The contest between Republican Jesse Helms and his black Democratic challenger Harvey Gantt attracted more national attention than any other Senate election because it posed a primal question: Was Helms' brand of racial politics finally obsolete? In electing Helms to a fourth term last week, North Carolina gave a clear answer: not yet, not even in a state regarded as one of the most progressive in the South.
For liberals who had hoped to retire the Senate's most outspoken reactionary, the result was a harsh disappointment. Gantt in early fall appeared to capture the initiative. A former mayor of Charlotte and...
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