Gore, Bradley to Visit State During Presidential Campaign

The News & Observer Raleigh, NC

Copyright 1999

Monday, April 26, 1999

News

Under the Dome

Gore, Bradley to visit state during presidential campaign

Jena Heath and Rob Christensen
Staff Writers

Overheard:

‘Would you mind if I follow up while I still have the brain
cells?’

Rep. Sam Ellis. The Garner Republican was struggling to put a
thought together during a committee meeting at the end of another
interminable legislative day.

* * *

POLITICAL SCORECARD:

UP: Health insurance and small-business lobbies. The House
Insurance Committee has parked in a study committee a bill requiring
equal treatment for mental health and physical ailments.

DOWN: The pork industry. Senate Democrats are calling for a two-
year extension of a moratorium on new and expanded corporate-type hog
farms.

UP: Rep. Bob Hensley. The Raleigh Democrat and chairman of the
Alcoholic Beverage Committee pushed to the House floor a bill to make
liquor-by-the-drink statewide and to spotlight the legislature’s many
special permits allowing a privileged few to skirt local drinking
rules.

* * *

The two major Democratic presidential candidates, Vice President
Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley, are scheduled to make their
first campaign swings through North Carolina early next month.

Gore will hold fund-raisers May 13 in Charlotte and Raleigh. The
Charlotte event will be at the home of Cameron Harris, and the one in
Raleigh will be at the home of former Ambassador Jeannette Hyde and
her husband, Wallace, both long-time friends of the vice president.

So far Gore has raised $135,000 in North Carolina, according to
Raleigh businessman Tom Hendrickson, a former state Democratic Party
chairman.

Among the people helping Gore are former state Sen. Tom Taft,
former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, former Lt. Gov.
Bob Jordan, former Glaxo Chairman Charles Sanders, Harnett County
businessman George McCotter, state House Speaker Jim Black, former
state Democratic Chairman Libba Evans, Fayetteville lawyer Wade Byrd,
High Point businessman Jake Froelich, Frank Daniels Jr., the former
publisher of The News & Observer, and state Sen. Larry Shaw of
Fayetteville.

Two days after Gore is in the state, Bradley will come through on
May 15, according to Ed Turlington, a former Raleigh lawyer who is
his deputy campaign manager. He will hold a Charlotte fund-raiser at
the home of broadcast executive Jim Babb and his wife, Mary Lou, and
a Raleigh fund-raiser at the home of lawyer and former state
Democratic Chairman Wade Smith and his wife, Ann.

Among those who are on Bradley’s host committee are former
Carolina coach Dean Smith, Terry Sanford Jr., the son of the late
senator; Durham developer Clay Hamner, Raleigh lawyer Sam Poole,
former Gov. Bob Scott, former Raleigh Mayors Smedes York and Tom
Bradshaw, Greensboro business executive Chuck Hayes, and former state
chairmen Lawrence Davis and Jim Van Hecke.

On Sunday, May 16, Bradley will be the commencement speaker at
UNC-Chapel Hill, where he will receive an honorary degree.

* * *

White House to honor Sanford:

The late Sen. Terry Sanford is expected to be honored this week at
a White House signing ceremony for a bill naming the federal building
in Raleigh after him, according to U.S. Rep. Bobby Etheridge.

Details are still being worked out. But the White House is
expected to invite the former governor’s family as well as Tar Heel
members of Congress to the ceremony. Such a White House signing is
very rare for routine bills, and it shows the high regard in which
President Clinton held Sanford, Etheridge said.

Also honoring Sanford was Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend, the eldest daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. At
the Jefferson-Jackson Day breakfast in Raleigh on Saturday, Townsend
noted that Sanford was the first notable Southern politician to
endorse John F. Kennedy for president in 1960 and also seconded his
nomination at the Los Angeles convention. She said Sanford’s
endorsement “made a critical difference” in JFK’s winning the
nomination.

“Our family doesn’t forget our friends, and I thank North
Carolina,” Townsend said.

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