. . . I'm just absolutely astonished he would stoop that low." Senator East said that D'Aubuisson had "been a victim of cheap left-wing McCarthyism." The governor's campaign spokesman, Will Marshall, called it a realistic appraisal. "It's disturbing because the reality it shows is disturbing. Senator Helms has tried to bury his head in the sand and say that reality doesn't exist."
Another source offered unexpected criticism of Helms. In an editorial entitled "A Tale of Two Jesses," Business Week magazine castigated both Senator Helms and the Reverend Jesse Jackson for meddling in foreign affairs. It hit Jackson for heaping criticism on his own country while standing beside Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana and Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega Saavedra in Managua. It flayed Senator Helms for using his Senate Foreign Relations Committee post to "undercut American efforts to build a stable government in El Salvador." "U.S. foreign policy is conducted by the President and the people he appoints," the editorial concluded. "He has not appointed either Jesse."
"Frankly I'm getting a little tired of snap, crackle, pop and Jesse," Jim Hunt told a reporter in June. He was referring to the barrage of early- morning television commercials unleashed by the Helms people which had dramatically undermined his lead in the senatorial race. But in the Hunt camp this was no joking matter. For fourteen months the governor had been subjected to a blistering attack which portrayed him as indecisive and hypocritical and associated with Georgetown liberals, union bosses, and black activists. The polls showed that Hunt's commanding lead of a year earlier had fallen in all demographic classifications except that of "least well educated" (meaning mostly blacks). Helms's support was up among whites, the elderly, and independents. But his largest gain was among high school graduates. In a late May Gallup Poll Hunt's positive job performance rating was down from 68 percent to 55 percent and those who disapproved were up from 23 to 35 percent.
As the Helms-Hunt contest drew neck-and-neck, academicians agreed with politicians. "Hunt was seen as decisive, moving ahead, leading the
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