THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410290198
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. is coming Thursday to help Pasquotank County Commissioner William C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr. campaign for the General Assembly, and to the surprise of no one, other Democratic candidates will also flap into town like geese descending on a baited pond.
Hunt will arrive at 5 p.m. at the 4-H Livestock Arena behind the Museum of the Albemarle on U.S. 17, and every Albemarle Democrat who needs some extra votes on Nov. 8 is expected to be there to cadge a little charisma from the popular governor.
No doubt by coincidence, a group of senior Democrats has planned a private lunch on Thursday at the Vicki Villa Restaurant for U.S. Rep. H. Martin Lancaster, the five-term Goldsboro attorney who is in a re-election fight in the 3rd Congressional District.
Lancaster's district includes all or part of many northeastern coastal counties, including Pasquotank, and after the luncheon Lancaster's supporters will take him over to the Livestock Arena to help Jim Hunt shake hands.
``Congressman Lancaster and the governor are old friends and it will be a social visit,'' said D. Warren Hepler, chief N.C. aide and spokesman for Lancaster.
Lancaster is facing a major challenge from Walter B. Jones Jr., a Republican who left the Democratic Party last year to run against Lancaster.
Jones is the son of the late U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Sr., D-Farmville, a beloved Democratic icon who represented the old northeastern 1st Congressional District for 26 years in Congress.
Two years ago, Jones Jr., lost a Democratic primary to U.S. Rep. Eva M. Clayton in the 1st District and this year he decided to try his luck as a GOP candidate in the 3rd District.
Rep. Clayton, a Warren County Democrat, will likewise be on hand at the Livestock Arena to greet Hunt, a Clayton campaign planner said Friday.
``Mrs. Clayton will be starting another `Trail Blazing Tour' and she'll be in Elizabeth City during the Governor's visit,'' said Cathy Scott, the campaign aide in Warrenton.
In 1992 Clayton became the first black and the first female to go to Congress from North Carolina since the turn of the century, and one of the ways that she turned out her winning votes was through a ``trail blazing'' tour through all 1st District counties in a motor home.
``We'll be starting out this year in a similar vehicle and again we'll travel through all of the District's 28 counties,'' said Scott.
Dozens of other Democratic candidates are expected to be on hand to catch some of the governor's political waves.
Master of ceremonies will be state Rep. Vernon G. James, D-Pasquotank, who is stepping down this year so Owens can run for his 1st N.C. District seat in the state House of Representatives. Owens will face John Schrote, a Currituck County Republican, on Nov. 8.
Also likely to attend is a sorrel mare named Rosalyn, whose job it may be to provide a colorful entrance for Hunt. Rosalyn, owned by Tildon Whitehurst Sr., a Perquimans County contractor and Democrat, will be hitched to an Amish buggy for a brief but grand arrival for the governor.
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE ELECTION NORTH CAROLINA by CNB