Libertarian Michael Smith would send shock waves through North Carolina if he beat Stan Bingham in the Nov. 7 general election.

Smith thinks it’s possible.

“It could turn out to be the most interesting race of the year,” says Smith, a mortgage loan processor for Wachovia Bank in Winston-Salem.

N.C. Senate District 38 is considered one of the most heavily leaning Republican areas in the state. In this district, three out of four people voted for U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., in 1996.

Betsy Cochrane, a Davie County Republican, has held the seat since 1989, but she left it open this year by running for lieutenant governor.

The Cochrane vacancy drew a crowded field for her Senate seat in the May 2 primary — but only a crowd of Republicans. No Democrat dared to file for the seat.

Bingham, a laid-back, friendly businessman from Denton, came in a close second in the Republican primary and called for a runoff between him and conservative Larry Potts, chairman of the Davidson County Board of Commissioners. Bingham campaigned hard in the weeks before the second election and beat Potts soundly in each of the district’s four counties.

Since then, Bingham has been enjoying the mantle of Republican nominee, and he’s acting, in some respects, like the next senator. He says Democrats, Republicans and independents are all free to talk with him now after an awkward primary that, especially for Republicans, had divided voters into many camps.

“I’m just roaming all over the country meeting people,” Bingham said of his current political strategy. “... Nothing’s really changed for me, except that it’s so much better now.”

Bingham, 54, says he attends events such as fire department chicken stews to meet voters. This past week, he visited Salisbury to introduce himself to Mayor Susan Kluttz and to attend the opening ceremonies for Rowan Republican headquarters.

Bingham believes in networking and building friendships. As owner of Bingham Lumber and The Denton Orator weekly newspaper, he has a pro-business orientation.

Bingham recalls meeting Smith only once so far — at a Lexington breakfast.

“Our philosophies are a bit different,” Bingham says, “but he’s a nice young man.”

Smith looks at District 38, which includes all of Davie County and portions of Davidson, Rowan and Forsyth counties, and sees an area that’s not as Republican as one might think. Republicans account for 53 percent of the district’s voters, but Smith says that leaves 47 percent who aren’t Republicans.

Smith, 37, predicts that he’ll receive support — and endorsements — from Republicans who aren’t happy with their nominee, whom he describes as a Liberal Republican.

Character is not an issue with him and Bingham, Smith says. Rather, voters are choosing between someone who “will just occupy a seat” — Smith’s description of Bingham — and someone who can make a difference.

“My idea of representation is very different,” Smith says. “Stan takes things issue by issue and talks to people before making his decision. I tell you what I think and what I will do. It’s call a representative republic.”

Smith’s theme for his campaign is “Locals know best.” It’s represented in his views on a statewide lottery, for example.

Smith opposes a year-round statewide lottery but offers the idea that counties should be allowed to conduct 30-day lotteries once a year to raise money for important projects at home. It would be up to county commissioners to decide how to spend a local lottery’s proceeds.

On road maintenance, he calls for ending the legislative raid on the gasoline tax fund, putting all the money into highway repair and making decisions at the county level on what roads to fix.

Overall, Smith says, the more government brings things to the local level, the better the price for taxpayers.

As a 12th District congressional candidate in 1998, Smith spoke for drastically reducing the size of federal government, where he believes things should be in their simplest, least important form. He brings that philosophy to his state legislative campaign.

For example, Smith wants the state to abolish the income tax and go with a higher state sales tax. He would slash what he considers an administrative bureaucracy in education and restructure the state education budget to allow for a 15 percent teacher pay raise.

Smith also calls for tax credits to parents who want to take their children out of public schools in favor of home schooling or private schools. He proposes a $2,500 tax credit for the private-school option and $1,500 for the home-school choice.

While the Libertarian Party has called for an end to the death penalty, Smith says he’s not willing to go that far at present. He supports a moratorium on the state’s death penalty as a way to determine whether death row inmates have been given proper representation.

Bingham served on the Davidson County Board of Commissioners from 1990 to 1994, including one year as chairman. In that time, he supported and promoted a $60 million bond referendum for school construction and a 1-cent tax set aside for economic development and sewer extension projects.

Bingham also speaks with pride of his efforts to implement an “extended area system,” which brought together five separate telephone systems and two area codes in the county into a more coherent system.

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Rowan County has 11 whole precincts and a portion of another in the 38th Senate District. The whole precincts include Barnhardt Mill, Bostian Crossroads, Rock Grove, North China Grove, Faith, Granite Quarry, Morgan I, Morgan II, Rockwell, Gold Knob and Sumner. A portion of Bostian School precinct also is in the 38th District.

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