THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509290494
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
First District Rep. Eva M. Clayton, the Warren County Democrat who became the first North Carolina woman to go to Congress this century, will soon turn up the volume in her campaign for re-election next year.
Ted Tyler, a Northampton County Republican who twice unsuccessfully opposed Clayton in the remapped 1st District, is expected to announce within a few days that he will try again in 1996.
But what could upset the political strategies of Clayton and Tyler is the U.S. Supreme Court.
During the current session of the high court, the justices are expected to take another look at the way the 1992 North Carolina General Assembly created the 1st and 12th congressional districts to make the districts favor minority candidates.
``Mrs. Clayton plans to start her re-election efforts in November,'' said Veda J. Lamar, a Clayton aide in Washington. ``Naturally, a lot will depend on what the Supreme Court does.''
In his hometown of Rich Square, where he was a conservative mayor for nine years, Tyler told friends this week he expects to ``soon'' become a candidate again.
``I think Ted's raring to go,'' said Kathryn Tyler, Tyler's wife and campaign manager. ``He paid his own way the last time, but this year a lot of folks are calling up to help.''
Tyler would welcome any Supreme Court decision that changed the preponderant African-American voter balance in the 1st District.
The high court on June 30 ordered Georgia to reconsider a congressional voting enclave in eastern Georgia that had been created to favor minority office-seekers under U.S. Voting Rights guidelines. The Supreme Court held that congressional districts could not be drawn ``solely'' on the basis of race.
Should the Supreme Court hand down a similar ruling for North Carolina, the 1996 elections could be delayed while the lower courts and the General Assembly figure out what to do next.
In the old 1st District, conservative white Democratic males had been elected consistently since the turn of the century.
In 1992, under U.S. Justice Department voting rights protocols, the General Assembly passed redistricting legislation that reapportioned black voting strength to make it easier for African-American candidates to get elected in the new 1st District.
Similar legislation also gave the 12th District a black majority.
As a result, for the first time in history, two black candidates - Clayton in the 1st District and Rep. Mel Watt, D-Charlotte, in the 12th District - breezed to easy victories in the 1992 and 1994 elections.
Any Supreme Court decision on redistricting would be a victory for Robinson Everett and a group of Durham Republicans whose legal protests brought the North Carolina racial voting controversy before the Supreme Court.
Everett, a Duke University professor, argued that the civil rights of the Durham Republicans had been violated by the top-heavy black voting majority in the new 12th District.
Everett's original suit was turned down by a U.S. District Court in Raleigh. But Everett and his Durham followers appealed to the Supreme Court, and this appeal is expected to come before the justices in the next few weeks.
Whatever happens in the 12th District will have an immediate bearing on the 1st District, which was created by the legislators at the same time and for the same purpose.
As in Georgia, the legislators would probably have to enact new legislation to create new 1st and 12th districts that would pass the high court's muster. by CNB