‘Black Jesse Helms’ battles for GOP votes

A North Carolina newspaper meant to chastise Republican Vernon Robinson when it declared: “Jesse Helms is back! This time, he’s black.”

Now that quote has become Mr. Robinson’s campaign slogan as he battles seven other 5th District congressional candidates in the July 20 Republican primary.

The Helms name is powerful among North Carolina Republicans, and even if the retired conservative senator is actually supporting one of Mr. Robinson’s rivals, being dubbed “the black Jesse Helms” is a big boost for a candidate in a district where 88 percent of residents are white and most vote Republican.

In the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Richard M. Burr — who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Sen. John Edwards — winning the Republican primary is tantamount to election. President Bush carried the 5th District by a 2-to-1 margin over Democrat Al Gore in 2000, and Mr. Burr was re-elected with 70 percent of the vote in 2002.

That has turned the 5th District primary campaign into a heated and increasingly nasty fight.

Like most of the other Republican candidates, Mr. Robinson is running as a staunch conservative. The two-term Winston-Salem city councilman and Air Force Academy graduate’s brochures cite praise from such nationally known Republicans as former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, former New York Sen. Jack Kemp and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, as well as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan.

In brochures and direct mail solicitations, Mr. Robinson is shown in photos with Mr. Helms, North Carolina’s five-term Republican senator.

But Mr. Helms, 82, is co-chairman of businessman Ed Broyhill’s campaign. Considered the moderate in the field, Mr. Broyhill also is leading in the polls.

Mr. Broyhill, whose father, Jim, spent nearly 24 years in Congress, has his own endorsements, including former President Gerald Ford, Louisiana Rep. Billy Tauzin and former North Carolina Sen. Lauch Faircloth.

What’s more, Mr. Broyhill says he is closer than Mr. Robinson is to Mr. Kemp, long-time hero of tax-cutting, pro-growth economic conservatives. In an interview, Mr. Broyhill emphasizes that his mother and Mr. Kemp’s wife “are very close” friends.

Nearly all the candidates are running as “Jesse Helms Republicans” because, Mr. Broyhill says, “This is a very conservative ‘guns and God’ district — the most Republican district in the entire South.”

Mr. Broyhill said he is running on “a more economics-driven agenda, without losing emphasis on family and faith.”

The eight-candidate Republican field also includes state Sen. Virginia Fox, who locals say has as good a chance as any of the other hopefuls, and a 30-year-old businessman, Nathan Tabor, who is backed by many of the 5th District’s 3,500 families who home-school their children.

In the publicity primary, however, Mr. Robinson is clearly the leader. He has been featured on Fox News Channel and has been almost ubiquitous at conservative banquets, lectures and fund-raising events as far away from his district as Washington and New York.

Locally, Mr. Robinson made headlines when he paid $2,000 from his own pocket to install a Ten Commandments monument at the Winston-Salem City Hall. Authorities hauled it away the next day and Republican candidates criticized Mr. Robinson, with Mrs. Fox expressing doubt that such “grandstanding promotes the understanding of our heritage.”

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