There’s truly dreadful news tonight that one of the ablest members of the North Carolina General Assembly, Senator Martin Nesbitt, has died just days after announcing that he was seriously ill. It’s a grave blow to the state and we are all worse off for his passing.

There will be time in the days ahead for tributes to this wonderfully intelligent, caring and good-hearted man, but if you don’t know that much about him and would like to get a feel for who he was, go to the search function on this website and just type in his name. Upon doing so, you’ll find a host of articles in which he was featured — usually as a rare voice of reason in the state’s increasingly troubled policy debates in recent years.

When I did that, I was happy to find this post I wrote back in 2007 soon after this blog was first launched. In addition to featuring the now youthful looking photo of the senator that you see here, the post was a tribute to his willingness to stand up and speak the truth on an unpopular issue. I remember hearing at the time that he’d seen the post and appreciated it, so I offer it again tonight as one small and very fond remembrance:

Martin Nesbitt: Keeping us coming back Read More