THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020537
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
For poles-apart political reasons, a sense of crisis will overshadow Democrats at the 1st and 3rd Congressional District party conventions Saturday in the Albemarle.
Black-majority Democrats in the 1st District will face their first open split when two highly regarded leaders fight for the local party chairmanship. The election in Plymouth High School will have much to do with the future of 1st District Rep. Eva M. Clayton, D-Warren, the first black and the first woman to go to Congress from North Carolina this century.
In the predominantly white 3rd District, a new chairman will be elected at Saturday's party convention in Washington, N.C., just a few miles south of Plymouth, and will face the daunting challenge of reclaiming the vote from Republicans who won the district House seat in 1994.
The 1st and 3rd districts parallel each other down North Carolina's coastal plain from the Virginia line to South Carolina. But the two enclaves couldn't be farther apart in their political psyches.
The 1st District has drawn national attention as a testing ground for black voting rights established by legislative fiat under federal auspices.
In creating the two new districts, the General Assembly assembled cast offwhite voting blocs left over from the original 1st District and stuffed them into a new 3rd District. Pockets of black voting strength from previous districts were likewise resettled in the new 1st District.
But in the 3rd District, displaced white Democrats didn't have time to find their sea legs before the Republican storm smote them last year. As a result, U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-Farmville, easily defeated Democrat H. Martin Lancaster Jr., a five -term Democrat.
Both districts were created in 1992 when the Assembly redrew the political map of North Carolina.
The 1st District was deliberately formed to favor the election of black candidates. A similar minority district, the 12th, was established between Durham and Charlotte, and it, too, elected an African-American representative.
Many political observers feel that Saturday's election of new Democratic chairs in the two Congressional districts will establish the political character of eastern North Carolina for years to come.
In the 1st District, Isaac A. Battle, a retired Gatesville school principal and decorated World War II veteran, will seek a regular two-year term as party chairman.
Battle was elected last year to fill the unexpired term of James Carlton Cole of Hertford. Cole was appointed to the District Court bench.
Battle is expected to be opposed by state Sen. Frank W. Ballance Jr., D-Warren, and this could set off a divisive fight. Ballance was Clayton's campaign manager in two successful elections and many believe that Ballance has been hand-picked to be her successor in Congress.
White Democrats in the 1st District were trying hard this week to head off a fight between Battle and Ballance.
``In the long run, it can only hurt the party,'' said Betty Meggs, chair of the vote-heavy Pasquotank County Democratic Party.
Many other 1st District Democratic leaders admit that a divided voting majority could conceivably result in Republican maneuvers that could upset Democratic control of the district.
Battle's supporters are expected to include state Rep. Milton F. Fitch Jr., D-Wilson, who wouldn't mind going to Congress someday. Fitch's forces will try to win a two-year term for Battle as a means of heading off a Clayton-Ballance coalition that could establish the succession to the 1st District House seat for years to come.
In the 3rd District, Democratic delegates will go to their convention in Beaufort County Community College with a Currituck County Democratic leader from Point Harbor determined to win the chairmanship.
Gwenn Cruickshanks, who has held many state and national party posts, has been campaigning for several weeks for the 3rd District chair.
Cruickshanks is expected to be opposed by James Stephenson, a Kinston attorney.
``I've been asking a lot of my Democratic Party friends to help me with my campaign,'' Cruickshanks said Wednesday. She said she had sought help from local party leaders with whom she has worked in Democratic campaigns.
Stephenson is widely known in state Democratic circles as a young party leader on the way up. He is active in many political organizations and was one of the early organizers of the N.C. Clinton-for-President campaign. by CNB