NEWS OUTLETS ACROSS THE STATE CARRIED THIS ARTICLE ON 11/27/07

Two Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor tussled Monday over abortion rights, death penalty reform, affirmative action and pollution control. Hampton Dellinger, a Durham lawyer and former aide to Gov. Mike Easley, levied criticism at Sen. Walter Dalton, D-Rutherford, for his votes and past candidate questionnaires. "These are mainstream Democratic issues," Dellinger said, "and my positions reflect where a majority of the party is." Dalton shot back that the highlighted votes were not the final votes on those bills. He also adamantly defended one questionnaire answer but said he poorly worded another.

Dalton, 58, and Dellinger, 40, are the best-funded of the Democratic candidates. Winston-Salem city councilman Dan Besse and Canton Mayor Pat Smathers are also running for the Democratic nomination but trail in fundraising and organization. Dellinger posted a letter to supporters on his Web site that highlights what he called his disagreements with Dalton. Dellinger notes that Dalton voted in April 2001 against a bill banning the execution of killers who are mentally retarded. Dellinger says he supports the law. Meanwhile, Dalton said he opposes executing mentally retarded defendants. He said he did not approve of the initial version of the bill passed by the Senate but he did vote for it after it had seen revisions in the House.

Dellinger also criticized Dalton for his responses to a 1998 questionnaire for Project Vote Smart. Dalton said in the questionnaire that abortion should be legal only during the first trimester or in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's life. Dellinger said the law also should allow an exception for the protection of the mother's health. Dalton acknowledged the response should have included an exception for the health of the mother. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a woman's right to privacy predominates the issue, he said. "As a matter of personal preference I don't know that I would go that far," Dalton said. "But I'm not a woman so those decisions have to be made between a woman and her doctor."

Dalton also said in the questionnaire that state government should always hire the "best qualified person," indicating he did not support taking race and gender into account in hiring. At the same time, Dalton said diversity of the workforce should be considered but should not be a determining factor. Dellinger said he supports affirmative action.

Dalton was one of only five senators to vote against the "clean smokestacks" bill in 2001, which would have raised electric rates to pay for pollution controls on coal-fired power plants. Dellinger said he supported the bill. A later compromise avoided passing on the costs to consumers and was the version that became law. Dalton voted for that bill. The earlier version "put the cleanup of dirty smokestacks on the consumer," he said. Dellinger argued that the legislation empowered the state utilities commission to protect consumers in the first place. "The clean smokestacks bill was too important the first time for anyone to rely on 'I was for it after I was against it,' " Dellinger said.