From the NY Post's Page Six (penultimate item): "JESSE Helms will be spinning in his grave if Jim Neal beats Sen. Elizabeth Dole for the US Senate seat Helms held for five terms in North Carolina. 'I am gay and the most viable gay person to ever challenge an incumbent US senator in what many consider a 'red state' - it's anything but,' Neal told Page Six. Neal, who's 10 points behind Dole in a recent poll, is coming to New York for a huge fund-raiser being thrown Jan. 31 by painter Ross Bleckner in his studio. 'I am going to win this damned race and shatter another glass ceiling,' Neal vows." [caps and bold in original; also, Jesse is still alive].

Comments

[John G]

Helms is dead? Well! How 'bout THAT?
Dole can't be far behind.

[Sugar Magnolia]

But, as much as we may all like, I don't think Jesse is dead.

[Juan G]

sure enough!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Helms
Dang filters!

[Alan Cone Bulluck]

Neal won't win because the Democrats in North Carolina hate gays with a passion that disturbingly burns deep in their pathetic hearts, so much that they begged a straight woman to challenge the man for the nomination. It's sad, really. Why do Democrats hate the gays? Why?

[Timbo]

Don't paint all us Democrats with such a wide brush. Some us us don't care about him being gay per se (personally, I loves me some gay people, gonna get a hug from a transsexual Republican at church tomorrow, probably. No joking.), but a pragmatic enough to not want to of through the blood letting that his candidacy might cause, then still lose the election. The people who really hate gays (the Helms electorate, which is, quite possibly, an absolute majority of NC voters) will turn out in droves to vote for a sock monkey if it means denying a gay man the election. If North Carolina Democrats are such homophobes, name me a counterexample of a openly gay candidate for US Senate from another state. I think the thinking going on in the smoke filled rooms is concerned with electability. We Democrats would rather have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. Face it, a gay senatorial candidate is a hard sell in North Carolina. Kay Hagan is a great candidate. Do I like that a gay person has the snowball's chance of winning? No. Do you think a gay person has a realistic hope of winning? I guessing no. However, I'll take winning the election over losing but feeling good about having supported a gay person. Gay? Pffff. I'd vote for a cannibal if I thought he (or she) could beat Liddy. I think Kay Hagen can. I don't think a gay man can. It makes me sad that he can't, but I still want to win. If Jim Neal could win, I'd love it for every reason that I consider the right reasons, and for the pure eveil pleasure of knowing how spitting mad the folks I grew up with in Randolph County would be.

You know why I probably wouldn't vote for Neal? His candidacy smacks of carpetbaggery. Yes, I know he is from NC, but he lived in NYC for the last 20+ years. Yes, I know Hillary and Bobby Kennedy, blah, blah, blah. I prefer candidates who have more than strong ties to a state, family in a state, always felt that they were still a North Carolinian at heart, etc. I prefer candidates who actually live here and have lived here.