THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604110321
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PLYMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
There was no beating around the cash-register when a happy Democrat handed Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. a bulging, legal-size envelope Wednesday at a re-election fund-raiser in Washington County.
``What's this?'' asked Hunt.
``About $8,000,'' said C.J. Belch, a retired Plymouth insurance executive who was among about 200 Democrats who attended the Shrine Club luncheon for Hunt.
With more than seven months to go before election day, the Shrine Club fund-raiser put local Democrats far over a $17,000 countywide quota for their ``Re-elect Jim Hunt'' campaign.
``We already have $20,000,'' said another Hunt supporter at the $50-a-plate lunch.
The governor responded with a stem-winding speech that pushed the right buttons for Washington County.
``U.S. 64 will be four-laned all the way to Raleigh by the year 2004,'' Hunt said of the key highway on the south shore of Albemarle Sound that connects Plymouth to Manteo and the Outer Banks beaches. The road is also the main road to Raleigh from Plymouth.
Work on the mostly two-lane and twisty highway east of Williamston will begin before the end of the century, Hunt said.
He hit his stride when he promised better pay for teachers and smaller, more manageable classes in the public schools.
``We're losing 40 percent of our new teachers after three years in our schools - what a waste!'' said Hunt.
``By the year 2000 we must raise our teacher salaries to at least the national average,'' the governor said.
When Hunt was inaugurated for a third term on a cold Raleigh day in 1993, he promised to focus his return to politics on child care and education. He repeatedly told the Washington County audience that that was still his goal.
``We have to set higher standards in our schools, we have to start earlier, we have to get tough.
``But if we stick with it, we can change the future,'' the governor said.
He also promised to get guns out of schools and get more prison inmates doing more useful public work.
The governor, who raises cattle on a Wilson County farm when he is not in the Statehouse, praised the Washington County Democrats for developing the heritage of their community.
``More than $300 million in new investments have come to Washington County in the last three years,'' he said.
``We're going to keep on cutting taxes, creating jobs and reforming welfare.''
But repeatedly the governor returned to the school systems he wants to improve and the need for earlier education of children.
``We need to educate the parents, too,'' Hunt said. ``We need to see that the children get the shots and medical attention. That's what Smart Start is going to do.''
From Plymouth, the governor went to Goose Creek State Park in Beaufort County, where he took a wetlands walk with eighth-grade science students from Bath Elementary School. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
James B. Hunt Jr.
by CNB