THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411080533
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH AND MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 232 lines
The final bell will ring Tuesday on North Carolina's 3rd District congressional race, ending what is arguably the state's bloodiest political fight since the 1984 U.S. Senate race between current Gov. Jim Hunt and Sen. Jesse Helms.
Democratic Congressman Martin Lancaster has hammered at Republican Walter Jones Jr.'s attendance record during Jones' five terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Lancaster also claims that Jones voted for higher taxes on tobacco and the largest tax increase in North Carolina history.
Jones, a Republican and the son of longtime U.S. Democratic Rep. Walter Jones Sr., counterpunches by trying to link Lancaster with the Clinton administration.
Using figures from Congressional Quarterly, Jones claims that Lancaster voted with the Clinton administration 81 percent of the time.
He also claims that Lancaster is responsible for the largest tax increase in American history. The Jones campaign has used a photograph of Lancaster jogging with the president to tie the incumbent to a president seen as a political liability.
However, Democrats came up with a photograph of Jones, a onetime Democrat, and President Clinton at a 1991 Research Triangle fund-raiser for then-candidate Clinton. Federal Election Commission records show that Jones contributed $250 to Clinton's cause.
Jones contended Friday he met with Clinton because he, Jones, was a Democrat then, but he said he voted for George Bush in 1992 when Clinton was elected.
As the storm rages in the 3rd District, North Carolina's 1st Congressional District race, however, is relatively calm. Incumbent Democrat Eva Clayton is expected to win easily as she did two years ago over Republican Ted Tyler of Rich Square.
While the Clayton-Tyler race appears all but settled, the 3rd District race is considered too close to call. Only an angry electorate can determine the impact of what both candidates acknowledge has been a negative campaign.
``I have never, ever dreamed that I would be in a campaign where it got so down in the gutter,'' Jones told a Goldsboro audience Thursday.
``And it couldn't get much worse than the people who put those ads on. I guess I'll call them sewer rats, because that's about what they are.''
Jones has accused his opponent of trying to ``fool, mislead, and lie to the voters.''
Specifically, Jones refers often to charges he missed one-third of the votes cast in the N.C. House of Representatives, charges he claims are ``distorted'' and ``border on a lie.''
``I will put my 10 years of service up against anyone who served in the General Assembly,'' he said.
``If I had missed a third of the votes, I would have missed over 3,000 votes.''
Lancaster contends his campaign began with an issue-oriented message, but changed tactics after Jones launched his ads alleging the Clinton link.
``I want positive, issue-oriented campaigns,'' Lancaster said Wednesday in Buxton.
``But I am not going to be bashed in the mouth over and over again without cold-cocking him when I've got the opportunity. I'm not going to take the kind of bashing he gave me for five weeks without hitting back.''
Jones has embraced the GOP's ``Contract With America,'' an outline of what the party will do within the first 100 days if it becomes the majority party in Congress. He has also sounded traditional conservative themes, family values, prayer in schools, and a strong national defense.
Jones has also been helped in his race by some big names from the GOP, including Sen. Jesse Helms, former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole, former Education Secretary William Bennett, and others, as well as racing legend Richard Petty.
Republicans have also tried to portray Tuesday's race as a ideological war. Helms has called it ``a battle for the soul of America.''
Lancaster has tried to distance himself from Clinton, and cites his own record on issues related to North Carolina's military installations, and his work on the House Armed Services Committee.
Also, Lancaster claims credit for leading in the fight against a rise in the tobacco tax. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn, D-Ga., has called Lancaster ``a champion'' of North Carolina's defense installations.
Lancaster also cites his opposition to the Clinton administration's health-care initiative that would have been funded largely by an increase in the cigarette tax.
``We don't go jogging with Bill Clinton to get advice from him,'' said Lancaster campaign manager Warren Hepler.
``We go in an effort to give advice. But he doesn't always listen. Martin Lancaster represents the people of the 3rd District of North Carolina, not Bill Clinton.''
Both sides are confident of victory.
``It's a hard question,'' said Hepler, when asked to speculate on turnout. ``I don't know what effect the negative tone of the campaign is going to have. We feel we've run an effective campaign. We've had our opponent on the defensive for the last two to three weeks. We've grabbed the Big Mo (Momentum).''
Jones campaign manager Karen Rotterman also was optimistic, and said the development linking Jones to Clinton would have ``no impact'' on the race.''
``This is just a lot of sound and fury, and it will have no effect at all,'' she said.
In at least one 3rd District county, absentee ballot requests are down from the 1992 presidential election year, and compared to the last off-year vote in 1990.
``There's a lot of voter apathy out there,'' said Lynda Midgett, supervisor of the Dare County Board of Elections.
Midgett said 324 absentee ballots were requested in 1990, compared to only 231 this year.
Midgett said 625 ballots were requested in the 1992 presidential year, but presidential races generally draw higher participation and are not fair models of comparison.
Both sides agree that in a district where registered Democrats hold a numberical edge, the amount of conservative crossover from the party will be the key.
``We're hoping for a big turnout,'' said Rotterman. ``The 3rd District went for George Bush and Lauch Faircloth. It's a very conservative district.''
Lancaster will appear at a bridge opening in New Bern Monday morning before crossing the district on the campaign's last day. He will vote Tuesday in his hometown of Goldsboro, and monitor the returns at home and at his headquarters there.
Jones was scheduled to fly to a number of locations in the district on Monday. He and other Republicans will gather in Greenville Tuesday night.
In contrast to the 3rd District election fight, the congressional race in the 1st District has been as mannerly as a chamber music concert.
When Republican 1st District challenger Tyler and Democratic Congresswoman Clayton of Warrenton appeared at a meet-the-candidates debate in Greenville three weeks ago after a bitter dialogue between Lancaster and Jones on the stage of Rose High School.
Tyler saw Clayton in the audience and sat beside her while they listened to the name-calling between the 3rd District candidates.
``We're not going to act like that, are we?'' Tyler asked Clayton.
``We certainly aren't,'' replied Clayton.
Then, when their turn came, Tyler helped Clayton up the steps to the high school stage.
``And not one time did we raise our voices,'' Tyler recalled last week, ``We didn't even refer to each other as `my opponent'.
``We just talked about the issues and our respective points of view.''
And those viewpoints are more than divergent in the new 1st District that was created by the General Assembly in 1992 to level the playing field for black candidates.
Clayton, the first African American and the first woman to go to Congress from North Carolina in this century, defeated Tyler in 1992. But he came back running hard this year. Tyler was unopposed in the Republican primary.
``I got more votes in the 1st District than President Bush got in '92,'' Tyler told supporters last week in his lonely, one-man campaign that has crossed the convoluted 28-county election area that stretches down the coastal plain from Virginia to South Carolina.
Tyler is a textbook Republican who says he wants to go to Congress so he can say ``No!'' to spending bills.
But he takes an independent stand on abortion: ``The government shouldn't pay for them,'' he says.
The 59-year old Tyler is a successful businessman who has been a pharmaceutical sales executive for Squibb for more than two decades.
For nine years he was regularly re-elected mayor of Rich Square in Northampton County.
``We have to reduce the deficit and we can't do it by spending more money on non-productive pork-barrel programs,'' he says.
But while the GOP has gone all-out to help Jones in the neighboring 3rd Congressional District, the party ``hasn't given me a dime for this important 1st District race,'' Tyler said last week. But he isn't angry.
``I'm sure it's a business decision, to help the 3rd District candidate, but I'm going to win, too,'' he said. Tyler has paid his own way, attending dozens of campaign meetings up and down his eastern district.
He expects to spend about $20,000 of his own money by election day. He has an easy, comfortable manner that makes listeners rush up to pump his hand after his speeches. An unusually large number of them are apparently registered Democrats.
As a practicing conservative, Tyler believes in less government and more control of welfare spending as well as election funding and term limits.
By contrast, Eva Clayton reflects the philosophies of a Democratic ``Great Society.'' She believes in the benefits of big government, particularly as a means of uplifting minorities through social spending programs.
Clayton, a 59-year old grandmother, has been in public life for most of her career, as a Warren County commissioner and as a former assistant secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Natural Resources and Community Development.
In Congress, where she was elected president of the 1992 freshman class in the U.S. House, she has quietly followed a liberal course. She voted for gays in the military, health care, and has vigorously supported farm support bills that would help Albemarle farmers. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Signs supporting political candidates line the roadside on N.C. 345
near Skyco on Roanoke Island. The 3rd District Congressional race
has been a barn-burner, while the 1st District race has been more
polite.
Graphic
HIGHLIGHTED RACES
Tuesday is election day. Polls statewide will be open from 6:30
a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Here are some of the most closely watched races in
the Albemarle area:
1st Congressional District: Democratic U.S. Rep. Eva M. Clayton
vs. Republican Ted Tyler.
3rd Congressional District: Republican Walter B. Jones Jr. vs.
Democratic U.S. Rep. H. Martin Lancaster.
1st N.C. House District (Camden, Currituck, Pasquotank and part
of Perquimans counties): Democrat W.C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr. vs.
Republican John E. Schrote.
1st N.C. Judicial District (Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare,
Gates, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties): Republican James A.
Beales Jr. vs. Democratic Judge J.C. Cole.
BEAUFORT
Sheriff: Republican Lorraine Voliva Linton vs. Democratic Sheriff
Nelson L. Sheppard.
CHOWAN
Clerk of Court: Democrat Michael John McArthur vs. Republican
Barbara J. Kehayes.
CURRITUCK
Commissioners: In Poplar Branch Township, unaffiliated candidate
John D. Donaldson, Democrat Ray Griggs, Republican Paul O'Neal.
At large, Democrat J. Owen Etheridge, Republican Michael D.
Weatherly.
School Board: In Poplar Branch Township (one seat), Michael Neil
Arbogast, Clyde J. Cash, James B. ``Jimmy'' Jones, Sharon Gibbs
Newbern, Garry Owens.
In Crawford Township (one seat), Wayne A. Graham, Wayne Morris
Sawyer, incumbent Sam A. Walker Jr.
At large (one seat), Christopher L. Dailey, Colleen S. Dayhoff,
incumbent Mary Ellen Maxwell, Wade E. Morgan.
DARE
Sheriff: Democratic Sheriff Albert L. ``Bert'' Austin vs.
unaffiliated candidate Charles E. Dail.
Commissioners: In District 1, Republican Charles D. ``Chuck''
Elms vs. Democrat Shirley Hassell.
In District 2, Republican William L. ``Bill'' Hauschild vs.
Democratic Commissioner Douglas W. ``Doug'' Langford.
PASQUOTANK
Sheriff: Democrat Randy Cartwright vs. Republican H.T. ``Tom''
Marshall.
KEYWORDS: ELECTION NORTH CAROLINA by CNB