Why that guy?

• Position: Up Front - North Carolina Senator Marc Basnight is profiled - Biography

Why name a state legislator elected to represent less than 3% of North Carolinians our Mover and Shaker of the Year? Good question. We had considered choosing a business executive, but as Ed Martin, who wrote the profile of Sen. Marc Basnight that begins on page 22, quips, "It was a year most Tar Heel CEOs spent hiding from recession, scandal or Chapter 11."

OK, if you're going to pick a politician, why not the governor for his handling of the state budget crisis? Or Elizabeth Dole, who will make history as our first woman U.S. senator? Or maybe John Edwards, our now senior U.S. senator, whose presidential ambitions have made national headlines?

Well, the way Coy. Mike Easley handled the budget crisis was not very sure-footed. He bet the farm on a state lottery and, like almost everyone who plays the lottery, lost. Dole's impact on the state lies ahead of her. Edwards might have made a nice cover -- after all, he was named People magazine's sexiest politician in 2000. Call us back in 2004. Basnight, on the other hand, is probably the most powerful politician in the state that most people know almost nothing about. Ed recalls some of the time he spent with him trying to change that.

"We're threading traffic on the way out of Raleigh, Basnight wheeling his white Expedition, and Charlie Albertson, the white-bearded senator from Duplin County, riding shotgun and telling jokes -- he's also a country singer who appears on Carolina Calling, the public-television revival of the old Arthur Smith variety show.

"It's about a month before the election, the legislature is still...