THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100626
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
The tide of anti-Democrat, anti-incumbent sentiment that swept Republicans into control in Congress also had far-reaching effects in the North Carolina legislature.
The GOP gained control of the House for the first time since Reconstruction, winning 67 out of 120 seats, according to unofficial returns. Republicans picked up more than a dozen seats in the 50-member state Senate, where Democrats hold a precarious two-seat majority.
This means Speaker Daniel T. Blue, D-Wake, and the Democratic Party will lose control of the House of Representatives.
And while Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, D-Manteo, will likely keep his post, he will have to keep his Democratic forces in line and forge a coalition with Republicans to remain the Senate leader.
Democrat and Republican leaders struggled with words to describe the developments.
``It is the most fundamental shift in party politics in my lifetime, and perhaps this century,'' said 45-year-old Ran Coble, executive director of the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a Raleigh think-tank. ``People weren't just angry at incumbents, they were angry at Democratic incumbents.''
Rep. W. Robert Grady, R-Onslow, who serves as minority whip in the House and is dean of the coastal GOP delegation, agreed.
``Yesterday, the political world turned upside down as we know it,'' Grady said in an interview from his office in Jacksonville Wednesday. ``I don't believe that what happened was an accident or a fluke. People set out consciously to change the system.''
Basnight, one of the few Democratic leaders left in the legislature, described the situation in one sentence: ``A lot of us got caught on a train heading South.''
The Republican avalanche in legislative races unseated powerful Democrats from the coast to the mountains. Despite a massive campaign war chest, incumbent Sen. George Daniel, D-Caswell, powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, lost to Hugh Webster in the 21st District race, 53 to 47 percent. His counterpart in the House, Rep. Martin L. Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, lost his bid for re-election, finishing fourth in a field of six candidates.
And on the coast the winds of change blew Reps. Karen E. Gottovi, D-New Hanover, and Ronald L. Smith, D-Carteret, out of the legislature, strengthening the GOP hold on coastal North Carolina.
At the end of the evening, incumbent Sens. Beverly Perdue, D-Craven; Ed Warren, D-Pitt; John Kerr, D-Wayne; and newcomer W.C. ``Bill'' Owens of the far northeast provided Democrats with a few bright spots, winning over Republican opponents.
During campaigns statewide, Republicans focused on finances and crime in their attack on the Democrats, bashing them for not cutting taxes despite having a $1.2 billion surplus this year. And the crime issue returned, despite the special session that focused on the issue earlier this year.
Basnight, in an interview from his office in Raleigh Wednesday, said the Democrats apparently misjudged the mood of many North Carolinians when they were in session this year and failed to take action on many items of interest to the public - such as the repeal of the state's unpopular income tax. And, he said, Democrats also failed to get the message to the voters about their accomplishments this year.
``I think it's the big issues that we didn't allow to be addressed,'' he said. ``These came back and haunted us.''
The magnitude of the Republican victory in the state legislature surprised even the GOP.
``We had targeted between 10 and 12 seats in the House,'' said Rep. Jean Preston, D-Carteret. ``But we gained seats we had no idea we could win.''
The swing in the make-up of the General Assembly will foist roles on people that they have never encountered before.
Republicans who have never had the gavel will be appointed to head powerful committees in the House. In the Senate, GOP members may be tapped to chair committees as Basnight struggles to deal with a sizeable majority in that chamber without many of his trusted lieutenants.
The shift will also mean changes for Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., who is used to wielding great influence with the legislature.
For the first time since 1898, the Republicans will control one chamber of the legislature under a Democratic governor. spending for social programs in a way they've never had before.''
And the power shift to the right will bring changes in the issues that are debated by the legislature.
For example, Republican House members said Wednesday that the demise of the Democrats in that chamber will likely mean debate and a vote on the House floor for the gubernatorial veto, a statewide lottery and other issues that Democratic leaders have kept bottled up in committees for several sessions.
Political experts differed on the long-term implications of Tuesday's vote. While some said the election represented the end of the Democratic Party as it has been known in North Carolina, others say the long-term effects won't be known for at least two years.
``We were already addressing the conservative issues,'' said Thad Beyle, political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ``These issues have already preceded this change.''
``What we're seeing is the death throws of the Democratic Party as we used to know it,'' he said.
But Coble said it's too early to make that assumption. ILLUSTRATION: N.C. RACES
Here are unofficial results of legislative races in northeast North
Carolina:
HOUSE
DISTRICT 1
x-Bill Owens Jr., Dem 7,272 - 60 percent
John E. Schrote, GOP 4,817 - 40 percent
DISTRICT 2
x-Zeno L. Edwards, GOP (i) 8,617 - 61 percent
Etles Henries, Dem 5,509 - 39 percent
DISTRICT 4
x-Jean Rouse Preston, GOP (i) 13,566 - 30 percent
x-Macon Snowden, GOP 11,798 - 26 percent
Ronnie Smith, Dem (i) 10,989 - 24 percent
Bruce Ethridge, Dem 9,613 - 21 percent
SENATE
DISTRICT 3
x-Beverly Perdue, Dem (i) 20,450 - 58 percent
Don Dye, GOP 15,048 - 42 percent
DISTRICT 9
x-Ed Warren, Dem (i) 16,248 - 53 percent
Steven P. Rader, GOP 14,506 - 47 percent
Incumbent Sens. Marc Basnight, 1st District; Frank Ballance, 2nd
District, and R.L. Martin, 6th District, were unopposed.
KEYWORDS: ELECTION RESULTS CONGRESSIONAL RACE
by CNB