FOR the second time, a clever, articulate Democratic politician called Harvey Gantt is trying to unseat the arch conservative Republican Senator of North Carolina and sworn enemy of Fidel Castro - Jesse Helms.
Gantt should not have a hope against Helms in this most Republican state, but in 1990 he lost only when the Helms's camp ran a racist ad on TV.
Gantt also has the disadvantage in this southern state of being black, but that did not stop him from being twice elected mayor of Charlotte, where 80 per cent of the electorate is white. He is also a millionaire and head of a successful architectural and urban planning firm in a city which is experiencing an economic boom.
When it became clear last May that there was going to be a re run of the 1990 contest, North Carolina braced itself for the fur if not the dirt to fly. There had been great bitterness in the Democratic camp after Gantt seemed on the verge of ousting Helms from, the Senate seat he has held since 1972, but faltered in the last week when Helms ran TV ads not so subtly emphasising Gantt's colour.
The "killer ad", as it is still called, showed a pair of white hands crumpling a pink job rejection slip while the voice over suggested that Gantt supported racial hiring quotas. The affirmative action programmes which try to increase the non white numbers in the public service and the universities are strongly resented in the white community, and may yet be phased out following Supreme Court rulings.
Gantt lost by 4 per cent or 100,000 votes. This time he believes he can topple Helms, who is campaigning largely from Washington, where he holds the powerful chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has recently made headlines around the world as the author of the Helms Burton law which allows the US to penalise foreign investors in Cuba.
Canadian and EU companies are affected. Helms has been demonised in Canadian newspaper editorials, which describe him as "the personification of the blustering, buffoonish, know nothing American political figure (Financial Post); "an unlovable troglodyte" (Calgary Herald); and "a ranting anti communist, a jingoist, a southern conservative nincompoop" with a "malicious little dried up mind" (Ottawa Citizen).
Harvey Gantt has not descended to this level in his campaign against the 74 year old Helms and observers are intrigued by how mannerly the campaigns of both contenders have been so far. Helms has said he intends to conduct his race "like a gentleman and is sure that his opponent will do the same.
The "killer ad" is attributed to the now notorious Dick Morris, who worked for Helms in 1990 but had switched to advising President Clinton until his trysts with Sherry Rowlands were exposed last month.
Curiously enough Helms had praise for Gantt at a turning point in his rise to fame and affluence. Gantt, who was born into the family of a struggling shipyard worker in Charleston 53 years ago, was the first black in 1963 to enroll in the all white Clemson University. He endured racial taunts and death threats and then went on to MIT in Boston for his master's degree in architecture.
Helms was a TV commentator when Gantt de segregated Clemson and praised him for how he, "rejected the fanfare and trappings" of the main black organisation, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. "He has turned away from the liberal press and television networks which would glorify him," commented Helms.
Now 33 years later, Helms regularly denounces Gantt for being a "liberal", a damaging label to be avoided in North Carolina. Gantt in turn has been working to reposition himself towards the centre and has surprised supporters by his mildly critical comments on the welfare system.
In his campaign Gantt has been emphasising what he calls the "kitchen table" issues which preoccupy parents such as education, crime, health. The most serious clash so far has been when Gantt's press secretary hit a Helms aide with a book because he refused to stop videotaping Gantt making a speech. Gantt also has a worker whose job is to film Helms. Both sides are hoping to catch out the other in a mis statement or contradiction.
Helms is also showing a softer, mellower face in this campaign so far. The traditional blasts against abortion and homosexuality have not been heard, and his attacks on the social security system have been toned down to scepticism.
He is even allowing TV ads listing the projects he has won for North Carolina by his work in Washington. This is a departure from his former contempt for "pork barrel" politics, a stance which shows what an unusual politician he is, according to Theodore Arrington, professor of political science at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.
"Helms is campaigning as an elder statesman, a senior Senate figure, a grandfather and so on "says Arrington. Where Helms was once seen as a "cowboy" in his foreign policy initiatives such as supporting Argentina's takeover of the Falklands and Roberto D'Aubuisson of the El Salvador death squads, he has now become less maverick, apart, perhaps for the Helms Burton law and his habit of holding up ambassadorial appointments.
Cancer has also slowed down Helms, who is of Scottish Irish ancestry and whose father was once a deputy sheriff, police chief and fire chief at the same time in the small town of Monroe.
Gantt, who had disappeared from the political scene following his 1990 defeat, now says that he, is six years older, six years wiser, six years grayer, six years tougher - and I'm ready to fight". He refuses to brand Helms a racist, however, saying "he appeals to the bigotry and prejudice that may be within all of us. He certainly lived a lot of his life taking advantage of the race issue and using it in negative ways. But to call him a racist - that may be going to far".
I asked him after a campaign meeting what makes him think he can win this time when he failed in 1990? "The Irish Times? I never heard of that," he cried. Then he responded deliberately. "Have you never heard that in America, if at first you don't succeed, you try and try again?"