The Old South vs. the New

As Election Day approaches, a number of contests around the nation are proving especially significant. To assess the chances of Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates and help shed light on local and state issues, TIME this week begins regular coverage of some key races of the campaign.

Challenge to a rightist

On the morning of its 30th anniversary, Northside Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., was filled with more than 3,300 well-groomed parishioners and visitors. At the lectern, Republican Senator Jesse Helms, avatar of the Moral Majority, gazed out approvingly at the congregation. These were Helms’ kind of people: religious, conservative, white. “We live in a time when secular humanism is demanding that our nation divest itself of religion,” intoned Helms. “There is a cacophony of voices—political, news media, television, movies—mocking the very moral and spiritual base from which America came to be a great nation.” The speech was typical of Helms’ campaign style: short and calculated to reinforce a “them vs. us” position. There was no hint that Jesse Helms, 62, in the U.S. Senate since 1972, is now fighting for his political life.

That night Helms and James Hunt, 47, the Democrat who hopes to wrest away his seat, met in the second of four scheduled television debates. It was a battle of the Old South vs. the New. Hunt is North Carolina’s popular, two-term Governor, an earnest, mild-mannered and moderate Democrat. He favors voluntary school prayer and a sustained military buildup, but supports civil rights and a woman’s right to abortion. As Governor he has attracted $13 billion in new business investment, added 207,000 new jobs and raised educational standards through a series of reforms. In that evening’s debate, Helms claimed that Hunt’s “entire career as Governor has been based on flip-flops and contradictions when tough issues arise.” Hunt exclaimed: “How far back do you want to take us—20, 30, 50 years? This is a state that is making progress, Jesse. You’re just out of touch with it.”

The Helms-Hunt battle is this year’s most ferociously contested Senate race. A year ago a poll rated Hunt 19 points ahead of Helms. Recent polls, however, show the candidates in a virtual dead heat. If Helms triumphs and Senator Charles Percy loses his re-election bid, Helms could succeed the Illinois Republican as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a scenario that distresses liberals and moderates. A victory might even make Helms a presidential prospect in 1988. For Hunt, a victory could result in his being anointed as leader of the progressive South.

With the stakes so high, the contest has developed into an uncommonly vicious, gloves-off slugfest. The Hunt organization early this summer ran a television advertisement linking Helms to the right-wing death squads in El Salvador. The commercial opened with the sound of gunfire and photos of massacred Salvadoran citizens. A picture of Salvadoran Roberto d’Aubuisson appeared, and a narrator identified him as “the man accused of directing those death squads.” A picture of Helms then appeared, and the narrator said, “This is the man whose aides helped D’Aubuisson set up his political party in El Salvador . . . Now Jesse Helms may be a crusader, but that’s not what our Senator should be crusading for.”

Shortly thereafter, a pro-Helms newspaper, the Landmark, published a frontpage article headlined JIM HUNT IS SISSY, PRISSY, GIRLISH AND EFFEMINATE. The article reported a “rumor” that Hunt was the lover of “a pretty young boy—employed by the U.S. State Department.” According to the story, Hunt had also employed a “former high-priced call girl.” A furious Hunt threatened to sue the Landmark for libel. Helms repudiated the article, and the paper’s editor, Bob Windsor, made a public apology.

The latest figures from the Federal Election Commission show that by the end of June, the Helms campaign had raised $8.4 million and spent $8.8 million, while the Hunt organization had collected $5.2 million and spent $3.9 million. The campaign may end up costing $20 million, shattering the record for a U.S. Senate race ($13.6 million in the 1982 California contest in which Republican Pete Wilson beat Jerry Brown). The Raleigh News & Observer reported that about 75% of the Senator’s campaign contributions have come from out of state. About 52% of Hunt’s funds are from outside North Carolina, according to the Governor’s campaign staffers.

Both candidates are currently scrambling for the estimated 10% of the voting population that is undecided. Helms has wooed that group by playing up his ties to President Reagan and linking Hunt to Walter Mondale, who is unpopular in much of North Carolina. New voters may also play a key role. Some 77,000 blacks registered in the past year could be a plus for Hunt. Helms has unabashedly alienated blacks by boasting of his efforts against the creation of a national holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The Moral Majority says it has registered 70,000 white voters in North Carolina who might offset the black voter-registration drive. Each side agrees that the race is just too close to call. Says Helms Press Secretary Claude Allen: “I think it’s going to be right down to the wire.” —By Jacob V. Lamar Jr. Reported by Joseph N. Boyce/Charlotte