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Gov. Easley Calls for Settling the Score from 1990
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Published: August 27, 2008
DENVER
The 2008 presidential election offers North Carolina a chance to settle the score from the racially-divisive Senate campaign of 1990, Gov. Mike Easley told delegates this morning.
Speaking at a North Carolina breakfast, the governor asked fellow Democrats to "remember 1990" as they enter the fall campaign. (See video below.)
"We've got a score to settle," he said. "I haven't forgotten – it goes back to 1990."
The ultra conservative Republican Jesse Helms defeated Democratic candidate Harvey Gantt, an African-American, in the 1990 Senate race, a race that was one of the most racially-divisive elections in the state's recent history.
Helms ads played up racial tensions heavily. One aimed at white workers said, "You needed that job. You were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota."
Despite recalling the viciousness of that election cycle 18 years ago, several African-American delegates, including Rep. Mel Watt, said this November's election should not be used to look back at that one.
"I don't know anybody who walks into a voting booth in 2008 thinking, 'I'm settling a score from 1990,'" Watt said.
Ed Booth, an Obama delegate from Washington, N.C., said people "feel the scars from the tactics that were used," but have moved on.
After his remarks to delegates, Easley told reporters that the 1990 race paved the way for African-American candidates to win statewide elections in North Carolina, despite Gantts six point loss.
"It showed race is something you can transcend," Easley said.
But Valerie Woodard, a county commissioner from Charlotte, said she thought bringing up the ugly race from 18 years ago was unnecessary -- not to mention Easley's repeating of his call to "settle the score," a vengeful phrase he used twice from the podium.
She said she didn't even remember the 1990 race until Easley brought it up.
"It's not fresh in my mind," she said. "You can't dwell on the past. We have surpassed that."
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