Tar Heel archconservative Lauch Faircloth finds himself in a tough race against a personable Democrat who’s got a populist approach and money, too. Originally published in The Nation. JOHN EDWARDS KNOWS HE’S WALKING INTO THE LION’S DEN. It’s the Thursday before Labor Day, and the Democratic US Senate candidate is about to address the Rotary Club of […]
‘Virtual disenfranchisement’
Originally published in The Nation. CONGRESSMAN MEL WATT DOES A GOOD JOB of representing his constituents. A soft-spoken attorney and one of Congress’s left-most members, Watt hails from one of the more ideologically homogeneous districts in the country: the 12th District of North Carolina. Since he was first elected in 1992, the district has been a skinny […]
Helms’ Last Stand?
The Senate’s most renowned right-winger faces a new day in the Tar Heel state. Originally published in The Nation. FIFTEEN PEOPLE WERE WAITING when Harvey Gantt showed up at the Whitaker Mill Senior Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. In a small lounge room with straight-back chairs and a bulletin board full of photos, the Democratic U.S. Senate […]
Harvey & Jesse Go A-Courtin’
The voters who will swing the nation’s hottest Senate race speak out. Published in Indy Week. IF HARVEY GANTT WERE TO INVENT THE TYPE of voter he needs to tip him over victory’s edge this November, he might come up with someone just like Stella Nolley. Thirty-nine, Republican, and living in Cary, she considers Jesse […]
Why Helms is Still at the Helm
N.C. politics illustrate an important national moral: Republicans don’t have to address the social and economic concerns of ordinary people in order to win elections. Democrats do. Originally published in the Washington Monthly. FIVE YEARS AGO, IN THE AFTERMATH of the biggest GOP sweep North Carolina had ever seen, a group of stunned Democratic Party leaders paid […]
