[F.J. Mitchell]

It is painful to think that our Jesse Helms would willingly offer his seat to a candidate such as his enemies over the years would have rejoiced in replacing him with. Say it ain't so Jesse!

[Theodore R.]

Poor Jesse, he wants his little Senate seat to stay Republican, and he knows the political winds in NC are blowing Democrat, Democrat, Democrat. The Democrats have the governorship and the other Senate seat and the state legislature. They hope to get Jesse's seat as a prize trophy, and then they will have 3/3 of the major offices. Jesse doesn't want that to happen, so he is latching on to the Dole skirts! His ex-colleague J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., D-LA, once voted the "biggest spender" in Congress, yet lionized by the "conservative" voters of LA, was able to put a liberal Democrat in the Senate to succeed himself. So Jesse is hoping just to keep an "R" label on the seat. I wish Jesse had prepared a real conservative successor to run for the seat. But Phil Gramm, Ronald Reagan, Howard Baker all left Senate seats or governorship and left no strong contenders to succeed them. You don't see Democrats do that too often. They have replacements ready to run full speed ahead: Mary Landrieu taking over for Johnston, John Breaux taking over from Russell B. Long, another LA liberal Democrat, and liberal Max Cleland taking over from Sam Nunn in GA. The Republicans just don't know how to play ball.