Helms retired? Not from politics
The ex-senator bucks tradition, backs Cobey
MARK JOHNSON
Raleigh Bureau
Jesse Helms, the former U.S. senator, is intervening in the Republican primary for governor by endorsing former party chairman Bill Cobey just one week after he entered the race.
Helms' blessing shakes up a field of candidates that had only recently taken shape and further alters the traditionally neutral role of party leaders.
"While I am not as young as I once was," Helms wrote in a Monday letter to the state Republican executive committee and supporters, "it is my intent to do whatever I can to support and recommend (Cobey) for election by the good people of our state."
Helms said Cobey has the "best opportunity" to unseat Gov. Mike Easley, who has no opposition in the Democratic primary.
Though Helms retired last year, he remains one of the most influential voices in N.C. politics.
"This is a campaign that's only a week old," Cobey said, "and already we have this kind of wind at our back."
Helms' and Cobey's friendship dates back to Cobey's support for Helms' earliest Senate campaigns in the 1970s. Helms supported Cobey's unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 1980 and election to Congress in 1984.
"He's endorsed his better friend," said a rival candidate, Richard Vinroot, former mayor of Charlotte.
Cobey faces a pack of candidates who have been raising money for weeks, including: Vinroot; N.C. Senate Republican leader Patrick Ballantine, of Wilmington; Davie County Commissioner Dan Barrett; and Southern Pines insurance executive George Little.
Ballantine has racked up the largest numbers so far, raising a half-million dollars nine months before the May primary.
The governor's race marks the third time in two years that Helms has stepped into an intra-party contest even though party leaders typically avoid taking sides. He voiced his support for Elizabeth Dole during the primary for the 2002 Senate race and this year endorsed U.S. Rep. Richard Burr, of Winston-Salem, for next year's U.S. Senate race.
Dole also is backing Burr but said she won't take a stand in the governor's race. |
