Doing the right thing - Jesse Helm's campaign against Harvey Gantt

E WAS only one race the media really, really cared about this year: the HelmsGantt contest in North Carolina. The pollsters had it tight, but Helms won easily, with 53 per cent of the vote. In the last days of the campaign, the media joined the battle. "Subtly and Not, Race Bubbles Up as Issue in North Carolina Contest," wheezed the New York Times.

Helms's sin was to point out where Harvey Gantt actually stood on affirmative action and gay rights. It's apparently okay to support these things, but not to oppose them, to cite your opponent's record on them, or to treat them as the issues they are. But Jesse Helms-Mr. Bush, take note did not let the Democrats and the media define the agenda for him.

Homosexual groups endorsed Gantt and gave money to his campaign, vilifying Helms. Gantt accepted their support. It was hardly a foul tactic for Helms to mention these facts.

Liberal opinion (and that of some Republicans) treats certain interests as sacred, and any opposition to them as near-blasphemy. Jesse Helms didn't play by that rulebook. If Gantt was going to mobilize certain interests, Helms was going to play to their opposites. And he won.