By Andrew Barksdale, The Fayetteville Observer, 10/25/2006

Jim Hunt, a four-term North Carolina governor, greeted people on their front porches Tuesday morning to stump for Larry Kissell, a fellow Democrat who is running for Congress.

Kissell hopes to topple U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, a wealthy Republican from Concord who was first elected to the 8th District in 1998.

"This is my friend, Larry Kissell," Hunt told people who answered their doors in a neighborhood off Bragg Boulevard. "He is a fine, upright Christian man."

Hunt is 69 with a thatch of thick white hair. He smiled and spoke in a folksy tone that played up Kissell's experience in education and textiles. Many people recognized Hunt.

Hunt has some experience against Hayes, a wealthy heir to the Cannon family textile fortune who won the Republican gubernatorial primary in 1996 and then got trounced by Hunt in the general election.

Hunt didn't mention that race Tuesday, choosing instead to focus on Kissell's chances in the 8th District, a largely blue-collar district in central North Carolina that stretches from Fayetteville to Charlotte.

At one house, Beth Willis opened the door in a pink nightgown. The newspaper was still rolled up on the porch. The men had found a receptive Democrat.

"Bravo for him," Willis said. "Good luck."

"You know we really need a change in Washington," Hunt said.

"Lord, yes. Please. Amen."