THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030409
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUXTON LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
If there was any question that this was Rep. Martin Lancaster's toughest campaign audience this side of a Republican cookout, Cape Hatteras School student Chris Matney removed all doubt.
``With all the problems our country faces, people are sick and tired of all the negative campaigning,'' the eighth-grader said. ``Why did you resort to dirty campaigning? Why don't you talk about qualifications and issues?''
Lancaster, speaking to middle and high school students at Hatteras School, responded by giving his young audience a glimpse of what the final days of this rock 'em, sock 'em 3rd District congressional race may bring. He took his opponent, Republican Walter Jones Jr., to task on negative campaigning.
``My opponent began in the middle of August running attack ads. He has now spent over $250,000 on attack ads. He has yet, in a single radio or television ad, to tell anybody in the 3rd District of North Carolina a single qualification that he has to make him a good person to serve in Congress or his position on a single issue,'' Lancaster said. ``Every single ad he has run has been an attack ad on me.''
Jones, campaigning in Duplin County Wednesday night, denied that his ads were negative.
``We don't consider our ads negative, because we give the voters the source for where we get our information,'' said Jones. ``(Lancaster) has engaged in an outrageous distortion of my record during my 10 years in the General Assembly. He says I missed one-third of the votes cast `while in Raleigh.' That's a distortion bordering on a lie.''
Jones said he missed about one-third of the votes cast during his last year in the North Carolina House, because he was in a runoff for the 1st District congressional seat held by Eva Clayton, but that because he was a candidate in the race, he was granted excused absences.''
``I'll put my record of public service in Raleigh against anyone's. Our ads are not distortions. When we say Martin Lancaster voted with Bill Clinton 81 percent of the time, those numbers came from Congressional Quarterly,'' Jones said.
Lancaster said that, when he began running his own commercials after Labor Day, they were ``positive, issue-oriented ads'' concerning his qualifications, values and beliefs, while Jones continued attacks.
``We ran a poll,'' Lancaster said. ``We found that his attacks were in fact beating us, that the people in this district were listening to those attacks. They were being swayed by those attacks.''
Lancaster said that five weeks into the campaign, he and his staff chose to respond to the negative commercials.
``We had a choice,'' he said. ``We could lose the election, by choosing to remain positive, and let him continue to attack us for 12 weeks, or we could respond. I didn't want to respond.''
Lancaster said he wanted to debate Jones at a number of different locations in the district, but that Jones only showed up for one of the ``forums.''
Lancaster told Matney, the student, that he agreed with him, and that both the candidates and the district would be better off if issues and qualifications were discussed.
``If we had talked about issues rather than bashing each other on television, we would have all benefited. I agree with you wholeheartedly,'' he said.
``I hope you will share this message not only with this opponent, but two years from now with the opponent I'm running against then. I want positive, issue-oriented campaigns. But I am not going to be bashed in the mouth over and over again without cold-cocking him when I've got an opportunity. I'm not going to take the kind of bashing he gave me for five weeks without hitting back.''
Matney said later he was satisfied with Lancaster's response - but added that if he were old enough to vote, he'd support Jones.
Students questioned Lancaster, a four-term incumbent, on a variety of issues, ranging from teen pregnancy to the franking privilege. Here is a sampling of his answers.
TEEN PREGNANCY: As part of a welfare-reform proposal, Lancaster said, federal policy should be designed to require both parents to take responsibility for the child, and in the event the parents are too young or are unable to properly care for the child, then the grandparents should get involved.
Lancaster said the key is to encourage teens not to get pregnant in the first place, but in the event they do, ``it is not the responsibility of the taxpayers to provide for that child. The whole idea is not to get pregnant in the first place.''
CRIME AND GUN CONTROL: Lancaster said he opposes federal gun control and the assault weapons ban. However, he restated his case for his support of the crime bill, saying the benefits of the bill outweighed negative aspects, such as the assault weapons ban.
ON U.S. POLICY IN HAITI: Lancaster said he did not support the use of U.S. troops to restore the Aristide government to power. He said the U.S. was ``fortunate'' that force was not required in that country because of the efforts of former President Jimmy Carter, Gen. Colin Powell, and Sen. Sam Nunn in negotiating a transfer of power.
Lancaster will be in Pasquotank County today, while Jones will campaign in Goldsboro with U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.
Also on the campaign trail Wednesday was Floyd Lupton, a popular and perennial Democratic candidate for ``associate congressman,'' but his name won't be on a ballot next Tuesday.
Lupton came beating the drums for Lancaster. ``Martin Lancaster is an old friend, and he was a friend of my boss in Washington,'' said Lupton in Elizabeth City. ``I'm not on Martin's campaign staff, and I'm not getting paid for this or anything like that - I'd just like to help Martin Lancaster get re-elected.''
For 26 years, Lupton was the trusted chief Washington aide for the late 1st District Rep. Walter B. Jones Sr., father of Lancaster's opponent.
The beloved Democratic congressman died two years ago and left behind an unmatched reputation for constituent services. But during his lifetime, the elder Jones conceded it was mostly Lupton who got the rural 1st District roads paved, who found the Post Office jobs, and who did all those other favors for the folks back home.
``Floyd's been recognized as our associate congressman or assistant 1st District Representative for years,'' William Hodges, a Washington, N.C., hotel owner said at the time. Hodges was chairman of the old 1st District Democratic Party.
But the 1st District in 1992 had been remapped under U.S. voting rights guidelines to ensure fairer elections, and the Democrats supported Rep. Eva M. Clayton, D-Warren, for the interim appointment. Clayton subsequently won the general election and became the first African American and the first female to go to Congress from North Carolina since the turn of the century.
She'll be among the Democrats at the Elizabeth City gathering with Gov. Jim Hunt and Lancaster this evening, a few hours after Helms and Jones try to steal their thunder by campaigning in Lancaster's home town in Goldsboro. MEMO: Staff writer Mason Peters also contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: ELECTION NORTH CAROLINA HOUSE OF DELEGATES by CNB