from the Observer about his votes promoting a toll road not far from his property, but Senate ethics experts said it did not conflict with any ethics policy and that Hoyle would not have profited any more than any other person who had property in the area.
Other high-profile races in which Democrats held on: State Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus, and Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover.
For the record, the Senate lineup when the 2009 General Assembly convenes will be 30 Democrats, 20 Republicans.