11th-Hour Effort by Helms Seeks Control of Campaign; Gantt Largely Succeeds in Defining Debate

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Copyright (c) l-990 The Washington Post

October 30, 1990, Tuesday, Final Edition

SECTION: FIRST SECTION; PAGE A1

LENGTHI L227 words

HEADLINE: l-l-th-Hour Effort by He1ms Seeks Control of Campaign;
Gantt Largely Succeeds in Defining Debate

SERIES: Occasional

BYLINE: Thomas B. Edsal1, Washi.ngton Post Staff Writer

DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C., Oct. 29, l-990

BODY:
An angry and frustrated Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C. ) began a last-ditch effort

today to regain control of an election campaign that has been defined in large
part by Harvey Gantt, his black, Iiberal Democratic opponent.

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Helms ran into trouble almost immediately. At his first event today, dn
outdoor news conference in the driveway of an office buildingr here, Helms was
clearly thrown off stride by a protester who demanded to know why he had voted
for the savings and loan cleanup legislation. Trembling and with his voice
shaking, the 69-year-o1d He1ms, who prides himself on his elaborate southern
manneri, ended up pushlng the questioner away from a microphone.

The ernbarrassing incident began just after Helms boasted of blocking passage
of an unidentified bill he claimed would have cost $ 800 miI1ion.

ttI wish you'd done that for the S&L bailout, Jesse, that's $ 500 billion,rl
shouted Marty Leary, a researcher at the Institute for Southern Politics, a
liberal think tank. Taken aback, Helms replied: trWe11, I tried to warn you
liberal Democrats. rr

After some additional exchanges, Helms told his supporters in the crowd
rrnever to be rude, b€ courteousrtt and invited Learyr 25, to the front. rrI'1I
give you one ninute to have your sdY, tr Helms announced.

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In his last reelection campaign in 1984, He1ms had the advantage of President
Ronald Reagan at the top of the GOP ticket and Walter F. Mondale as a foil to
portray the Democratic Party as the bastj-on of tax-raising liberals. But this
year the only national election themes have been the wavering and backtracking
of the Bush administration on taxes. As a resuLt, Helms has had difficulty
portraying Gantt as a tax-and-spend 1iberal, particularly when an anti-incumbent
mood appears to be building among voters.

Gantt, 47, has emerged as a powerful force to mobilize voters. In l-984, black
and Dernocratic voter registration drives here were swamped by a massive surge in
white fundamentalist Christian registration. This year, from April 15 to Oct.
15, black registration increased by l-0.6 percent, twice the 5.3 percent rate of
increase for whites. The number of newly registered Democrats, white and b1ack,
was almost twice the number of new Republicans 1L2,579 to 6Ot543.

On another key front -- money -- Gantt has outrai-sed Helms since June 30, $
4.8 million to $ 4.5 million, allowing hirn to more than match Helms in the
battle of television commercials. Gantt has been flooded with cash from artists,
novelists, civil Iibertarians, 9ay rights advocates, and the universe of liberal
donors in New York, Los Ange1es, San Francisco, Boston and Washington.

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In addition, old-guard and regular North Carolina Democrats have lined up
solidly behind the Senate candidate. Many of them had been terrified that the
Iiberal Gantt would be a general election disaster, crushing the Democratic
ticket under a stampede of massive white defections. But now at county rallies
and other events, Ioca1 Dernocratic candidates welcome the opportunity to appear
on the same stage with Gantt.

Gantt also has steadily grown as a carnpaigner, while He1ms walks stiffly,
wears a hearing aid and appears at ti-mes to be dependent on yellow sheets on
which campaign themes and phrases are typed out.

Helms,s politicat history, however, is replete with examples of
come-from-behind victories in whlch he has built on his overwhelming backing
among white, working- and lower-middle-class voters. One of the central elements
of the Helms campaign is a radio commercial playing on country and western
stations that attempts to weave homosexual and racial themes. It begins with the
charge that Gantt is running a rrsecret campaignrr in which he has rrrai.sed
thousands of dollars in gay and lesbian bars in San Francisco, New York and
hlashington. rr

It then charges Gantt with a second rtsecret canpaign running radio ads that
play only on black radio stations. Why doesn't Harvey Gantt run his ad on all
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(c) l-990 The Washington Post, October 30, 1990

radio stations so everyone can hear it, instead of just on black radio stations?
Doesnrt Harvey Gantt want everyone to vote? Harvey Gantt promises more welfare
spending and more quotas for minorities. Harvey Gantt -- too liberal for North
Carolina. tt

Gantt has indirectly attenpted to counter the anti-honosexual thernes with an
appeal to what he cal1s rrNorth Carolina values.rr

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Leary had been at the rnicrophone for 36 seconds when Helms pushed hirn aside.
ttYour rninute is up. . Goodbye,rt he said.

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He1ms visibly shook as he declared: rrThat's the way they double talk- - I
donrt know whetirer this is any time to make a speech.'r He then briefly turned
the program over to an aide.

Helmsrs troubles today encapsulated a campaign that began with most Democrats
anA nepublicans privatel-y aecflring Gantt a sacrificial lamb, and that is ending
as one of the closest races in the nation. It is a contest in which Helrns, who
enterea politics working for a segregationist gubernatorial candidate and who
led the battle against lnaking tlariin Luther King_Jr.'s birthday a national
r,oiia.y, is in dinger of being defeated by the.first black to run a competitive
Senate campaign in the South since Reconstruction.

Forced onto the defensive by Gantt's charges that his opposition to
education, environmental and health legislation has pushed North carolina close
to the bottom in college board scores and infant mortality, the three-term
Repubtican has mounted a counterattack attempting !o.turn gay and lesbian rights
into an encompassing political metaphor that identifies Gantt with aI1 the
Iiabilities of modern liberalisn.

More than any candidate for major office in recent memory, Helms is
attempting to u-se the specter of a homosexual conspiracy to.revive the
belealuer6d pofitical riqht. "Why are homosexuals buyinq this election for
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Harvey Gantt? tt asks a Helms newspaper ad. rtBecause Harvey Gantt will support
their demands for mandatory gay rightsl lrr Asked today to explain what rrmandatory
gay rightsrt means, Helms replied: rrThese civil rights acts are compulsory, You
eilner obey thern or you don't. I think you understand that.tl

Today the Hetms campaign sought to back up its assault by firing what sources
in the iampaign have ctaimed will prove to be a ttsilver bulletr': a television
commercial- reviving charges that Gantt used his position as mayor of charlotte
and the fact that he is nlack to buy a share of a television station for S 679
,rrra"r a special federal program to encourage minority ownership and then ttjust
weeks later sold the license to a white corporation for $ 450,000-rr

Susan Jetton, spokeswoman for Gantt, said, trThere was nothing i11ega1 or
immoral or unethicif about what was done. The FCC IFederal Communicatj-ons
conmissionl said there was not enough evidence to warrant an investigation into
it. He [Gantt] made a very smart business move.rr

No one is predicting the outcome of this race, and in many campaigns with
black candidales preelection po11s have overstated the black candidate's
strength. Nonetheless, there Lre basic and often telltale signs suggesting a
Democratic edge.

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