Ask Representative Paul Tine what it means to be a Democrat working with a Republican majority in the North Carolina General Assembly and his answer is surprisingly upbeat.

“It means that that you’ve got to do a lot more work to get things done, but it’s certainly not impossible. You’ve got to pick the things that you have in common and work on them,” Tine said. “My job is to look out for northeastern North Carolina and there are rural legislators on the other side that can help me do that. As a fiscal conservative, there are lots of things we can work on together.

“That doesn’t mean that there aren’t days of frustration,” he laughed.

The freshman representative whose district includes Beaufort, Dare, Hyde and Washington counties has made a point of visiting Beaufort County on many occasions during his first term.

He said there’s a reason he’s in the area so often: “I can’t do my job if I don’t understand what’s important to the people in Beaufort County. If I don’t understand the issues and opportunities there, then there’s no way I can do my job properly.”

That philosophy has put Tine in Beaufort County for economic development meetings, speaking at schools and service organizations, attending community picnics and benefit golf tournaments, and working both in public and behind the scenes to help resolve the deeply contested issue of Vidant Pungo Hospital’s impending closure.

Tine said his work in Raleigh is all about being a voice for the rural people of North Carolina.

“Up there, I am one representative with three and a half counties. There are 11 that represent Wake County,” he said. “I feel like I was able to get a lot of legislation in that I felt like they have ignored us otherwise. … We got five bills into law, two of those rolled into other bills — being from the east and the minority, I didn’t think that was going to be possible, but if you do the work you can get things done. It was really beyond what my expectations were going in.”

Tine currently serves on eight standing committees: Commerce and Job Development, its Subcommittee on Military and Agriculture, Education, Finance, Insurance, Regulatory Reform, its Subcommittee on Business and Labor and the Transportation committee, but it’s Tine’s interaction with constituents that has given the opportunity to learn and accurately represent the issues and positions of his constituents, according to his campaign manager, Keith Mason Jr.

“Paul is definitely one of the most responsive of politicians in the House in terms of his communication with his constituents. He’s very dedicated to responding to emails and phone calls from people on both sides of the aisle, because it’s a very moderate district,” Mason said.

“The most important thing about Paul is that he listens,” Mason said. “A lot of politicians do more talking than listening.”

Tine said no announcement regarding re-election will be made until December.