THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100612
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENVILLE LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
Congressman-elect Walter B. Jones Jr. woke up to a dream become reality Wednesday morning, a Republican winner in the 3rd U.S. House District where conservative voters drove a stake through a heartland of Democratic Party dominance.
It may be years before the politics of coastal North Carolina recovers from the stunning defeat that Jones inflicted on four-term Rep. H. Martin Lancaster, D-Goldsboro.
During a long election night in a Greenville hotel ballroom, several hundred Jones supporters watched their come-lately Republican candidate move off to a small but early lead and then hold it comfortably into Wednesday's wee hours.
Jones remained at his home in Farmville, 12 miles away, waiting for a concession from Lancaster that never came.
``We never heard a word from him,'' Jones said Wednesday morning.
At 1:20 a.m. Wednesday and still not sure of victory, Jones went to the Greenville ballroom to thank his followers and urge them to delay the balloon-busting celebration until the final figures were tallied.
Hours later the final returns were posted:
Jones........72,250.
Lancaster....65,005.
``Everything comes in the Lord's time,'' Jones said after a late breakfast. He looked younger than his 51 years despite less than three hours sleep.
Jones repeatedly credited The Almighty with a victory that brought visions of Old Testament punishment to some Democrats.
But Jones has also known his share of political hair shirts. He endured two 1992 1st Congressional primary election defeats as a Democrat. Before that he was virtually ostracized in the N.C. General Assembly after he led a House rebellion of younger Democrats to oust a respected older Democratic speaker.
``You have to have the courage to make tough decisions,'' Jones said.
For most of his adult life, Jones has struggled to outrun the long shadow cast by his late father, Walter Jones Sr., a Democratic Party stalwart who represented the old 1st Congressional District in Northeastern North Carolina for 26 years.
The elder Jones died at age 79 in 1991, full of the aches and pains of age and the honors won as a deserving Democrat in a lifetime of yellow-dog politics.
The death of the old congressman's first wife, the former Doris Long of Edenton, and the elder Jones' subsequent remarriage may have lessened family bonds for his grown son and daughter.
Before his death, Jones Sr. did not conceal his disappointment at a U.S. Justice Department policy that forced the N.C. General Assembly to redraw congressional districts in North Carolina.
The reapportionment transferred enclaves of African-American voting strength to an entirely new 28-county 1st Congressional District that stretched from the Virginia border to South Carolina. Many white voters - mostly conservative Democrats - were transferred to Lancaster's new 3rd District.
``My father told me before he announced his retirement from politics in 1992 that he no longer felt that he knew the voters in the new 1st District,'' Jones Jr. said.
``He also said - and I will never forget this - that he would understand if I became a Republican.''
The younger Jones served 10 years as a Democratic state representative from Farmville before he jumped to the Republican Party in 1992 for the run against Lancaster in the 3rd District.
Jones doesn't even live in the 3rd District, but the district contains thousands of conservative Democrats who once voted in his late father's 1st Congressional District.
The U.S. Constitution allows a qualified U.S. House candidate to live in one district and run in another.
Jones switched parties after he lost two Democratic 1st District Congressional primaries to Eva Clayton in 1992. Clayton, the first African American and the first woman to go to Congress from North Carolina in this century, was re-elected Tuesday to another two-year term.
Bitter Albemarle Democrats insisted Wednesday that Jones won because he caught a Republican tide and rode it to victory.
``Baloney,'' said Karen Rotterman, an admired political strategist in Raleigh who developed tactics for Jones' campaign, including a celebrated picture of Lancaster jogging with President Clinton. ``Look who he's running around with,'' said a Jones' TV ad that savaged Lancaster during the campaign.
One veteran Democratic campaigner who seems to agree with Rotterman is William ``Bill'' Hodges, who spent decades as chairman of the old 1st District Democratic Party when it was the private preserve of the elder Jones.
``You have to be 88 years old to think this is funny,'' said Hodges at his Washington, N.C., home. ``But when we Democrats broke our necks to put all the black voters in the 1st District and all of the white Democratic conservatives in the new 3rd District, we simply handed young Walter his winning edge. Sure it was a surprise, but we should have seen it coming weeks ago.''
Jones promised Wednesday that he would organize a Washington staff that would ``focus on our familiar problems in the northeast.''
He promised to support the controversial jetties that the U.S. Army Engineers want to build to stabilize Oregon Inlet, and continue a campaign originally launched by his father to ban or rigidly control oil or gas drilling off the Outer Banks.
Jones also said he looked forward to working with the new Republican majority in Congress.
``I will pray for guidance because it'll be up to a lot of congressional freshmen to solve some of the most difficult problems ever to face our nation,'' Jones said.
``Controlling the national debt and controlling welfare costs go together. The cost of welfare is now mind-boggling.
``We're going to have to make some tough decisions and the people expect their new representatives to listen to them.''
He recalled some advice from his father.
``I remember when I told him I hoped to someday sit in his chair on Capitol Hill, he said, `Walter, don't forget that it's a sacred trust and it's only temporary. Only the people last.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
``Everything comes in the Lord's time,'' Congressman-elect Walter B.
Jones Jr. says after a late breakfast Wednesday. He looked younger
than his 51 years despite less than three hours sleep.
Chart
3rd District Returns
For copy of chart, see microfilm or Library clip files
(ELECTION--NORTH CAROLINA)
KEYWORDS: ELECTION RESULTS CONGRESSIONAL RACE
by CNB