Former Commissioner's Daughter Plans To Run For Agriculture Post

Underhill said she will seek the Democratic nomination for the job now held by Meg Scott Phipps.

"Let me get one thing over right away, my campaign is not about Commissioner Phipps. It's about consumers, farmers, the environment and economic growth for our state," she said.

Alice Graham Underhill, 57, a New Bern lawyer, has served a termin the state House of Representatives. Underhill also called her father one of her political mentors.

"This is about my vision of where we need to go next," she said. "He did a great job, but I have new ideas."

Underhill said she wants to find ways to clean up the state's hog waste systems, clean up the state fair's selection process and run a clean campaign.

"I will not accept contributions from anyone with the companies who have bid or could bid on the state fair," she said.

Underhill does not have any prior farming experience and she has close ties with the Strates family, who lost the midway contract at the state fair after Phipps decided to go with a different midway operator.

Phipps, the daughter of a former governor, has refused a call byGov. Mike Easley to resign because of a federal investigation intoher campaign finances.

Two of Phipps' former aides have pleaded guilty to campaignfinance fraud charges and investigators still are looking into thecase, but Phipps has said she will seek a second term.

During her term in the legislature, Underhill was a member ofthe House Agriculture Committee. She was vice chair of theEnvironmental and Natural Resources Committee, and served onseveral other committees and subcommittees.

Underhill holds bachelor's and master's degrees from theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a law degree fromCampbell University. She is married to Dr. Reed Underhill and theyhave three grown children.