THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505140038
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Discord among majority African-American Democrats in the 1st Congressional District developed Friday when state Sen. Frank W. Ballance Jr., of Warren County, announced he will seek the District party chairmanship next month.
At a political convention scheduled for June 3 in Plymouth, Ballance will oppose Isaac A. ``Ike'' Battle, a retired Gates County educator, who is vigorously running for re-election as Democratic boss of the 28-county 1st Congressional District.
It will be the first out-in-the-open clash between the African-American leadership of the 1st District since the General Assembly gave the voting enclave a 57-percent black population to favor minority candidates.
The 1st District is one of two black majority Congressional districts created in North Carolina four years ago under U.S. Voting Rights law guidelines.
``I believe that our party needs bold and aggressive leadership that seeks to include all Democrats in the district,'' Ballance wrote last week in a letter to 1st District party leaders. ``. . . The chair must actively and visibly articulate the party's vision and strategy when reclaiming Democrats who may feel alienated.''
Ballance directed the 1992 and 1994 1st District campaigns that successfully sent U.S. Rep. Eva M. Clayton to Washington as the first black and first female Congresswoman to represent the state this century. Clayton, a Warren County Democrat, friend and neighbor of Ballance, is expected to seek a third term next year.
The 1st District was drawn to include all or part of 28-counties stretching from the Virginia border in the northeast to the South Carolina line near Wilmington. Many of the registered white Democrats in the old 1st District were transferred to a new 3rd Congressional District that sent a white Republican to Congress last year.
White Democrats who remain in the new 1st District are still struggling with their lost loyalty to the late U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Sr., D-Farmville, who ran the Congressional enclave as his private fief for more than a quarter of a century. Jones died in 1992. His son, Walter Jr., switched to the GOP and ran successfully for Congress in the 3rd District last year.
Privately, black leaders have predicted that division in the ranks of 1st District minority voters inevitably will create a standing invitation to white candidates to seek the advantage of a fragmented vote among the registered majority.
It was to avoid such a schism that Ballance last year stepped aside in favor of ``Ike'' Battle when a successor to Judge James Carlton Cole as 1st District Democratic chairman was elected. Battle was elected to fill Cole's unexpired term after Cole resigned as party head following his appointment to the District Court bench by Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.
Friends of Ballance last week said Rep. Clayton was not originally invited to the June 3 convention in Plymouth. But Battle said he had written to her on April 6 announcing the date of the 1st District meeting and asking her to speak.
``Any report that Congresswoman Clayton wasn't invited is absolutely untrue,'' Battle said Friday.
At the heart of the squabble between Battle and Ballance is the coveted House seat now held by Clayton.
With Democratic unity, the redistricting virtually mandates election of black representatives from the new 1st and 12th Congressional districts in the state. Many African-Americans in the 1st District think that Ballance is in line to succeed Clayton if and when she decides to step down.
But state Rep. Milton F. Fitch Jr., D-Wilson, another influential black legislator, is prepared to contest Ballance's possible inside track to Congress.
At the convention in Plymouth High School, Fitch is expected to organize delegate support for Battle. Fitch was a co-chairman of the legislative redistricting committee that struggled for months to redraw the state's Congressional districts.
In the process, Fitch frequently told friends he ``hoped to go to Washington'' someday.
Should Battle become chairman of the 1st District Democrats, he would be in an elegant position to further Fitch's ambitions.
``Some of my friends have urged me to oppose Frank Ballance,'' Battle said last week. ``He and Congresswoman Clayton together would create a concentration of power in Warren County and in the extreme northern end of the 1st District.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Frank W. Ballance Jr. is challenging Isaac A. ``Ike'' Battle for the
post of Democratic Party chairman.
by CNB