THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 17, 1995 TAG: 9504170127
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COROLLA LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
In John Schrote's home on the Outer Banks is an old kneehole desk made of assuredly Republican heartwood that he can trace back to pre-Revolutionary Ohio.
``I brought the desk back here from Ohio, where my mother's great-grandfather had it made after he moved toward the western frontier from Bertie County,'' said Schrote. ``He was a Whig, so it looks like I'm a natural heir to conservative Republican politics.''
Schrote, 59, is a Currituck County latecomer, but he was a chin-out GOP candidate in last year's General Assembly elections. He got about 40 percent of the vote in the nominally Democratic 1st House District against the winner, now state Rep. William C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr., D-Pasquotank.
Any Republican who receives 40 percent of the vote for anything in the Albemarle causes considerable stress among indigenous Democratic pols.
And since the election, Schrote has cashed in on defeat by teaming up with Danny Gray of Hatteras Island, chairman of the Dare County Republican Party.
In what may be warnings of 1996 politics-to-come, Schrote and Gray have become the first Republican party operators from northeastern North Carolina to attract significant notice since the last century.
Gray eagerly supported Schrote-the-outlander as a worthy GOP candidate to take on Owens. Both Schrote and Gray also rallied to the cause of Walter B. Jones Jr., the namesake-son of a Democratic congressman who died in 1992. The younger Jones switched parties and successfully beat a Democrat to win the 3rd Congressional District seat.
Schrote insists he isn't setting up his candidacy for further elective efforts.
``Never say never, they say, but at the moment I'm not thinking about running again,'' he said last week.
``It was difficult for me, personally, when a few Republican leaders in this area openly wrote letters in support of Bill Owens,'' Schrote said. ``That isn't my kind of politics.''
To which Gray agreed.
``In all of our coming election activities we're going to emphasize Republican party loyalty,'' Gray said Thursday.
In recent weeks, the Schrote-Gray team has been wooed by other Republican leaders looking for help in the northeast.
When Jim Hastings, a candidate for state chairman of the Republican Party, came to Elizabeth City seeking support at the GOP state convention in Durham next month, he relied on Schrote and Gray to set his course and speed in the Albemarle.
R. Jack Hawke, the retiring chairman of the state GOP, met with Schrote three months ago to help local Republicans generate a louder voice for the Albemarle in party affairs.
As a result, when the 3rd District Republican Party met in convention at Morehead City recently, two Elizabeth City Republicans were named to high rank in the district leadership.
Frankie Meads, an Elizabeth City building supply executive, was elected vice-chairman of the 3rd District GOP. Dr. Jerome H. Goldschmidt, an Elizabeth City ophthalmologist, was named to the 3rd District GOP executive committee, along with Gray.
Gray was also picked as a northeast representative on the Republican Party County Chairmans' Association.
Schrote held White House and Capitol Hill jobs in Washington before coming to Corolla to live. He was named assistant secretary of the Interior Department by President George Bush and prior to that was deputy director of President Ronald Reagan's personnel office at the White House.
Before going to Washington, Schrote was an executive with several American-owned international construction companies. He and his wife, Rachel, have two children and four grandchildren. by CNB