Rick Santorum Wishes Obama Was More Like Jesse Helms

HuffPo 11-19-14, OpEdNews 11-22-14

   

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This week, former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum announced he'd make a decision next year about running for the White House again in 2016. Last week, while guest hosting a right-wing talk radio show in Iowa, the ultra-conservative former Pennsylvania Senator gave the country a glimpse of what a Santorum presidency might look like.

Over the air, Santorum lamented the "breakup of any kind of cooperation in Washington D.C.," and said "this president is very much to blame for this," because Obama hasn't been enough of a gentleman. Unlike the late Republican Senator from North Carolina and hate-mongering demagogue Jesse Helms.

"There was no one nicer than Jesse Helms," said Santorum. "I mean, I don't think a single Democrat would tell you that on a personal level, there was anybody that was more gentlemanly, more kind than Jesse. He stood up for what he believed in, but he was always a gentleman about it."

This echoed the controversial comments made by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) last year, when he told a crowd at the Heritage Foundation that Helms was the first political candidate he had ever donated to, and "we need a hundred more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate." He'll have at least one new Helms clone by his side next year, Iowa Republican Joni Ernst, who managed to hide her extreme right-wing views from enough voters to win a Senate seat. Santorum campaigned for Ernst in early November, telling volunteers her victory would "set a tone for 2016."

Santorum and Cruz are Helms' ideological descendants, so it's not surprising they would speak highly of the man. But as sane observers are well aware, the real Jesse Helms spent more than five decades stirring the pot of bigotry and hatred to win elections and further his political career.

Ten lowest points of Helms' shameful legacy include:

(1) Creating scurrilous, race-baiting ads and handbills in 1950 for a white segregationist candidate.

(2) Denouncing the civil rights movement in TV and radio commentaries broadcast in North Carolina throughout the 1960s.

(3) Defeating his Greek-American opponent in 1972 in part by using the slogan, "Jesse Helms: He's One of Us!"

(4) Distributing tens of thousands of leaflets in 1976 during the Reagan-Ford primary fight in N.C. that alleged Gerald Ford was considering picking a black running mate.

(5) Opposing and delaying every effort ever proposed to impose U.S. sanctions on South Africa over apartheid, no matter how mild.

(6) Filibustering against renewal of the Voting Rights Act in 1982.

(7) Spending 16 days filibustering against making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday in 1983, and ending up the only Senator to vote against it.

(8) Using shameless gay-bashing and fears of Jesse Jackson registering black voters to win re-election in 1984.

(9) Unleashing a wave of blistering, race-baiting attack ads against his 1990 black Democratic challenger Harvey Gantt, including some of the most racially divisive political advertising of modern times.

And finally, perhaps Helms' greatest crime:

(10) Leading the opposition in the U.S. Senate to increased federal funding for AIDS research all throughout the 1980s, which left real blood on Helms' hands, because even a modest increase in spending could have saved tens of thousands of gay Americans who died horrible, painful deaths in the years before effective AIDS drugs were developed.

But according to Santorum, we shouldn't believe Helms' well-documented history of fearmongering and inflaming racial tensions, because he was a politician who exhibited "probably the starkest contrast of what the press used to portray and what the reality was."

While on the subject of Jesse Helms, Santorum also told listeners how fondly he remembers the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, the man who blamed gays, feminists, and the ACLU for the 9/11 attacks. At the time of his death in 2007, Falwell was described as "a founder and leader of America's anti-gay industry" by Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

During the 1980s, Falwell's Moral Majority PAC raised $69 million for GOP candidates and claimed to speak on behalf of 6.5 million members. It helped elect presidents Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1988, and re-elect Sen. Helms in 1984. Falwell founded the Moral Majority in the 1970s to organize evangelical Christians behind conservative Republican candidates, and claimed it was Roe v. Wade that sparked his movement. Yet the so-called "Religious Right" he helped lead first came together to preserve the right of Christian schools to maintain racial segregation.

The divisive political figures Santorum admires tell us all we need to know about how he would lead America if ever given the chance. Hopefully we've come too far as a country to go back to the days when far right-wing demagogues using religion to cloak their narrow-minded agendas were guiding our national politics. We can be thankful Santorum's chances to succeed as a presidential candidate are remote, and his time on the national stage will eventually end up in the dustbin of history alongside the chapters on Helms and Falwell, where they all belong.

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How Jesse Helms Ruled North Carolina

The Huffington Post, 7-8-08

(Note from 2014: This post is excerpted from the new eBook available on Amazon - When Harvey Met Jesse: Attack Ads of the 1990 Gantt-Helms U.S. Senate Race in North Carolina)

Jesse Helms’ death comes as no surprise, since his health had rapidly declined after he retired from the U.S. Senate in 2002. Yet it’s fitting that he died on the Fourth of July. Helms was a disgrace to North Carolina and the nation, and what better time to celebrate our independence from the bigoted, hate-filled politics he stood for.



Helms was the dominant political figure in North Carolina from the early 1970’s until his retirement. For more than a decade before that, he had been the leading conservative voice in the state as a radio and television commentator for Raleigh's WRAL network.



After his election to the Senate in 1972, he started a political operation called the National Congressional Club that pioneered the use of direct mail fundraising techniques to build a nationwide base of fervent conservative supporters. In the process, Helms helped reinvigorate the national Republican party, laid groundwork for the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and became the far right's most infamous spokesman.



Helms urges Christians to get political in a 1980 promo spot for the Moral Majority

During Helms’ heyday, the question on many people’s minds about North Carolina was how could its citizens keep re-electing an extreme right wing, unrepentant segregationist, self-proclaimed “redneck” like Helms? The perception was that the state was filled with racists, or that Helms’ voters were ignorant and uneducated. The reality is more complex.

For one thing, he started in Tar Heel politics as a household name thanks to his decade-long career as a radio and TV commentator - the Rush Limbaugh of his day. Helms got lucky running for election in the GOP landslide years of 1972 and 1984, coasting on Nixon and Reagan’s coattails. He faced a black opponent twice at a time when no other African-Americans were in the Senate. His national fundraising operation ensured he would almost always have a financial advantage over his opponents. And Helms shrewdly made sure his office would be second to none when it came to constituent service, helping North Carolinians navigate the federal government bureaucracy. This last factor in particular won him many votes over the years.

But Helms did rely on hate-mongering to keep himself in power. He denounced Democrats, liberals and communists in virtually every breath, then went far beyond that. Helms’ vicious, bullying attacks on African-Americans, gays and lesbians, civil rights workers, the poor, and AIDS victims were legendary. His speeches, direct mail appeals, and campaign ads were a steady stream of bile.



Campaigning in Lenoir, NC, 1991

Helms poisoned the ideological well of North Carolina politics, and helped drag the entire country further to the right. Especially damning were Helms’ own words, his countless mean-spirited, prejudiced public statements for which he never apologized.

During the 1960’s, Helms ruled the North Carolina airwaves. As radio and TV news director at WRAL, his five-minute Viewpoint commentaries were broadcast twice a weekday at the end of the station’s morning and evening newscasts. They were rebroadcast on the 70 N.C. radio stations that made up WRAL’s “Tobacco Network,” and published in newspapers across North Carolina and the South.



Helms delivered more than 2,700 Viewpoints from 1960-1972, all taking hard line stands against desegregation, busing, Vietnam War protests, and anything else progressive. He blamed the civil rights movement on outside agitators, accused Martin Luther King Jr. of being a communist, and called the 1964 Civil Rights Act “the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress.”



Locking down the tobacco vote during Helms' first Senate campaign, 1972

The N.C. Republican Party recruited Helms to run for U.S. Senate in 1972, against a three-term liberal Democratic Congressman named Nick Galifianakis. His name was so long it needed two campaign buttons to fit it all, and Helms’ slogan was, “Jesse Helms: He’s One Of Us!” Linking Galifianakis to George McGovern, who was deeply unpopular in North Carolina and would lose the state by forty points, Helms rode Nixon’s huge victory to a 54% win and his first Senate term.

In 1978, he raised $8 million through his direct mail base, the most raised by any Senator up to that time. Facing a weak opponent who had been disowned by the state Democratic party, Helms outspent him by 30-1, and was re-elected with 55% of the vote.



Helms with Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, 1981

Reagan’s 1984 re-election landslide helped Helms beat popular, incumbent N.C. Governor and moderately liberal Democrat Jim Hunt by a 52-48% margin. Hunt raised $9.4 million, but Helms outspent him by nearly 2-1. The Hunt-Helms race was loud, nasty, and notable for Helms’ use of gay-baiting to pull out a win.

The $26 million spent by both candidates funded a two-year war of political attack ads that according to the New York Times, "defined the use of saturation negative media...[and] set the stage for the search-and-destroy tactics of the 1988 Bush Presidential campaign." Jim Hunt had been expected to seek a rematch, but as 1990 approached, he announced he would not be a candidate.

Helms’ direct mail money came in small amounts, with the same contributors being asked to give again and again over time. The success of Barack Obama’s current presidential fundraising juggernaut rests largely on the same principle, updated for the twenty-first century using the internet. Contributors to Helms were mostly elderly conservatives who lived outside North Carolina, from whom he raised more than $15 million in contributions averaging less than $35 each between 1987 and 1990.

In 1990, Helms ran for his fourth Senate term against former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, who was the first African-American candidate ever nominated for a U.S. Senate seat by the Democratic Party. The Gantt-Helms U.S. Senate race was the most closely watched political battle of the year. National media descended on the state, camera crews and print reporters rushing from campaign appearance to appearance as if a presidential campaign was unfolding.



Gantt was Helms’ polar opposite in every conceivable way. A proud liberal running against the most right-wing conservative in the Senate. One of the heroes of the civil rights movement, the first black student to integrate Clemson University, versus a notorious white bigot who opposed desegregation. A challenger with a positive, progressive agenda of change taking on the incumbent dubbed Senator No for his opposition to social programs, foreign aid, and AIDS research.



The most infamous Helms attack ad of the campaign was dubbed “White Hands.” It showed the hands of a white male crumpling a job rejection letter, and claimed Gantt supported “racial quotas.” But Helms aired many other hard hitting ads that put Gantt on the defensive. Some accused Gantt of wanting to “cut defense up to $300 billion,” and of favoring abortions "in the final weeks of pregnancy," plus sex-selection abortions. Helms flooded the airwaves with attacks on Gantt’s credibility, values, and race.



Gantt pulled even with Helms in polls taken that summer, and by mid-October, led Helms 49-41 in a Charlotte Observer poll. In response, Helms blitzed the state in a series of campaign rallies and unleashed a final wave of attack ads, including the “White Hands” spot, released five days before the election. He spent more than $13 million overall compared to Gantt’s slightly less than $8 million. On election day, Helms defeated Gantt by a 53-47% margin.

Six years later, Gantt sought a rematch. He rallied opposition around the country to Helms and made up the fundraising gap, actually outspending Helms by $8 million to $7.8 million. Helms’ bankroll was much smaller than in 1990, following a messy split with the directors of his own National Congressional Club. Helms refused to debate and his health became an issue in the campaign.

Progressives had high hopes for a Gantt victory the second time around, but he fared little better against Helms. Like he had tied his earlier opponents to Democrats like McGovern and Mondale, this time Helms capitalized on Bill Clinton’s weakness in North Carolina. Clinton would lose to Bob Dole by 49-44%. Unlike in 1990, Gantt never led in polls during 1996, and Helms again beat him by a 53-46% margin.

Despite his election victories, Helms always faced opposition within the state. In his five Senate campaigns he never won more than 55% of the vote. A popular bumper sticker for years read, “I’m from North Carolina, and I don’t support Jesse Helms.”

To shore up his support, Helms’ machine coined the slogan, “You may not agree with Jesse, but at least you know where he stands.” It became a crucial part of his image. When Helms turned into a favorite target of the left, it only fired up his appeal among older, white, rural North Carolinians. National criticism consistently helped him solidify his base at home. Helms’ voters said, “He’s a sonofabitch, but he’s ours.”



Editorial cartoon from Raleigh News & Observer, 1990

In the end, North Carolina found enough reasons to keep Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate for three decades. We may be rid of Helms, but his toxic legacy won’t soon be forgotten.

Independent Groups Fight Specific Candidates

The Charlotte Observer, 10/7/96

By JIM MORRILL, Staff Writer

Until this year, Patsy Clarke had been a lifelong Republican and faithful supporter of Republican Sen. Jesse Helms. When her husband, Harry, died in 1987, Helms called in sympathy and even paid tribute to his late friend in the Congressional Record.

So when Clarke's 31-year-old son Mark died of AIDS in 1994, she wrote to Helms, an outspoken critic of homosexuals. She asked him to support AIDS research and not pass judgment on other people. Helms replied.

"I know that Mark's death was devastating to you," he wrote. "I wish he had not played Russian roulette with his sexual activity. I have sympathy for him - and for you. But there is no escaping the reality of what happened."

What the 67-year-old Clarke saw as coldness in Helms' reply prompted her to co-found the Raleigh-based "Mothers Against Jesse in Congress."

MAJIC is one of several groups - small and large - trying to influence North Carolina's U.S. Senate race and other contests with money or manpower. Many are anti-Helms. Others are expected to weigh in against Democrats, including Helms' rival Harvey Gantt.

They range from national organizations such as organized labor's AFL-CIO to groups such as VANISH (Voters Against N.C. Incumbent Sen. Helms), started by a handful of Chapel Hill rock bands that raised $16,000 at a benefit concert in July.

Such groups are no strangers in politics. Most are required to file spending reports with the Federal Election Commission and generally are barred from cooperating with candidate campaigns.

Like their motives, their levels of involvement vary.

An AFL-CIO spokesman recently said the group was spending "less than $100,000" a week running ads in the 2nd Congressional District against Republican Rep. David Funderburk. Spokesman Deborah Dion said the ad campaign is "not political. It's educational." She said it's unclear what, if anything, the group will do in the Senate race.

While labor helps Democrats, other groups typically aid Republicans.

The FEC currently is suing the Christian Coalition, arguing among other things that it illegally contributed to Helms' 1990 campaign by distributing 750,000 "voter guides" and making 29,800 phone calls as part of a get-out-the-vote telephone bank.

One of the largest independent efforts in North Carolina is being run by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian advocacy group. For it, Helms is the year's No. 1 target.

It plans to spend $225,000 in the state to defeat Helms, according to Michael Armentrout, head of the N.C. effort. He says the group, which raises much of its money in North Carolina, plans mailings and phone calls, particularly to swing voters. The group does not expressly identify itself as a gay-rights group in mailings, but doesn't hide it if asked, Armentrout said.

"It's not focused at all on gay issues," Armentrout says. "It's focused on what the (voter) in North Carolina tells us are important to them. We know the issues are education, crime, the environment and those sorts of things."

Helms spokesman Eddie Woodhouse says the campaign takes such groups "very seriously."

"These are radical, liberal groups, most from out-of-state, who are trying to influence the voters of North Carolina," Woodhouse says. "They can raise money. They can mobilize troops."

Some groups organized to fight Helms - including the Charlotte-based "Not Helms PAC" - already have dissolved. Those still active include:

* N.C. Mobilization '96. The gay-oriented group based in the Raleigh area has raised less than $20,000 so far, says organizer Mandy Carter, 47. But she says she feels more optimistic than she did in 1990, in part because gays and lesbians are more visible and active.

* Musicians Organized for Voter Education. This is a Chapel Hill-based coalition of musicians and performers critical of Helms' opposition to public arts funding. Spokesman Erik Ose, 25, says the group has focused on registering young people at festivals and concerts.

* Clean Up Congress. Working on college campuses and in communities, the group has raised more than $100,000 since May, says spokesman Alex Kaplan, 25. He says volunteers are distributing 100,000 copies of Helms' environmental voting record, which he called "the worst."

Patsy Clarke of MAJIC says she tries to be realistic about what groups such as hers can do.

"There are times when I think we're going to have a big impact because our message is one of emotion," she says. "Realistically we feel like David and Goliath. We only hope that the result could be the same as David's."

North Carolina Rock The Vote "MOVEing" Young Voters To Defeat Jesse Helms

Press Release - For Immediate Release

Contact: Mary Lee, MOVE Coalition Co-coordinator, (919) 933-MOVE
Erik Ose, NC PDP Director, (919) 933-3455

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- This year may be our nation's last, best chance to rid the U.S. Senate of the corrosive influence of Jesse Helms, R-N.C. He is currently waging his toughest re-election battle yet, a heated re-match with his 1990 challenger Harvey Gantt. Helms only barely beat Gantt six years ago despite outspending him by two to one.

This time around, Helms faces not only a formidable challenger but grassroots opposition from citizens' groups and activists across North Carolina. The progressive community in North Carolina is better organized and united in their opposition to Helms than ever before.

One of the groups actively working to defeat Helms is targeting the age group that voted most heavily for Gantt six years ago - young voters. The North Carolina Participatory Democracy Project (NC PDP) is a grassroots, youth-led organization set up to re-connect N.C. citizens with the democratic process. Six years ago, NC PDP organizers were also involved with the anti-Helms struggle through their work with N.C. Senate Vote '90, a gay and lesbian-directed coalition of progressives from around the state working to elect Harvey Gantt.

NC PDP's primary focus this year is working across North Carolina to register and educate young voters aged 18-30 in time for the fall elections. During the past six years, registration drives organized by NC PDP on a volunteer, no-budget basis have already added nearly 20,000 young N.C. voters to the rolls.

"Few special efforts have been made by N.C. election boards to reach out to young voters," said Erik Ose, NC PDP Director. "When the opportunity to participate has been extended to young voters through our work in recent elections, they have voted in large numbers."

One of the most innovative ways NC PDP is signing up young voters is through a Rock The Vote-type project called Musicians Organized for Voter Education (MOVE). MOVE is a coalition of N.C. performers and musicians who oppose the threat to free speech Helms represents. MOVE members are committed to encouraging their audiences to register and vote in this fall's elections.

MOVE was originally founded in 1990 by the Chapel Hill-based band Dillon Fence, and grew to include over 100 N.C. bands, performers and musicians. Over 8,000 voters registered at MOVE events before the 1990 election. This year, the coalition has re-formed in response to the continuing threat Jesse Helms' re-election bid poses to artistic expression. N.C. bands involved with MOVE this year include the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Polvo, June, the Archers of Loaf, Superchunk, Dish, the Backsliders, and Pipe.

Through MOVE, NC PDP is reaching out to young voters in non-traditional ways, making voter education and registration accessible to them at concerts, festivals, record stores, and other convenient sites. Across the state, volunteers are distributing information about Helms' voting record on issues of particular concern to young voters (education, the environment, AIDS research funding, censorship, etc.), using language and materials that speak directly to them as young people.

"The work we're doing has incredible potential to mobilize a heavy youth vote in November for Harvey Gantt," said Mary Lee, MOVE Coalition Co-Coordinator. "Operating on a nearly non-existent budget, we've already registered more than 2,000 new voters in over 20 counties."

NC PDP volunteers are also organizing on N.C. college campuses to set up large-scale voter registration drives for the fall. Finally, NC PDP is waging a broader education campaign designed to show older North Carolinians that young people in their communities are overwhelmingly opposed to Jesse Helms.

If supporters would like to host an informal house party or cocktail fundraiser in their area to benefit NC PDP, please call (919) 933-MOVE. Donations can be sent c/o NC PDP/MOVE, 1507 E. Franklin Street Ste. 505, Chapel Hill NC, 27514.

"We've already accomplished a lot, but we can do so much more to make a difference in this race," said Erik Ose, NC PDP Director. "Every day we don't have to spend fundraising is another day we can register more pro-Gantt voters and educate more voters about Helms' dismal record."

More than any other age group, young people in North Carolina realize Helms represents the past, not the future for their state. "Our 400-strong volunteer base is young, energetic, and committed," said Dana Terebelski, NC PDP Volunteer Coordinator. "They're eager to continue helping the campaign against Helms."

At N.C. State University in 1990, students cast 81% of their votes for Harvey Gantt. At UNC-Chapel Hill, Gantt received 84% of all student votes. With the continued grassroots efforts of groups like NC PDP, young voters will play an important role in the coalition that unseats Jesse Helms this November and ends a national nightmare that has gone on far too long.

Help Us Defeat Jesse Helms

This year may be our state's last, best chance to rid the U.S. Senate of the corrosive influence of Jesse Helms. As young North Carolinians, we are working hard to register and mobilize 100,000 of our fellow young N.C. voters who realize Helms represents the past. But we need your help to make the difference this fall and retire Jesse Helms once and for all!

Dear Active Citizen,

For more than two decades, the power of the far right has increased steadily in America. Groundwork for 1994's frightening takeover of Congress by radical Republicans was laid by years of behind-the-scenes organizing.

Cheerleading and nurturing the conservative movement every step of the way has been the right's elder statesman - North Carolina's own Senator, Jesse Helms, R-N.C. His high office and mastery of Senate rules have long allowed him to be a brutally effective roadblock against progressive legislation that would benefit average North Carolinians. At the same time, his position has given him a national bully pulpit to fan the flames of far-right causes such as anti-gay bigotry, repeal of laws protecting our environment, censorship, and the abolition of women's right to choose.

The North Carolina Participatory Democracy Project is a grassroots, youth-led organization set up to re-connect citizens with the democratic process. One of our primary focuses this year is working across North Carolina to register 100,000 young voters in time for the 1996 fall elections - a figure that would have changed the results of the 1990 Gantt-Helms race. During the past six years, registration drives organized by N.C. PDP have already added nearly 20,000 young N.C. voters to the rolls.

In four closely fought elections, Helms' margins of victory have always been razor thin. The times have changed, but Helms has not. Over the years, his status as a creature from the South's ugly past has become more apparent to North Carolinians embarrassed by our Senator's callous comments, tired of his unceasing negativity, and sick of the unflattering attention he almost daily brings to our state.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the minds of our state's young voters, who voted against Helms by a wide margin in 1990. At N.C. State University, students cast 81% of their votes for challenger Harvey Gantt. At UNC-Chapel Hill, Gantt received 84% of all student votes.

Volunteers with our N.C. Youth Empowerment Project are working now to register voters across the state and organizing on college campuses to set up large-scale registration drives for the fall. We are reaching out to young voters in non-traditional ways, making voter registration accessible to them at concerts, festivals, record stores, and other convenient sites.

N.C. PDP also provides funding and logistical help to Musicians Organized for Voter Education (MOVE), a coalition of N.C. performers and musicians founded in 1990. MOVE members oppose the threat to free speech Helms represents and are committed to encouraging their audiences to register and vote in this fall's elections.

In November, Helms will again face his dynamic 1990 challenger, former Charlotte, N.C. mayor Harvey Gantt. Their re-match promises to be among the most watched political races in the country. This time around, progressives in North Carolina are prepared to more than match the resources and efforts that have given Helms his slim margins of victory in the past. But we must pull together and stand united in this fight, and we need your help. By making a contribution to N.C. PDP and our work through the N.C. Youth Empowerment Project and MOVE, your aid will be especially effective.

We are focusing our voter registration and education efforts on a group overlooked by other organized drives now underway in North Carolina - young voters. In the process, we are laying the groundwork for a more progressive future for our state. It is essential that young people develop habits of voting and becoming informed about election issues. In the long term, we see this as crucial to reversing the decline of citizen political participation so evident today.

Few special efforts have been made by election boards in N.C. to reach out to young voters and provide them with convenient access to voter registration. When the opportunity to participate has been extended to young voters through our work in recent elections, they have voted in large numbers.

Please join us in this fight by making a contribution of $25, $50, or more if you can. Over the past six years, registration drives organized by N.C. PDP have added nearly 20,000 young N.C. voters to the rolls - all on a nearly non-existent budget. Imagine what we can accomplish this year with your support.

Recent news from the national political battlefields has shown that no part of the progressive agenda is safe when far-right ideologues are elected to public office. In North Carolina, we have endured the presence of one such demagogue long enough. From race-baiting in 1950 to deny Frank Porter Graham a Senate seat, to demonizing AIDS victims in the 1990s, Helms' influence on our state's proud political tradition has been profoundly long-lasting and negative.

With your help, this year we can finally send Jesse Helms and his lack of vision for our state to history's dustbin - where they belong.

Sincerely,

Erik Ose
Director, N.C. Participatory Democracy Project

Harvey Gantt nominated for U.S. Senate: His chances for November

(Note from 2014: For more about this campaign, see the new eBook available on Amazon - When Harvey Met Jesse: Attack Ads of the 1990 Gantt-Helms U.S. Senate Race in North Carolina)

Harvey Gantt won the runoff primary, beating Mike Easley for the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Jesse Helms. His final vote tally was 57 percent to Easley's 43 percent. In the initial May 8 primary, just over a third (33.7%) of registered N.C. Democrats voted, and last Tuesday, about 25% returned to the polls to cast votes.

That was good news. Analysts were predicting a runoff turnout of no more than 15%, which wouldn't have boded very well for Harvey's chances in the fall. But still, here's how the votes fell:

206,950 Easley
272,824 Gantt

479,774 total runoff vote

In my opinion, these figures aren't that low. In 1986, Democratic Senate candidate Terry Sanford won the Democratic nomination with 409,000 votes. He was a former N.C. governor, and because of that, very well known across the state. In the '86 general election, which Sanford won, 1,590,000 votes were cast...that means he attracted upwards of at least 800,000 votes.

Now, when Helms last ran for re-election, in '84, against outgoing Democratic governor Jim Hunt, the general election drew a total of 2,239,051 votes. They stacked up like this: 1,162,685 Helms - 1,076,425 Hunt. If that means Gantt has to get at least 1.3 million votes to knock off Helms, I think it can be done.


Barack Obama, first black president of the Harvard Law Review and a Harvey Gantt fan, on the night of the 1990 mid-term election returns.

But there are storm clouds. Initially, in the May 8 primary, a total of 693,054 non-Helms votes were cast.

May 8, 1990 Democratic/Republican primary

(1) Non-Helms Vote for white candidates

203,576 Easley (D)
116,399 Ingram (D)
80,262 Thomas (D)
13,764 Wimbish (Republican, Helms challenger)

414,001 total

(2) Non-Helms Vote for black candidates

256,107 Gantt (D)
7,907 Hannon (D)
15,039 Nixon (Republican, Helms challenger)

279,053 total

693,054 total non-Helms vote

Because North Carolina is historically such a Democratic state, registered Democrats still outnumber registered Republicans by at least 3-1. The Republican votes that Helms got in the primary weren't miniscule, but paled in omparison to what the Democrats polled.

Helms vote (May 8)

153,781 Helms
11,096 Garner (Democrat, right-wing fundamentalist)

164,877 total Helms vote

Not all Republicans who will vote for Helms in the fall voted in the primary, since he was virtually assured nomination, but the real reason for this total being so low is that a lot of Helms' support comes from conservative voters who are also registered Democrats, also known as "Jessecrats". Which is no big deal. I'm assuming that Helms is assured about the number of votes he picked up in '84. The thing that worries me, though, is that a lot of non-Helms voters in the first primary didn't return to the polls on June 8 for the runoff - about 213,280.

There could be a number of explanations for this, but what most likely happened was that Mike Easley lost some of his initial (white) liberal support in urban areas, votes that went to Gantt. Gantt also probably picked up votes from a slightly higher black voter turnout the second time around, which is good news, because it proves that in all likelihood, a lot of black voters are going to get out there and vote for Harvey again in November. And that's fantastic...22% of North Carolina's total population is black. The problem is that as recently as 1980, only 49% of black Tar Heels were registered to vote, the lowest percentage of any state in the South.

At the same time, Easley probably picked up a roughly corresponding amount of support from white Democrats who had previously voted for Ingram or Thomas, which explains why his popular vote total was about the same (200,000) during the two contests as opposed to percentage-wise (30% of the vote May 8, 43% on June 5). But, then a lot of other former Thomas or Ingram supporters didn't bother to return to the polls, which makes me wonder how enthused they're going to be over voting for a very liberal candidate like Gantt (whose skin color is black) against Helms.

None of this business about Harvey's chances for the fall has concerned me. The newspapers down here are all very supportive of Gantt, even the smaller, rural ones, and I'm a little surprised. Definitely a good sign. It really looks as if a hell of a lot of people just don't like ol' Jesse any more!

- letter to a friend