THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 13, 1994 TAG: 9408130276
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Sen. Jesse Helms, the spokesman for GOP conservatives, is coming to the Albemarle to help Republican Walter B. Jones Jr. in his race against incumbent Democrat H. Martin Lancaster for the 3rd District seat in the U.S. House.
Helms will be guest of honor at two Republican fund-raisers for Jones in Elizabeth City on Aug. 31.
The Washington announcement of Helms' political visit came a week after Democratic Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., sent a three-page letter to party followers asking them to rally around Lancaster with increased campaign contributions.
Several area Democrats said Hunt's letter, which seemed to indicate the governor believes Jones is a dangerous political threat, probably either triggered or anticipated Helms' decision to jump into the 3rd District fight.
``You can bet the Republicans will try every trick to defeat Martin Lancaster in 1994,'' wrote Hunt, pointing out that ``the Republicans think they have a better candidate this year.'' Lancaster easily defeated GOP hopeful Benny Thomas ``Tommy'' Pollard of Jacksonville in 1992.
Helms hasn't come to Elizabeth City since 1984 when he was running for re-election and gained a knock-down, drag-out U.S. Senate victory over Hunt.
The defeat so jolted Hunt that he licked his wounds for eight years before running for, and winning, a third term as Democratic governor in 1992.
``Jim Hunt's letter probably helped the Republicans a lot more than it did Martin Lancaster,'' said an influential Dare County Democratic leader this week. ``Until the governor said so, not many people believed Walter Jones was a heavyweight.''
Northeastern Republicans were elated at news of Helms' planned junket.
``If Michael Jordan came to Manteo to play basketball it wouldn't interest as many people as this,'' said Daniel Gray, of Hatteras Island, chairman of the Dare County Republican Party.
Frankie Meads, Pasquotank County GOP chairman and an Elizabeth City building supply executive, said he was sure tickets to the two Helms functions on Aug. 31 would be ``quickly sold out.''
``Sen. Helms will speak at a Republican banquet at the Shrine Club in Elizabeth City at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 31,'' Meads said. ``Before that, he will be a guest at a private reception.''
Meads said tickets for the Shrine Club banquet, where E. Ray Etheridge, a Currituck County attorney and GOP party chairman, will be toastmaster, will be $20 each, or $35 a couple. Tickets to the private reception at the residence of Dr. Jerome H. Goldschmidt, a Pasquotank County ophthalmologist, will be $150, he said.
``I'd like to remind everybody that historically when Sen. Helms comes to Elizabeth City, the GOP wins,'' Meads said.
Other area Republican candidates will be present to bask in the glow of Helms' political support. They include John Schrote, a Corolla Republican, who is running for the 1st District N.C. House seat against Democrat William C. ``Bill'' Owens of Elizabeth City.
Helms' visit will add spice to northeastern North Carolina politics.
In boosting Jones, Helms will be helping a five-term Democratic state representative in the N.C. General Assembly who only recently switched to the GOP.
Jones is the 51-year-old son of the late Democratic Rep. Walter B. Jones Sr., of Farmville, who represented the old 1st Congressional District for 26 years. The elder Jones died in 1992, and his son signed up as a Republican when Democrats failed to endorse him to fill out his father's unexpired term.
But before the elder Jones died, the N.C. General Assembly, under U.S. Voting Rights guidelines, had remapped the old 1st District to favor election of African-American candidates.
In the 1992 redistricting, Lancaster's 3rd District picked up a heavy preponderance of white voters, many of them former conservative Democratic supporters of the elder Jones. For that reason, young Jones decided that his best congressional chance this year was against Lancaster, even though Jones lives in the 1st District. The U.S. Constitution allows him to run for any North Carolina congressional seat.
At his Greenville campaign headquarters, Jones predictably had kind words for Helms.
``Sen. Helms continues to be one of America's strongest voices in the U.S. Senate,'' said Jones. ``He is always fighting for the values and conservative principles which have made this country great.''
On Capitol Hill, Jones' father - during his 12 U.S. House terms - often worked closely with Helms on N.C. legislation.
``Personally, we're good friends,'' the elder Jones once said. Helms said the same thing about the tough old Democrat from Farmville. ILLUSTRATION: Lancaster
Helms
Jones
by CNB