THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110343
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICH SQUARE LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Herbert Marion ``Ted'' Tyler is a hardy biennial candidate: He blooms every two years when elections are held in North Carolina's 1st Congressional District.
Sure enough, the Republican veteran showed up at the State Board of Elections in Raleigh last week to register to run for a third time against U.S. Rep. Eva M. Clayton, the Warren County 1st District Democrat who has twice beaten Tyler.
Clayton has not yet filed, but expects to soon, said state Sen. Frank W. Ballance Jr., D-Warren, who acted as Clayton's campaign manager in her successful earlier campaigns. So far it doesn't look like any Democrats plan to oppose Clayton this year in the 1st District Democratic primary, Ballance said.
Clayton, after the 1992 statewide voter redistricting, became the first female and the first African American to go to Congress from North Carolina in this century.
Tyler, as a solo Republican in predominantly Democratic country, has had tough sledding in his efforts to displace the incumbent, even though in 1994 he rolled up more than 50,000 Republican votes in his second loss to Clayton.
``For me a lot depends on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules this spring on North Carolina's 1992 congressional redistricting,'' Tyler said Wednesday.
``If the General Assembly has to redraw the 1st District and if that puts me in a district with Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. or Rep. David Funderburk, then I'll have to drop out.
``Walter and David are my friends and I wouldn't run against them,'' Tyler said.
The Supreme Court is considering an appeal from a group of white Durham Republicans who have pressed a lawsuit claiming the new 12th District, which includes Durham, violates their civil rights. The Supreme Court has previously upset similar redistricting in Georgia.
If the Durham Republicans win, the high court can order all of the state's congressional districts redrawn.
Jones, whose late father was a 1st District Democratic congressman for 26 years, is running for re-election in the new 3rd District. Funderburk, an ultra-conservative Republican who has had help from the National Congressional Club, is seeking re-election in the adjoining 2nd Congressional District.
The 1992 redistricting was enacted by a Democratic-controlled General Assembly and many old congressional districts swapped or shared voting areas in the new mapping. The 1st and 12th districts were given African-American voter majorities to help elect black U.S. representatives under U.S. Voting Rights guidelines, while the new 2nd and the 3rd districts remained predominantly white.
While other candidates are jockeying for position in the 1996 races, the 60-year-old Tyler is running hard.
``We've already leased a campaign headquarters office in Rich Square and that'll please my wife,'' Tyler said.
Kathryn Tyler, with their three grown children, has managed her husband's previous campaigns from their home.
``If Ted wins, at least I'll know he'll only serve three terms - he believes in three-term limits,'' said Kathryn Tyler this week.
Tyler is a buttoned-down pharmaceutical salesman who was mayor of Rich Square in Northampton County for 10 years. The county, on the border with Virginia near Lake Gaston, is an enclave of more than 12,000 almost equally divided black and white registered voters.
In past congressional elections, GOP state headquarters in Raleigh has been indifferent to Tyler's determined efforts to defeat Clayton.
That pattern may continue.
``We haven't had any contact with Mr. Tyler,'' said Dan Gurley, a GOP spokesman at Raleigh party headquarters.
Tyler has financed his campaigns and sounds like he is ready to do so again.
``We're going to win in 1996,'' Tyler said as he again prepared to go up against the 53 percent majority of Democratic black voters in the 1st District.
He added: ``Dizzy Dean, the great pitcher, used to say, `It ain't braggin' if you can do it.'
``I can do it.''
This year, Tyler has added a line from W.C. Fields to his campaign comments: ``Fields used to say, `If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again - then quit.'
``This is my third time.'' by CNB