News-Observer - GOP Candidate Questions Leanings of Sheriff Andy

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News-Observer - GOP Candidate Questions Leanings of Sheriff Andy

Pat McCrory took on a Democratic icon at Saturday's gubernatorial debate: Andy Griffith.

The Republican nominee for governor said that although he is a fan of "The Andy Griffith Show" and the North Carolinian's acting and his comedy albums, he's not big on his political activity on behalf of state Democrats.

"There is one political reality in North Carolina, and that is every four years about a week or two before the gubernatorial election, Andy Griffith the actor recommends one of the candidates," he said.

In the famous "Mayberry Miracle" of 2000, Griffith helped a struggling Gov. Mike Easley with a well-timed TV ad. He filmed another ad for Easley in 2004 and an ad for Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue in the recent Democratic gubernatorial primary.

But McCrory said he wondered what Griffith's character would do today.

He said Sheriff Andy Taylor would speak out about the "revolving door" in the criminal justice system, the low pay of judges and prosecutors, and problems with gangs in small towns.

He even argued that Taylor would have a hard time with Otis, the town drunk, who used to sleep in the Mayberry jail.

"If he jailed Otis right now, Otis would have to go into a cell with maybe 15 or 20 other very, very dangerous people," he said.

McCrory had reason to be careful how he talked about Griffith. Easley's 2004 opponent, Patrick Ballantine, took some heat for suggesting that Griffith was "a liberal actor who played a conservative sheriff on TV."

Above partisanship

The U.S. Senate debate was not entirely humorless.

One brief laugh came for a quip by Democratic nominee Kay Hagan, who argued that she would work across the aisles if elected, citing a classic North Carolina rivalry.

"Let me tell you, having had a son at Duke and a daughter at Carolina, I know how to work through partisanship," she said.

Experience counts

Both Bob Edmunds and Suzanne Reynolds are running on their experience for a seat on the N.C. Supreme Court.

Just different sorts of experience.

In brief speeches before the N.C. Bar Association in Atlantic Beach on Saturday, Edmunds noted his service on the state Supreme Court since 2001 as well as his time as a criminal defense attorney and a prosecutor.

"You know with me what you're getting as a judge," he told the crowd of more than 150 lawyers. "I'm not running for re-election to pull the old switcheroo on you."

Edmunds noted that five of the seven judges on the Supreme Court are in their first term, arguing that the court needs "experienced, seasoned justices."

Meantime, Reynolds cited her experience as a longtime law professor at Wake Forest University, an instructor for bar review and the author of a three-volume treatise on family law.

Reynolds said she has spent a lot of time reading and analyzing legal opinions.

"Some of our best appellate judges have been law professors," she said.

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