Critical Year in NC Politics | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: The article below appeared in John Hood's daily column in his publication, the Carolina Journal, which, because of Author / Publisher Hood, is inextricably linked to the John Locke Foundation.

    RALEIGH     If you had to choose a single election cycle to spotlight as the most consequential in recent North Carolina history, which would it be? Some might say 1984, when a spectacular reelection victory by President Ronald Reagan helped Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Martin move from Washington to Raleigh as governor and blocked outgoing Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt's attempted move from Raleigh to Washington as U.S. senator.

    Other possibilities include the pro-Republican cycles in 1994, when the GOP took a majority in a legislative chamber for the first time since the 19th century, and 2012, when it finally achieved simultaneous control of the legislative, gubernatorial, and judicial branches. Key Democratic cycles worth considering are 1998, when John Edwards defeated Lauch Faircloth for U.S. Senate, and 2008, when Democrats brought the state back into its presidential coalition for the first time in decades and defeated notable Sen. Elizabeth Dole's reelection bid. Or one might even go all the way back to 1950 and the bitter U.S. Senate race between liberal Frank Porter Graham and conservative Willis Smith, which not only ended Graham's short political career but also gave several key North Carolina candidates and activists their first taste of politics in the Tar Heel State.

    Still, I think a strong case can be made that modern North Carolina politics began in 1972. That's the year Richard Nixon won big numbers here, the state elected its first Republican governor of the 20th century (Jim Holshouser), and three central players in the story - Jim Hunt, Jim Martin, and Jesse Helms - made their debut on the wider political stage.

    Jim Hunt was the only true newcomer that year. In his first run for office, Hunt won the Democratic nomination and general election for lieutenant governor in a cycle that otherwise favored Republicans. Jim Martin, by contrast, had already served six years on the Mecklenburg County Commission (including serving as chairman) before being elected to Congress in 1972 from the 9th District. And Jesse Helms, although known mostly as a commentator for WRAL-TV and a radio network before his 1972 Senate campaign, had actually served two terms on the Raleigh city council from 1957 to 1961.

    Still, 1972 was the year that all three men began to build more than just local followings. Jim Hunt would run for governor in 1976 and serve a record four terms in two different stints. Jim Martin soon became a key figure in the state's congressional delegation and would serve eight years as governor in-between Hunt's two stints. And Jesse Helms - well, if I have to remind you of his record in the U.S. Senate over the ensuing 30 years, you've probably run across this column by accident and need not read any further.

    I thought I already knew a lot about the 1972 campaigns. But after reading Grady Jefferys' new memoir I Never Promised Not to Tell, I have a new appreciation for the lasting significance of that election cycle and the fascinating characters who populated it. Jefferys' career in public life started long before 1972. Much of the book's early chapters are actually about his experiences in North Carolina's television, newspaper, and advertising businesses during the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the first TV writers in the Triangle market and helped found one of the state's largest and most influential advertising firms. He tells some stories, not all of them flattering, about key personalities from the period, including WRAL-TV founder A.J. Fletcher.

    In 1964, Jefferys made political history by using a savvy media campaign to help elect a relative unknown, Dan K. Moore, as governor. Moore had served a decade as a local judge in Western North Carolina and several years as a corporate counsel before seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination against conservative Beverly Lake Sr. and liberal Richardson Preyer. Moore, a moderate, threaded the needle between Lake and Preyer, with lots of help from Jefferys and his colleagues.

    In 1972, Jefferys was involved in the races for Senate and lieutenant governor. As a consultant to Democratic Rep. Nick Galifianakis, he tried to get his candidate to respond forcefully to Jesse Helms' aggressive campaign. Jefferys failed. He also failed to get his client Allen Barbee the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. In fact, he also failed to get paid by Barbee, which leads to the most arresting anecdote in the book:

    As I shoved the head and shoulders of the short fat man out the sixth-floor window of the Sir Walter Hotel, my associate Jay Allen urged restraint. "Don't do it, Grady!" he exclaimed. "It's not worth it."

    The short fat man was former state Rep. Barbee, who had deliberately given Jeffreys a bad check for $60,000 so he wouldn't have to pay for an ad buy. Dangling Barbee out the window, Jefferys said, "You see that street down there? I want a certified check for $60,000 TODAY or I'm going to splatter your fat ass all over the sidewalk." It was a bluff (right?) but it worked.

    Have I caught your attention? Good. Buy and read the book. You'll get this story and many more, including some behind-the-scenes information about the failed gubernatorial campaign of Skipper Bowles, father of Erskine, in 1972. It was, indeed, a critical year in North Carolina politics.