NC needs political giants

by Rob Christensen, News and Observer, December 13, 2014.

It has been 14 years since North Carolina’s age of political giants – when Republican Sen. Jesse Helms and Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt dominated the landscape.

In this century, neither party has been able to produce a Tar Heel political figure who has come close to matching Helms or Hunt in their ability to lead their party or set its agenda.

Tar Heel Republicans are enjoying historic successes and will soon have two senators – Richard Burr and Thom Tillis – as well as Gov. Pat McCrory in office.

Whatever you think of Helms – and few were neutral about him – none of today’s GOP figures can match his stature or his reach. Helms was instrumental in making North Carolina a two-party state, in helping elevate Ronald Reagan to the presidency and creating a national political movement called “the New Right” by bringing evangelicals to the GOP.

But more importantly, Helms helped move the Republican Party to his way of thinking. His brand of hard-shell, confrontational conservatism was very provocative for his day. Now it is mainstream Republicanism and many in the legislature view him as a role model.

When Helms retired at the end of 2002, Republican Elizabeth Dole took his seat in the Senate. But she lasted only one term and had little lasting effect on state politics. It is possible that some Republican will serve five terms in the Senate as Helms did. But it is hard to see any becoming such a vital force in American politics that they make the cover of Time Magazine.

Helms and Hunt faced each other once in the 1984 Senate race, with Helms winning what at the time was the most expensive Senate contest in American history.

Hunt’s four terms as governor and one term as lieutenant governor allowed him to dominate his party from 1973 until 2001. Hunt was able to keep the Democrats in power in Raleigh – even as much of the South was trending Republican. He did it by skillfully pushing issues with broad appeal, such as education and economic development, that brought together party liberals and the state’s more moderate business leadership. Hunt reshaped the governor’s office, giving governors the right to serve two consecutive terms and to veto bills passed by the legislature.

The Democrats thought they had a promising new generation of leadership to succeed Hunt. Erskine Bowles, the Charlotte investment banker and former White House chief of staff, had national leadership ability, but proved not to be a good candidate, losing two Senate races.

Mike Easley twice won election as governor and left an underappreciated legacy. But his legal problems overshadowed his accomplishments. Gov. Bev Perdue took office during the Great Recession and never regained her footing.

Sen. John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate, looked like a rising star until his spectacular flame-out in a sex scandal. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Hunt protйgй, lacked Hunt’s political appeal.

North Carolina Democrats have been looking for another Hunt, just as the Republicans have been searching for another Helms.

Maybe it is too much to expect once-in-a-lifetime leadership to come along more than once in a lifetime.