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Thursday, October 30, 1 330
By JONATHAN RICH
Sen. Robert Morgan has all the requirements to be a
successful North Carolina politician. He is a conservative
Democrat in a one-party state.
Rated by several groups as the most conservative
Democrat in the Senate, Morgan is right at home in a
Bible-belt state with a long tradition of conservatism. Yet
the freshman senator from Harnett County faces one of
the toughest political battles in the state against an
aggressive Republican opponent, John East.
difficult to make any charges of ultraliberalism stick.
Although Morgan supports traditional Democrat
programs, such as Social Security, he is mainstream
conservative in his strong opposition to excessive
government spending and federal regulations.
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Running a campaign that stresses his experience and
past record, Morgan is placing a heavy reliance on the
powers of incumbency. Experience is Morgan's key
selling point over East, a political science professor at
East Carolina University. After practicing law in
Lillington, Morgan was elected to the N.C. Senate in 1955,
where he served five terms. He was elected N.C. Attorney
General in 1968 and was re-elected in 1972, polling more
votes that year than any other candidate for a statewide
office.
In the U.S. Senate, Morgan serves on the Senate
Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the
Senate Armed Services Committee. He is also chairman
of the Banking Subcommittee on Rural Housing. The
subcommittee oversees programs of particular
importance to North Carolina, a state that depends on
agriculture and has a high proportion of low income
families and migrant workers.
In his effort to oust the incumbent senator. East has
directed his campaign toward discrediting Morgan's
conservative reputation and voting record. But it is
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Morgan favors a constitutional amendment to require a
balanced f ederal budget, and he recently voted against a
prelimary version of an educational bill, because it
exceeded budgetary limits. Despite East's charges of
dovishness, Morgan has consistently pushed for a
stronger defense and the deployment of new weapons,
such as the B-1 bomber. Less publicized are his efforts to
introduce a bill reinstituting the draft
Morgan also is campaigning as a supporter of local
textile and tobacco interests. Despite his nominal support
of an anti-smoking campaign, he has always been
outspoken in defense of the tobacco price support
system.
In the 1974 senatorial election, Morgan carried 94 of
North Carolina's 100 counties and received 62 percent of
the electoral vote. Confident of re-election, Morgan
recently predicted he would win by a similar margin.
According to his own polls, the senator is leading East by
a 25 percent margin.
Despite his confidence, Morgan is taking his
Republican opponent seriously. Run by Jesse Helms'
powerful Congressional Club, East's campaign has raised
more than $1 million, compared to the $640,000 at
Morgan's disposal. A large proportion of these funds have
been used on a series of television blitzes that charge
Morgan with voting to weaken national defense and
wasting billions of federal dollars.
Faced with this significant fund discrepancy, Morgan is
relying on a statewide series cf personal appearances and
speeches to compensate for East's extensive media
advertisements. Yet Morgan does not seem to mind his
hectic stumping tour, for he seems comfortable with this
personal style of campaigning.
At heart, Morgan is still a local boy who enjoys rubbing
shoulders with his fellow citizens at Rotary Club picnics
more than running a campaign from a television studio.
lonathan Rich is a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel. ,
is a special supplement to
The Daily Tar Heel compiled
by staff writers and editors.
Layout by Ann Peters, Amy
Sharpe and Melanie Sill.
hr Dailii ear HM
George Shadroui, Editor
Dinita James, Managing
Editor
Jim Hummel, State and
National Editor
Martha Waggoner, City Editor
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