Helms and Hunt: The North Carolina Senate Race, 1984

A well written book on what was called the second most important election of 1984. Though 20 years out of print, this book has lots information about campaign strategy, tactics and dynamics. Written by seasoned journalist William Snyder, the race comes to life as the epic struggle between Eastern North Carolina's dominant political leaders of the late 20th century.

As a native of North Carolina, I can still vividly recall the bitter and dramatic 1984 US Senate campaign between two of the most powerful - and controversial - political leaders this state has ever produced. On one side was Senator Jesse Helms, then running for his third term. Even in North Carolina Helms has always been a divisive figure, and his victory margins have always been in the narrow range. To Democrats in NC and around the nation, Helms is the political version of JR Ewing on the old "Dallas" TV series - he's the "man you love to hate". An old-fashioned right-wing conservative, Helms refuses to compromise with his opponents, and he is a master of the politics of "divide and conquer". However you feel about him, Helms has never been afraid to be as outspoken as possible about his beliefs (adamantly anti-gay rights, anti-abortion, and pro-school prayer and pro-fundamentalist Christian), and he's also one of the few remaining politicians in America who honestly doesn't care what his poll numbers are, or what his critics say about him. He's also a master of fundraising - his 1984 campaign was the most expensive up to that time in US history, as he raised an astonishing $14 million, much of it from out-of-state admirers. Helms is also a living symbol of the transformation of the white South from conservative Democrat to hard-right Republican, a process which began in the 1960's with the Civil Rights movement (Helms was a Democrat until the early seventies). However, in 1984 Helms appeared to have finally met his match in James Hunt, North Carolina's first two-term governor. Although not as well known nationally as Helms, Hunt is also a political legend in NC - he has been elected governor four times, each time by a landslide - and, were it not for his narrow loss to Helms in 1984 he might well have become President in 1992 instead of Bill Clinton. Like Helms, Hunt grew up in a small, rural Carolina town and was raised as a Baptist. But the similarities between the two men end there. Helms never earned a college degree, but Hunt went to NC State University and became a leader in student government. He became a national leader of the Grange (a once-powerful organization of farmers), and he spent several years in the Himalayas of Nepal as an agricultural advisor for the Henry Ford Foundation. In 1972 he was elected lieutenant governor at the tender age of 35, and in 1976 he was elected governor by a record margin. He cleaned up and modernized the state's government, instituted the widely admired "Smart Start" program for children (which has been copied in many other states), was a pioneer in using standardized tests to measure student progress, and created a powerful political machine with "contacts" in each of the state's 100 counties. Hunt was easily reelected in 1980, and he started the 1984 Senate race as the favorite. Early in the year he led Helms by double-digits in the polls, and many experts tagged him as the probable winner against