NPR: N.C. GOP Use of Race in Ad Is Nothing New

N.C. GOP Use of Race in Ad Is Nothing New

Rob Christensen of the Raleigh News and Observer has an interesting look at the way the Republican Party in North Carolina has used race against Democratic ... and Republican ... candidates, going back 32 years. And Christensen reports that the sequence is almost always the same: the state GOP runs a racially tinged ad, the national party or candidate renounces it, and the ad sometime is -- and sometimes isn't -- pulled.

And it's not just Democrats who've been on the receiving end.

Christensen points to 1976 when then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan was fighting President Gerald Ford for the party's presidential nomination.

Sen. [Jesse] Helms' political organization had taken over the Reagan campaign in North Carolina. Tom Ellis, the Raleigh lawyer who was Helms' chief strategist, played the race card. The Ford campaign had released a list of potential vice presidential running mates that included Sen. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, the first black U.S. senator of the 20th century. The Helms organization printed leaflets with the headline: "Ford suggests Brooke as a possible partner."
When Reagan learned of the flier he ordered a halt -- although whether it was actually stopped is an open question. "The governor has never campaigned on race, never used it as an issue and never will and feels strongly about it," Michael Deaver, Reagan's chief of staff, said at the time.

Sometimes the state GOP tried to keep African-Americans away from the polls. In 1990, when Helms was being challenged by former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, an African-American architect, the party sent out 125,000 "mailed 125,000 postcards into black neighborhoods warning them that they might commit voter fraud if they have recently moved, in an effort to depress black turnout."

Christensen offers several other examples as well.

8:39 AM ET | 04-27-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

There is no question but that race has was used by Jesse Helms from the 1960s. I used to listen to it. But that is a far cry from the use of the political ad dealing with Reverend Wright. His demonic ministrations are far from what our country expects from anyone close to our president, our president's spiritual leader. Indeed, his are the comments of a racist.

That Obama and his political and press surrogates attempt to put down the ad by claiming it is racist is a natural adjunct to Obama's whole racist campaign against Hillary Clinton. And a part of his campaign to eliminate any discussion about anything worthy of discussion unless it is "issues." This is the only way he can escape appropriate scrutiny.

He has managed to put drug abuse off the table. "Read my book. To ask me about this is racist." He has claimed that any reference to Martin Luther King and Johnson is racist, and simply cannot be done by anyone whose skin is white. He has claimed he cannot be compared with Jesse Jackson.

What we have is the tyranny of the far left. You want a country like that?

Be Obama's guest.

Sent by Political Center | 10:51 AM ET | 04-27-2008

Looks like they might have a little local problem there.

Aaaaanyway, on to other things. It's funny that the focus seems to want to be shifted from the incredibly racist Democrat primary to other things. One thing the primary has proven once and for all is that it is the Democrat's that have a race problem not the Republicans.

Sent by deek | 11:57 AM ET | 04-27-2008

Oh yeah, I love that little non-word too; racially "tinged."

LOL

Sent by deek | 12:00 PM ET | 04-27-2008

The Clinton campaign has also played the race card, then denied it, then complained about it.

Hasn't that gotten a bit old?

Sent by Phil Newton | 12:08 PM ET | 04-27-2008

now that's interesting. here we have a blog talking about white NC GOP racism. yes, i just checked, that's what the blog is supposed to be about. and someone calling themselves by the clever misnomer of Political Center immediately turns the subject away from that to talk about black racism. PC even makes it seem like white racism isn't an 'issue' but Obama's preacher is an issue. typical isn't it? another white person (wanna bet that PC is 'white') in denial about their own racism deflecting criticism away from said racism by throwing a race-baited red herring into things. I've seen white people do this so many times I want to puke all over the face of people like PC. What we have, in the post of PC, is chicanery from the far right. I won't ask if 'you want a country like that' because obviously, thanks to whomever PC is and his/her ilk, we already have that country.

Sent by John R. Otten | 12:19 PM ET | 04-27-2008

I invite "Political Center" to investigate what is "known" about Rev. Wright. A new 25 minute chunk of evidence had just become available to all who are willing to have a look. It could be that the 10 second bites everybody is using to make judgments are not typical or even representative of who Jeremiah Wright really is. It could be that there are people who (for their own agenda) want to mislead the public. It is easy to check this out if you are open to seeing what he had to say on "Bill Moyer's Journal" last Friday (go to PBS website and download the whole program).

Sent by Gary | 1:42 PM ET | 04-27-2008

I think that the blog commentator should note that the News and Observer was not a neutral observer in the 1990 race and they aren't in retrospect. The paper spent quite a large amount of time covering for Harvey Gantt who was a very weak candidate. (His speaking voice was very creepy in an Addams family sort of way and he would lose his way midsentence constantly.) But the 1990 (and 1984) races were deeply negative on both sides. Also the Gantt campaign used the flier issues rather transparently as a means of driving up the black vote. (They didn't publish exit polls back then so its impossible to say how successful either side was on this front. Though a large backlash against the Gantt campaign on this front wouldn't surprise me) PS Gantt's lead in the News and Observer Polls was never reproduced in Mason-Dixon.
Second PS, though Gantt was a weak candidate, he is a personally likeable fellow.

Sent by Hector Calvo | 2:05 PM ET | 04-27-2008

Political Center you have got to be joking. Like or dislike the Rev Wright sermons they pale in comparison to the political involvement on the right with religious nut bags. Scary white pastors are ok? I think people across the country are too smart to allow an ad tinged with racial fear mongering to sway their vote. If things in NC are a mess for the GOP they only have themselves to blame and even old race baiting can't dig them out of this mess. By the way, running the ad even after Sen McCain asked that it be pulled gives the notion of "top of the ticket" a whole new meaning. Anyone wanna place bets on how long it takes the GOP to run the ad using the "N" word?
Stay tuned!

Sent by Raul | 2:36 PM ET | 04-27-2008

surprise, surprise, surprise -- gomer pyle

Sent by tim in exile | 3:33 PM ET | 04-27-2008

Gary, the interview with Moyers was nothing more than a hack acting as a PR agent for Wright.

How about the full story of Wright and his beliefs?

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JC18Aa01.html

Sent by deek | 9:20 AM ET | 04-28-2008

Deek:
Mixing half truths and half lies, spin and ridiculous opnions from the site you refer to atimes.com is only to convince the uneducated and uninformed. This kind of stuff by the rightwing is only good for convincing simpletons and weakminded individuals.

Sent by Christy | 1:08 PM ET | 04-28-2008

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