Obama Gains as New South Trumps Old Race Card: Albert R. Hunt

Commentary by Albert R. Hunt

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Harvey Gantt is exuberant over Barack Obama's prospects of carrying Gantt's home state of North Carolina: ``This state has changed.''

Then he has a flashback. Eighteen years ago, the African- American Gantt, a former popular mayor of Charlotte, was leading Senator Jesse Helms in the polls. The Republican incumbent then began running a blatantly racist ad. Gantt lost.

``I am confident but leery,'' Gantt, 65, says over a salad at a restaurant in downtown Charlotte, a city that is emblematic of the new North Carolina.

Obama, according to polls and politicians, is running even or slightly ahead of Republican John McCain in North Carolina, a reflection of both the Democrat's campaign and how much this once-decidedly Southern state has changed.

North Carolina, like Florida and Virginia, represents a New South politically, different from the deeply conservative, reliably red -- as in Republican -- one that marks most of Dixie.

North Carolina has a long progressive tradition. It has the region's best universities and had more good newspapers than other Southern states.

It has produced two of the most significant governors of the last century, Terry Sanford in the early 1960s and Jim Hunt, who served four terms, until 2001.

The North Carolina of several decades ago still had the aura of the old-school textile and farm belt and the politics that went with that. Its cultural conservatism was dominated by the race issue, which was central to the 30-year reign of Helms, the late senator.

Only Carter

Over the last 40 years, the only Democratic presidential candidate to carry North Carolina was Jimmy Carter in 1976.


A look at the state's two largest and fastest-growing counties illustrates the new North Carolina: Mecklenburg, centered on Charlotte, and Wake County, home of Raleigh, the state capital.

Charlotte, a global financial center, is full of young professionals, black and white. Its politics bears little resemblance to the old days.

Last week, Hugh McColl, the former chairman of Charlotte- based Bank of America Corp. and even in retirement perhaps the best-known North Carolina business leader, effusively praised and endorsed Obama in a newspaper column, which he says was a first for him.

Some 150 miles away is Wake County, where the most interesting city is Cary, with a population of 125,000, fourfold what it was two decades ago and the fifth-fastest- growing city in America. This is a byproduct of the high-tech-, health services-, universities-driven economy. Almost 60 percent of Cary residents have at least a bachelor's degree, more than double the national average, and median household income is more than $80,000.

Wake as Microcosm

A microcosm of this year's presidential race was the state legislative battle in Wake County two years ago when Ty Harrell, a young black fundraiser and small businessman, upset a longtime conservative Republican in a district that is 85 percent white.

``I like to think I transcended race,'' says Harrell. ``I think Obama is doing that, too.''

In Mecklenburg and Wake counties, and increasingly other parts of this state, there are fewer Helms Republicans. That's why the presidential race in North Carolina is a tossup and why Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole is fighting for her political life. It's also why in the gubernatorial race the moderate Republican seven-term mayor of Charlotte, Patrick McCrory -- he raised taxes to fund a new light-rail transit system -- is threatening to break the Democratic hold on the statehouse.

Newcomers for Obama

A poll by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-affiliated organization, is telling. McCain wins among native North Carolinians, while Obama is ahead among newcomers to the state; a sizable percentage of non-natives who support Obama say they're also going to vote for McCrory for governor.

The slow evolution in Tar Heel politics is evident in the congressional delegations. Since the civil rights laws of decades ago, most U.S. House delegations from the South have been dominated by white Republicans, and many of the Democrats have been African-Americans. That's a result of an alliance between Republicans and blacks in mapping safe districts.

In North Carolina, seven of the 13 House members are Democrats, and six of those are white.

`Share Our Values'

Republicans insist that the state still tilts their way, especially in national elections. ``Yes, a lot of new people have come to North Carolina, but many of them share our values,'' says Linda Daves, the Republican state party chairwoman. ``They are not the values of far-out liberals like Barack Obama.''

Daves acknowledges that most of the 600,000 new voter registrations this year -- a reflection of unprecedented enthusiasm -- are Democrats. She adds, ``There's no evidence that a lot of those people will vote, however.''

Maybe so, but the prospect of a huge outpouring of African-American and young voters has supporters of Dole, once considered unbeatable in this state, on edge.

Moreover, even with the success stories, this is a state on its heels economically, which is expected to redound to the Democrats' advantage. The jobless rate is 6.9 percent, the ninth-highest in the country, and the already eroding manufacturing base is in shambles.

`Comfortable With Obama'

Former Governor Hunt also credits the Democratic presidential candidate: ``The regular party white Democrats are comfortable with Obama; they appreciate and admire his cool and how smart he is.'' Asked if he ever thought he'd see an African-American winning a presidential election in his home state, the 71-year-old Hunt replies, ``I never expected a fellow like Obama to come along.''

Gantt, remembering what happened to him, has no doubt that the race card, subtly or not, will be played in the final weeks of the campaign. He doesn't dismiss its emotional resonance.

Still, he believes that it's going to be a harder sell in the current North Carolina: ``There are fewer people in this state that can be exploited by that sort of tactic today.''

(Albert R. Hunt is the executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Albert R. Hunt in Washington at ahunt1@bloomberg.net