THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 28, 1994 TAG: 9410280589
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Let no voter say on election day that William C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr. is a horse-and-buggy candidate.
Owens nearly threw a shoe in the final furlongs this week when he found out that some Democratic ladies, including his wife, Cynthia, thought it would be nice if Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. arrived in a horse and buggy at a big Pasquotank County political rally next week.
Owens appeared to be miffed because nobody had run the idea of a horse-drawn governor by him for approval. Owens is a Democratic Pasquotank County commissioner who always keeps his harness polished just right, so he'll make a good impression on Hunt.
And for good reason.
The governor is coming to town next week to let the voters know that he supports Owens' efforts to get elected on Nov. 8 to the North Carolina 1st District House seat in the General Assembly.
Owens and other Democratic candidates will appear in a Best-Of-Show glad-handing competition on Thursday when the governor appears at the 4-H Livestock Arena behind the Museum of the Albemarle from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.
``I don't think anybody cleared the horse and buggy with the governor's office,'' said Owens earlier this week in a complaint to a local Democratic official. ``I doubt if the governor will come by horse.''
Owens is a straight-arrow Democratic brave who is a stickler for tribal protocol, particularly when it involves the Big Chief in Raleigh.
But, lo, on Thursday afternoon, Owens suddenly announced that Hunt may yet ride up to the Arena in a horse and buggy.
``I just heard from my wife, Cynthia, and she tells me it remains in the planning stage. Maybe the horse and buggy is still on,'' Owens said.
Owens might have had a change of heart after Rachel Perry, Hunt's communications director in Raleigh, told a reporter that ``You know perfectly well the governor will do anything to elect a Democrat.''
As most rural voters are aware, Hunt is a working farmer in Wilson County and to get out the vote he has probably ridden in more horse-drawn buggies, buckboards, prairie schooners and even newfangled tractors than any three other governors.
The plan to have Hunt arrive by carriage came up a couple of weeks ago when Cynthia Owens and other Democratic ladies were organizing the Livestock Arena festivities. Cynthia Owens is considered one of the best political managers in the Albemarle.
Tildon Whitehurst Sr., a Perquimans County Democrat and horse fancier, has a gentle sorrel mare named Rosalyn and the ladies planned to have Rosalyn arrive at the Livestock Arena pulling the governor in a beautiful Amish buggy owned by Whitehurst.
``Either my son or I will be glad to drive,'' said Whitehurst. Whitehurst's main concern was that it might be too dark for people to see the buggy.
Rosalyn is one of several Democratic wheelhorses that have hauled important Albemarle candidates, including state Rep. Vernon G. James, the veteran 1st District legislator who Owens wants to replace. James stepped down this year to make way for Owens, who still has to face John Schrote, a Currituck Republican, next month.
James, too, is a hands-on farmer from Weeksville and he and the governor could be the only Democratic horsetraders at next week's Livestock Arena rally who still know how to hook Rosalyn up to her Amish buggy traces.
``It's always been a wonderful experience to arrive at a rally in a horse and carriage,'' James told Owens this week, a comment that may have speeded Rosalyn back into harness. by CNB