The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 3

Thursday, October 22, 1998 THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER A3 Two parties have a lot riding on Senate race in N.C. Democrats smell a gain. Republicans don't want a loss. The contest has gotten tighter and uglier. 0 f.i if 1 II ir iUmtslr- mwfir'' imam i in -iTn By Dick Polman INQUIKKR STAFF WHITER RALEIGH, N.C.

Lauch Faircloth is not a household word, although Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to make him famous in January when she said he was a member of the "vast right-wing conspiracy." Down here, he is just happy to be known as the unslick junior senator, a well-connected, millionaire good old boy of 70 years who hopes to win a second term Nov. 3. On paper, the craggy hog farmer looks strong. He's a free-market Republican in a state trending toward the GOP. He's the darling of business.

Like his Senate partner, Jesse Helms, he's a former Democrat with four decades of Democratic pals. His state is enjoying explosive growth, and he's selling himself as a deal-maker who lacks flash but brings home the cash. So why is he trapped in a nail-biter with Democrat John Edwards, a neophyte who has never run for office before? And why are Fair-cloth's strategists running a slew of TV attack ads that seek to paint Edwards as a liberal, lying, lawyering, tax-avoiding, flip-flopping, Clinton-coddling interloper? 'Because Lauch (pronounced lock) Faircloth is one of the nation's most vulnerable Republican senators. And because Edwards 25 years younger, an aw-shucks smoothie who shines on camera, a mill worker's boy who has made millions as a trial lawyer by suing big companies on behalf of the injured and aggrieved is considered the Democrats' best national recruit in 1998. Faircloth won't debate Edwards.

He won't even be photographed shaking hands with him. It's a question of cosmetics. His people are cognizant of what Republicans here delicately call "the age thing" as well as the fact that Faircloth is a man of few words, some of them mispronounced, and therefore may be no match for a man who has honed his tongue in front of juries. Maybe if Faircloth were a superstar with recognizable achievements, then the cosmetics wouldn't matter; but in North Carolina, many voters don't know much about him because he toils in Helms' lengthy shadow. Hence, the decision to that an insider such as himself provides a comfort level: "I bring experience, if I may even say, a stability, a less risk that I don't think there's any way that Mr.

Edwards can bring, and a nice man he is." The Faircloth people argue that Edwards can't be trusted; as a new player, he has no voting record to pick apart. They found that Edwards had cut his Medicare tax burden by incorporating his law practice (legal, but maybe improper); that he supports the death penally even though he had been a member of a trial lawyers' group that opposed it; and that he may have coached lawyers on how to trick juries. But by airing their findings in an endless stream of negative TV ads, they appear to have hurt their own candidate. In the polls, Faircloth's personal "negatives" have risen, and his 10-point September lead over Edwards has vanished. Said Edwards: "Their attacks show disrespect for voters.

I've been bringing cases to North Carolina juries for a long time, and I think they are impossible to fool." The answer, according to the Faircloth camp? Tie Edwards to Clinton. Don't mention the scandal, just tell people that Edwards is far more likely than Faircloth to side with Clinton on "liberal" issues. In the words of Faircloth campaign manager Chuck Fuller: "Clinton raised money for Edwards. That puts Edwards in debt to Clinton. He'll owe Clinton his vote in the Senate." Maybe this can work in a low-turnout election bringing out the Clinton-haters, the tobacco farmers who detest Clinton's antitobacco rhetoric, the military folks around Fort Bragg who remember "gays in the military." Edwards says that he, too, is a friend of tobacco and the troops, but it's clear that this race will be hardball down to the wire.

"The irony," Guillory said, "is that Lauch is a decent guy, good with a yarn and a joke. It's just that his staff hasn't figured out how to present him in public. And here's Edwards saying to average voters, 'I'm an outsider, I'll be on your side, trust my Around here, that's a new kind of Democrat. It could work." Associated Press Sen. Jesse Helms gives a thumbs-up as he raises the arm of Sen.

Lauch Faircloth. The two were at a North Carolina GOP convention in 1996. At right, Faircloth's Democratic challenger, newcomer John Edwards, shakes hands with Donna Ruse as he campaigns in Jacksonville, N.C. besides the fact that no senator other than Helms has won reelection in North Carolina since 1968 is that the state's political landscape is changing rapidly. Thanks to the high-tech boom, millions of new Republicans have arrived from the North and swelled the suburbs.

But they tend to be moderates, not Clinton-hating cultural conservatives. To woo these new Republicans, Faircloth has mellowed. When he arrived in Washington in 1993, he earned a reputation as one of Clinton's harshest critics, and Hillary Clinton noted in January that Kenneth W. Starr was named as independent counsel by a three-judge panel shortly after Faircloth and Helms dined with the chief judge. These days, Faircloth is saying virtually nothing about the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Instead, he is stressing suburb-friendly issues such as HMO reform, and he created a postage stamp to raise money for breast cancer research. To attract female voters, with whom he is weak, he has run ads on the women-oriented Lifetime cable network. But this is not really a contest over issues; it is a contrast of styles, of biography. Ferrel Guillory, a veteran political analyst in Raleigh, said: "Edwards is a perfect example of the new type of candidate, and of how modern campaigns have become. He is self-financed (thus far, spending $4 million of his own money, and he didn't climb the party ladder.

He has had a life apart from politics." Faircloth, on the other hand, spent decades paying his dues eight years in the state Highway Department, seven years in the Commerce Department. He seems to know every judge and sheriff. At campaign events, he is often handing out federal money, reminiscing with the recipients, confining his public remarks to the fewest possible sentences, and exchanging scripted courtesies. In an interview, Faircloth said bills. But it will be a lot tougher for the GOP to reach 60 if an incumbent goes down somewhere.

Edwards insists that he's not thinking about the big picture; the last thing he wants is to be identified as a savior of the national Democrats. Around here, the national party is synonymous with President Clinton and Edwards shared a stage with Clinton at a summer fund-raiser, but he won't ask him back. In an interview, he hastened to point out: "There are many issues I disagree with the President on. He has no control over what I think." Actually, cliff-hangers are a tradition here, and the parties are fiercely competitive; the state has a Democratic governor, two Republican senators, six House Democrats and six House Republicans. Even Helms, who has held his own seat for 26 years, has never won a race with more than 55 percent of the vote.

The problem facing Faircloth gJG go GKKal "0 (k? build up Faircloth in part by bringing his opponent down. Hence, the war on the airwaves to "dirty up" the new golden boy. Said Marc Rotterman, a local GOP strategist: "This is a three-point race that could go either way. In North Carolina, if you're not in a brawl, people here wonder what's wrong, with you." "It's regrettable that campaigns get into these negative ads," Faircloth said the other day. "You have to respond to negative-type ads, and we have done that.

But it's very regrettable that the campaign has reached that level." This race is more than a showdown between two faces of North Carolina, between the old-money farmer and the new-money lawyer. It's also important to both national parties. Republicans want to pick up five Senate seats; that would give them 60 enough votes, under the rules, to cut off Democratic filibusters and speed the passage of Republican October 31, 1998. One-year contract required, tarly termination 5 ZsM 7QD Cra King of Prussia, PA King of Prussia Plaza 610-382-1100 Bala Cynwyd. PA Bala Cynwyd Shopping Ctr.

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