The North Carolina campaign

I had the great pleasure of working in North Carolina for the two Jesse Helms-Harvey Gantt senate campaigns in 1990 and 1996. We loved them in the TV industry because they bought lots and lots of ads, and they really went after each other. Helm, for instance, constantly contrasted what he called his “North Carolina values” with what he called Gantt’s “Washington liberal values.”

During the 1990 campaign, the Senate had just defeated some kind of racial quota law – and defeated it by one vote. Jesse used the vote in this famous TV ad.

Now the North Carolina GOP has produced an ad attacking Obama and the state’s leading Democrats with an ad using the infamous Jerimiah Wright. John McCain and national GOP leaders are throwing a fit. They want the ad stooped. I guess it’s too mean, but to my eye, it’s exactly the kind of ad North Carolina voters are used to seeing.North Carolina, if you don’t know, is a very divided state. Usually it is represented by one somewhat conservative Senator and one somewhat liberal one. For instance, Republican Jesse Helms and Democrat Terry Sanford served the state for years.