What the Candidates Should Know About N. Carolina

RALEIGH -- How can a state send both Republican conservative Jesse Helms and Democratic populist John Edwards to the U.S. Senate?

North Carolina is a paradox to outsiders -- part Alabama, part Berkeley, part Wall Street, part Appalachia, part Silicon Valley, and of course, part Mayberry.

Last week, actor Andy Griffith, who played Sheriff Taylor in the fictional Tar Town, starred in a political ad bestowing his blessings on one of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, saying she would make a "goooood governor." Not so fast, said the state Republican Party. It began airing an ad trying to tie the major Democratic gubernatorial candidates to Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright and calling Obama "too extreme for North Carolina."

It's true that, in many ways, North Carolina is a reliably red state. Like the rest of the South, it has a strong conservative streak derived from the sturdy self-reliance of farmers, the church pews, and a pro-military past. It's a God-fearing, gun-owning, lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-key state that loves its NASCAR. The last Democratic presidential candidate North Carolina supported was Jimmy Carter, a native Southerner elected in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Republicans have won nine of the last 12 Senate races, and Republican Elizabeth Dole is favored to win again in November.

But wait. North Carolina is also a blue state. It has had 16 straight years of Democratic governors -- you have to go all the way to Oregon and Washington to find a longer run. What sets the state apart from the rest of the South is that, since the 1920s, it has been run largely by business progressives -- not liberals mind you, but close cousins to chamber of commerce boosters. The state spent money on roads, universities, the arts and research parks, all because they were good for business.

Politics in North Carolina is rough, expensive, entertaining and sometimes racist. People are still arguing over the white supremacy campaigns of 1898 and 1900, and there were strong racial overtones to the Senate races of 1950, 1984 and 1990. But, again because of the business progressives, North Carolina created one of the fairest climates in the South for its black citizens. While Alabama Gov. George Wallace was blocking the school house door, North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford was sending his child to an integrated school. Racial unrest was bad for business.

North Carolina's opposing tendencies have made it one of the most fought over pieces of political real estate in the country. And many of its recent elections for president, governor and the U.S. Senate have been especially close.

Still, there are some traits common to all successful North Carolina politicians. One is a skepticism about the fools in Washington. When a San Francisco woman wrote to Helms, saying she vomited at every mention of his name, the reply went: "The next time it happens, frame it and send it to the National Endowment for the Arts, and they'll give you $5,000." People loved that.

North Carolinians also like plain-spoken politicians that don't put on too many airs. My personal favorite is Bob Reynolds, who defeated a incumbent Sen. Cameron Morrison, a rich Charlotte businessman, in 1932. After learning that Morrison stayed at Washington's the Mayflower Hotel, Reynolds set out in his Tin Lizzie to convince the small farmers and textile workers to vote for him and against the plutocrat. "What do you think he eats," Reynolds would ask the crowds. "He does not eat cabbage nor turnips nor ham and eggs, not fatback like you and I do. My friends, think of it. Senators Morrison eats caviar. What the hell's caviar? This here jar ain't a jar of squirrel shot. It's fish eggs and Red Russian fish eggs at that and they cost two dollars." He also claimed that Morrison ate Eggs Benedict, prepared in a special room in the Mayflower by Benedictine Monks.

In North Carolina, it helps if you like barbecue, basketball and go to church. Which is why Bill Clinton has been chowing down on pork barbecue, Barack Obama has been shooting hoops with the Carolina basketball team and Hillary Clinton keeps mentioning her Methodism.

So far, everyone has stayed away from the caviar.

Rob Christensen is author of The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics and has covered 35 years of North Carolina politics for The News & Observer.