By Kathy Chaffin
Salisbury Post
Hampton Dellinger admits his informal slogan as a Democratic candidate for North Carolina lieutenant governor is corny.
“For a good night’s sleep,” he said he tells residents all over North Carolina, “put Hampton in.”
The former chief legal counsel for the Governor’s office, Dellinger stopped by the Salisbury Post Thursday before his scheduled appearance at the monthly meeting of the Rowan County Democratic Party. “I don’t think it will be a George Clooney or Bill Clinton crowd,” he joked.
Dellinger said he visited Salisbury while working for the Governor’s office. “I love Cheerwine,” he said.
A resident of Durham, 40-year-old Dellinger has the endorsement of former Vice President Al Gore, renowned jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis and Civil Rights legend Dr. John Hope Franklin.
Dellinger said he met Gore’s brother-in-law, Frank Hunger ó the husband of Gore’s sister, Nancy, who died of lung cancer at age 46 ó 20 years ago in Washington, D.C., and they’ve been friends ever since. He met Gore in Wilmington in 1992.
When Gore heard Dellinger was running for North Carolina lieutenant governor, he offered his support. “I took him up on his offer,” Dellinger said, traveling to Gore’s Nashville home to discuss environmental and other policy issues.
The former vice president became an international spokesman on the dangers of global warming after his book, “An Inconvenient Truth,” was published and ended up sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Dellinger said he forgot to ask him if he could see it, “so I do feel bad about that.”
Marsalis, who also lives in Durham, has cut a radio ad endorsing Dellinger. The jazz musician says in the ad that he has been impressed by Dellinger’s willingness to talk about poverty and the need to create jobs in North Carolina.
Dellinger said he was 10 years old when he first met Dr. John Hope Franklin, who had just moved to Durham.
The North Carolina State AFL-CIO, which has a membership of 120,000, also endorsed Dellinger, after deciding not to make an endorsement in the governor’s race.
Dellinger, who has raised more than a million dollars for his campaign, has traveled from Murphy to Manteo trying to win enough votes to defeat the three other Democratic lieutenant governor candidates in the May 6 primary.
“The state is so big,” he said. “I’m just hoping to meet as many people as possible.”
A former deputy attorney general for the N.C. Department of Justice, Dellinger plans an aggressive campaign, featuring paid ads, radio and TV spots and grassroots support.
He said he’s the only candidate with the experience to handle whatever may come up during his term as lieutenant governor. “I’m ready to handle any situation on a moment’s notice,” he said, “and I think that matters.”
Dellinger said he’s also willing to challenge state officials and people in the private sector who are not acting in the public interest. His objection to the permitting of a new coal-fired power plant near Charlotte, for example, received widespread attention earlier this year.
He recently announced a comprehensive plan to reform state government and promote the state’s economy. The plan calls for major political reform including banning political giving and fundraising by business leaders whose companies receive major government incentives and contracts and by appointees to major boards and commissions.
A native of Mississippi, Dellinger moved with his family to Durham when he was 2, leaving there when he was in the fifth grade to go to Chapel Hill. After graduating from high school in Chapel Hill, he went on to attend a public university and Yale Law School.
Hampton married his wife, Jolynn, a former Miss Asheville and a graduate of Duke Law School, in 1994. She has served as a judicial staff attorney and is now working in the area of privacy law.
They have two children, Jackson and Austen Grace.
For more information on Hampton, log onto his Web site at www.HD08.com or e-mail him at Hamp@ HD08.com.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@salisburypost.com.