EDITORIAL: Our Endorsements: Senate and Congress This is the second in a series of candidate endorsement editorials. Past recommendations: April 23, N.C. governor and Council of State. Future endorsements: April 27, N.C. Senate District 22 and N.C. House District 52. April 30: County commissioners. May 2: Court of Appeals and sales tax.
U.S. Senate
In each of the two races featured today, Democratic voters are asked to choose among relatively little-known candidates for a nominee to go up against a well-known and entrenched Republican incumbent.
Given the volatile
nature of the current campaign, the November election promises some heated contests, with no guarantee that North Carolina voters will adhere to their habit of preferring Republicans for federal offices. In the U.S. Senate contest, The Pilot endorses the incumbent, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who faces only nominal GOP opposition from Pete Di Lauro.
Dole is likely to face more significant competition from Democratic opposition in November. Among the five Democrats seeking to unseat Dole, The Pilot enthusiastically recommends Kay Hagan over her chief opponent, Jim Neal. (The other three, far back in the field, are Lexington trucker Duskin Lassiter, Lumberton attorney Marcus Williams and Moncure podiatrist Howard Staley.)
Hagan, a respected businesswoman and state senator from Greensboro, has a wealth of experience in the General Assembly, where she has played an important role in drawing up the state budget and in crafting a pro-business agenda. Neal, who returned to North Carolina only two years ago after a career in finance in New York and California, has attracted attention primarily as an openly gay candidate.
Though some consider Dole a sure thing to keep her Senate post, nothing is certain this time around. If anyone can pose an effective challenge to Dole, it is the feisty and intelligent Hagan, who recently told a convention of educators in Fayetteville: "What I want to do is give Miss Liddy Dole a pair of ruby slippers, so she can click her heels three times and go home to Kansas." (Dole grew up in Salisbury, but her husband, former Sen. Bob Dole, is a Kansan.)
Hagan has twice placed in the top 10 among our state's senators in rankings compiled by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.
U.S. Congress, Sixth District
Though it would be hard for anyone to dislodge popular and personable 12-term U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, who faces no Republican opposition, three Democrats seek to do so.
Among those three, none have achieved any visibility to speak of in Moore County. The Pilot recommends youthful Jay Ovittore of Greensboro, a self-employed painting contractor who specializes in refurbishing historic properties and such -- though it is almost a toss-up between him and pediatrician Teresa Sue Bratton, also from Greensboro.
The third candidate in the race, Johnny J. Carter, a businessman from Summerfield, bases much of his campaign on social issues like returning prayer to the schools. He seems given to overstatement, as when he said the country could easily stop illegal drugs from coming into the country in 30 days.
Bratton displays admirable knowledge of the issues on a wide rang of subjects in a recent debate, though Ovittore seems to have more fire in the belly and a better feel for the role a successful Congress member must play. Between the two, we lean toward Ovittore because of his vigor and enthusiasm.
