By James Romoser
JOURNAL RALEIGH BUREAU

DURHAM

Four candidates for governor said yesterday that they would work to end racial disparities in public education, health care, the economy and the criminal-justice system.

They spoke at a debate sponsored by the North Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Responding to questions based on the N.C. NAACP’s 14-point policy agenda, the candidates offered few specific policy solutions, instead relying on broad statements of principle and promises of change.

“I share your commitment to equal rights and equality for all,” Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue told the audience at Union Baptist Church in Durham.

Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore are the leading candidates in a Democratic primary. Both referred frequently to their experience in elective office, saying that their records show they have been effective.

“As state treasurer, I’ve been directly accountable to more than 700,000 public employees - school teachers, police officers, you name it,” Moore said.

The third Democrat in the race, retired Air Force Col. Dennis Nielsen, is a lesser-known candidate. Yesterday’s debate was Nielsen’s first major public appearance, and he contrasted himself with Perdue and Moore by portraying himself as an outsider.

“Too much talk of the past. ‘My record I did this, my record I did that,’” Nielsen said in his closing statement.

“I know a couple people that I heard talk,” he added, clearly referring to Perdue and Moore. “What they said they could do, they can’t do.”

The fourth candidate at the debate was Republican Bob Orr, a former justice on the N.C. Supreme Court. Orr is running in a Republican primary against three other Republicans: Mayor Pat McCrory of Charlotte, state Sen. Fred Smith of Johnston County and attorney Bill Graham of Salisbury.

McCrory, Smith and Graham did not attend the debate, saying that they had other commitments. There were three empty chairs onstage to emphasize the absence of the missing candidates.

Orr said that his work in the judiciary shows that he has wrestled with tough issues. He noted, for instance, that he was involved in the landmark Leandro decision, in which the court ruled that the state had not met its constitutional duty to provide a good education for all students. As did Perdue and Moore, Orr said that he supports the use of the death penalty, but that he supports reforming the system to make sure that it is administered fairly to black and white defendants.

“I think we all understand that racism has historically and tragically been a part of the criminal-justice system,” Orr said.

Asked about health-care reform, Perdue and Moore both promised to provide health insurance for every child in North Carolina. Orr suggested that the private sector, not the government, holds the long-term solution to health-care problems. He also said that the state needs to try to increase the number of medical personnel.

Nielsen said that the number of uninsured North Carolinians - estimated by the N.C. Institute of Medicine to be about 1.4 million people - has been overstated, and he said that “everybody does not need health insurance, but everybody needs health care.”

Nielsen said also that the state needs to stop the health-care system from being overwhelmed by illegal immigrants.

The Democratic and Republican primaries will be May 6. The winners will run to replace Gov. Mike Easley, who is ending his second term this year and cannot run again because of constitutional term limits.

Yesterday’s debate will be televised in several areas around the state over the next few weeks, but is not scheduled to be shown in Winston-Salem or Northwest North Carolina, according to the Rev. William Barber, the president of the N.C. NAACP.