WashPost

Dole Backers: 'Carpetbagger' in North Carolina Is Teflon Epithet

Sunday, September 2, 2001; Page A04

If Democrats hope to label Elizabeth Dole a carpetbagger in next year's North Carolina Senate race, Republicans say the voters won't be buying.

A new poll conducted for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) tested the argument that Dole, who is actively considering the race, isn't a real North Carolinian because she has lived in Washington most of her adult life. By 82 to 13 percent, the North Carolinians sampled rejected the argument, according to a GOP strategist who had seen the poll.

The poll also showed Dole with a substantial lead over the only announced Republican in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R), former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot. In a primary matchup, Dole led Vinroot, who narrowly lost the governor's race there last year, by better than 3 to 1.

Dole, who is the favored candidate of the GOP establishment in Washington, would start the race with strong favorable ratings from virtually all sectors of the population, including Democrats (58 percent favorable, 23 percent unfavorable) and independents (71 percent favorable, 17 percent unfavorable).

But Vinroot strategists believe that once a real campaign begins, voters will begin to see Dole differently, just as happened during her unsuccessful campaign for the GOP presidential nomination last year.

And they are not waiting long for the campaign to begin: Vinroot is already airing radio ads proclaiming his opposition to taxes. The primary is next May.

On the Democratic side, Superior Court Judge Ray Warren, who announced his homosexuality two years ago -- making him the first openly gay judge and Republican officeholder in the state's history -- and then quit the GOP, said Friday he plans to join the race to succeed Helms.

Warren, now a Democrat, was elected to a term that runs until the end of 2002. He said he will resign in about a month; until then, rules of judicial conduct bar him from officially announcing his candidacy for another office.

The only Democrat who has formally declared is Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

-- Anonymous, September 04, 2001