Posted on 11/14/2003 11:31:00 AM PST by JohnnyZ
WINSTON-SALEM | "Grass, paper, Monk."
When Jay Helvey says the words, he sounds like he's playing the traditional children's game, "Paper, rock, scissors."
What he's really doing is describing the beginning of one of the world's great resumes.
In something of a Horatio Alger story, Helvey, 45, the child of teachers Jim and Doris Helvey of Lexington, has parlayed a classic local childhood work experience of the 1960s and '70s - mowing yards, delivering The Dispatch, hopping curb at Lexington Barbecue, applying veneer finishes at Carolina Panel Co. - into great success in academia and the business world.
He served as student body president at Wake Forest, joined the university's board of trustees while he was in school, won a Fulbright scholarship to Germany and earned a master's degree from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
Then he held posts for J.P. Morgan, the giant investment bank, in Japan and Germany, and at age 35 became a managing director at the firm's New York headquarters.
Now living in Winston-Salem and working as a financial consultant for universities, private schools and nonprofit foundations, Helvey is seeking a new title - congressman. He's among at least 10 Republican candidates - including Jim Snyder, another person with Lexington roots - vying for the Fifth District seat being relinquished by U.S. Rep. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
But he insists he's not just trying to add another achievement to his personal biography - that what he wants is to use his international business experience to help his home region and state.
"I'm doing this because I want to be a servant-leader," Helvey said.
Davidson County has long had close ties to the Fifth District. The late Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell of Midway held the congressional seat for three terms while Helvey was growing up in Lexington, when the county was actually in the district. Now the county sits just outside the Fifth, which stretches from Forsyth and Rockingham counties through Watauga and Ashe in the state's northwest corner.
Nevertheless, Helvey contends he can help his home county while working for the district from Washington, since textile and furniture job losses and other issues affect both areas. "Things that are good for the Fifth District will be good for Davidson County, too," he said.
In 1995, Helvey was on the corporate fast track, living in Summit, N.J., with his wife, Salem College alumnus Jane Williamson, and their three sons, when something happened that confronted them with the question that most young couples face: Should we go home?
The catalyst was the unexpected death of Helvey's sister, Jenny Helvey Bates. Helvey remembers being struck by how many people at the funeral said his sister had touched their lives - fellow teachers and former students in the Lexington schools, fellow church members, fellow physical therapy patients.
"I remember thinking, "What are you doing with your life? Whose lives are you touching?" he recalled. "I could see what was going into my bank account, but I saw that I could do more."
Helvey and his wife, who is from Fredericksburg, Va., decided they wanted their sons to have the experience they did of growing up in the South, and five years later they moved to Winston-Salem, where they live in a big yellow-frame house in the well-to-do Buena Vista neighborhood.
Helvey commuted a couple of days a week back to New York and raised more than $20 million in capital for Cygnifi, a startup firm marketing software for complex financial instruments called derivatives. On Sept. 11, 2001, he lost a business associate as well as a close friend in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The next month, amid bad economic conditions, J.P. Morgan pulled the plug on Cygnifi and gave Helvey the new experience of being unemployed.
Taking a year off, he coached his sons' soccer teams, learned to fly an airplane, took piano lessons, did Bible studies at River Oaks Community Church, an evangelical Presbyterian church in Lewisville - and thought a lot about public service.
This past April, after Burr had indicated his interest in the Senate race and Lyons Gray, a former legislator from Winston-Salem, and Pete Brunstetter, chairman of the Forsyth County commissioners, decided against running for Burr's House seat, Helvey announced that he would run.
"We need somebody who's going to be credible not only in Congress but also in meeting business leaders and convincing them to invest in North Carolina," said Forsyth County Bar president Steve Berlin, a friend from Wake Forest student days who encouraged Helvey's candidacy.
Burr's seat has attracted a crowded field. In addition to Snyder, other Republicans running include Winston-Salem businessman Ed Broyhill, son of former Congressman and U.S. Sen. Jim Broyhill; state Sen. Virginia Foxx of Banner Elk; Winston-Salem City Councilman Vernon Robinson; Nathan Tabor, a soy business vice president from Kernersville; former Wilkes County Commissioner Joe Byrd; Ed Powell, a former state representative and former N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles commissioner; and David Vanhoy, a Summerfield businessman. Clemmons businessman John Cosgrove, a former 12th Congressional District candidate, dropped out of the race last week and endorsed Helvey.
The district is 46 percent Republican, 39 percent Democrat, 0.11 percent Libertarian and 15 percent unaffiliated. One Democrat, Surry County Commissioner Jim Harrell Jr. of Elkin, is the only candidate from another party to announce.
Jerry Long, retired chairman of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and former vice chairman of the Forsyth County commissioners, says Helvey "probably is the closest thing to Richard Burr" in the field. "A lot of people are looking for somewhat of a clone of Richard Burr," said Long, who is serving as Helvey's campaign finance director.
Snyder, a fellow alumnus, describes Helvey as "a very fine person - a good Wake Forester." But he also notes that Helvey has "zero name recognition" in the district outside Winston-Salem.
Helvey calls Snyder "a great guy" but also insists that his own qualifications for the race are greater than any other candidate's and that he has the best skills for solving complex problems.
Brunstetter; Scott Livengood, chairman and chief executive officer of Krispy Kreme; and former Wake Forest basketball star Skip Brown are co-chairing Helvey's campaign. Ashley Matlock Poole, a lawyer who has worked in the Legislature and helped coordinate Elizabeth Dole's Senate campaign in Forsyth County last year, is campaign manager. Her husband, Todd Poole, a congressional assistant to Burr for six years, is political director.
Helvey has proved as adept at raising campaign contributions as at generating business capital. As of Sept. 30, he had raised $724,847 ($263,250 of which he had provided in personal loans to the campaign), tops in the Fifth District race and, according to Helvey, the most for any candidate nationwide in an open-seat congressional contest. Robinson had raised $708,502; Broyhill, $431,969; Tabor, $311,909; Foxx, $293,282; and Snyder, $102,440 (including $60,000 in contributions/loans from the candidate).
Helvey, who has sought support from friends on Wall Street, received criticism when his first campaign finance report showed 68 percent of his contributions came from out of state. His more recent report showed that cumulative in-state donations had risen from 32 percent to 55 percent.
The issues of the campaign, Helvey says, can be categorized as three "wars" - war on "the economy and our jobs," on terrorism and on traditional family values.
He pledges to use his international business contacts to help diversify the region's economy. He also advocates enforcement of trade laws against the Chinese and said he spent part of a 40-second conversation with President Bush during the president's campaign visit to Winston-Salem last week urging fair valuation of the Chinese currency as a way to stem the loss of U.S. furniture and textile jobs. If the Chinese continue undercutting American industries, he said, he supports Dole's plan to impose a 27.5 percent tariff on all Chinese imports.
Helvey calls Iraq a critical front in the war against terrorism and says the public needs to be patient and give the president and the military time to execute their strategy there. "Let's look at where we are 12 months after" the Iraq war was declared over, he said.
Helvey applauded Bush last week for signing the ban on partial-birth abortion. While urging tolerance, he opposes recognizing marriage between members of the same gender. He also supports the display of "In God We Trust" on the Davidson County Governmental Center and of the Ten Commandments in courtrooms.
The campaign is working to appeal to a broad range of constituencies - not only business leaders but also elected officials and religious, educational, agricultural and military groups, and both inside and outside Winston-Salem. Helvey predicts his Lexington roots will help him in the district's rural counties.
He doesn't view the greater political experience and name recognition of some of his opponents as a disadvantage. "I see myself as a fresh face," he said, adding that he believes voters will respect a candidate who has earned success in other fields.
With so many candidates, a runoff is entirely possible. "Given the opportunity to raise money, to build grassroots support and to get out my message, I think I can easily be one of the two in the runoff, and with that, the math changes dramatically," Helvey said.
"I'm a former derivatives trader," he adds, "so believe me, I understand the math."
Although I think Vernon is a better choice.
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