ABA president-elect seeks liberal change.

• Position: A.P. Carlton - Brief Article

A.P. Carlton is a partner in a Raleigh law firm whose very name spans the political spectrum: the Sanford-Holshouser Law Firm. It's named for two Tar Heel governors -- Jim Holshouser, a Republican, and the late Terry Sanford, a Democrat who was also a U.S. senator.

Carlton, a Democrat, will need that bipartisan spirit as he takes over as president-elect of the American Bar Association, based in Chicago. In August 2002, he'll become the second North Carolinian to serve as president of the 400,000-member, $100 million-budget organization. The first was Willis Smith, a Raleigh lawyer who held the post in 1945-46 and later was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Right now, Carlton is focusing on the task of convincing Americans that the ABA is not a den of liberals. That's how it was characterized this year when President George W. Bush abandoned a nearly 50-year tradition of seeking the ABA's advice on nominees to the federal bench.

Alfred Pershing Carlton Jr., 53, grew up in Greensboro. His father, "Red," was the first to show his son the ways of politics, rising to president of the North Carolina Realtors Association and the U.S. Association of Real Estate Licensing Boards. Carlton went to UNC Chapel Hill and, after graduating in 1969 with a bachelor's in business administration, joined the Air Force. Mter his...