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A year ago it would have been unthinkable that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole would be fighting for her political life. But Dole is facing a skin-tight race against Kay Hagan, her Democratic challenger from Greensboro. And Hagan deserves to win.

Hagan is smart, articulate, energetic and experienced in the workings of government. She has served five terms in the state legislature, where she made a name for herself as a moderate, pro-business Democrat. She has been a key player in shaping the state budget. In the legislature, she has focused on improving education (including pay for teachers), health care reform and increasing jobs in Guilford County and throughout the state.

Born in Shelby, Hagan's family later moved to Florida, where her father, a businessman, became mayor of Lakeland. Hagan graduated from Florida State University and Wake Forest law school. Her husband, Chip Hagan, is a prominent Greensboro attorney. She became a bank executive but left the job after their children were born. She then became a soccer mom and active in civic affairs before entering Democratic politics. The Hagans have three college-age children, who have been campaigning for their mother. The children have been taught to be caring of others. The family has sometimes gone to a home for severely handicapped people on Christmas mornings to cook breakfast and to play Santa Claus, giving the staff the morning off.

If elected to the U.S. Senate, Hagan would be a moderate Democrat. She supports middle-class tax cuts, help for small businesses and an end to the tax loopholes for multinational corporations. She favors extending health care for children and for the federal government to negotiate lower drug costs for Medicare recipients. She wants to end the Iraq war "responsibly" and for our government to focus on diplomatic solutions to world trouble spots.

Meanwhile, why is Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury native, in trouble? After all, she is a celebrity who has served in the cabinets of two Republican presidents. She and her husband, the former GOP senator from Kansas, have lived in Washington for decades and are known on the social circuit as a power couple.

But that's part of Dole's problem. She has seemed detached from the state that elected her. One survey found she had spent only limited time in North Carolina prior to her campaign for re-election. Hagan's campaign commercials have portrayed Dole as the senator from Kansas. A more accurate tag would be "The Senator from D.C." Dole had lived in Washington for nearly 40 years before hurriedly returning to North Carolina to buy her mother's house in Salisbury to establish residency and run for the U.S. Senate in 2002.

After her election, Dole seemed more interested in national Republican Party politics than in North Carolina affairs. In 2006, she sought and got the job of chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee, during which she darted all over America trying to get Republicans elected to the Senate. She failed; the Democrats won control of the Senate.

Dole's support for President Bush also has been a handicap. She has seldom broken ranks with the now-unpopular Bush. She supported the war in Iraq, voted against raising the minimum wage and supports preserving tax incentives for offshore companies. She did, however, break with Bush's admirable immigration plan that would give illegal immigrants "a path to citizenship." And in fairness to her, Dole warned years ago that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be regulated.

Dole's age -- she is 72 -- has been an issue. Hagan, who is 55, has implied she would bring vigor and energy to the job. One Democratic commercial portrays two men in rocking chairs. "I'm telling you, Liddy Dole is 93," one elderly man says. The reference is actually to Dole's low ranking among the 100 senators by a Washington group, but it gets the age issue across.

North Carolina needs a change in Washington. Kay Hagan would be an effective U.S. senator. For years, she has been in close touch with the state's needs. And unlike Dole, she would not forget us after she gets to Washington.

Rosemary Roberts write a Friday column. E-mail: rmroberts@triad.rr.com.