This was originally posted to soc.motss

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vme117@uriacc.uri.edu | "You look good in a dress." -- Riker to Worf
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Raleigh, NC, home of our beloved Jesse Helms, had city elections
yesterday.  Jesse's Congressional Club and the religious right,
including the Christian Coalition, played a big part this year by
bankrolling certain candidates and mobilizing conservative voters.

Former Congressional Club worker and Congressional Club candidate,
Tom Fetzer, led in the field of eight and ran in part on an expressed
anti-gay platform, refering to the failed city gay rights bill as
"special rights."  He got 44.3% of the vote.  The next two leading
candidates, Barlow Herget and Anne Franklin, combined got more votes
than Fetzer.  Herget meets Fetzer in a runoff on 2 Nov.  With very
hard work and good weather, Fetzer can be beat but he has
unlimited financial support from the Congressional Club.

Raleigh city council has five single-member districts and two at-
large seats.  Jesse Helm's nephew, Paul Coble, a conservative
Democrat ran on a "fiscally sound and morally appropriate" city
government -- perhaps a reference to the failed city gay civil rights
bill -- platform and won the District E seat which includes Jesse's
and my precincts.

There were ten candidates for two at-large seats.  Mary Watson Nooe,
author and driving force behind the failed city gay civil rights bill,
led the pack with 12,400 votes.  Charles Meeker, who we can live with,
got 12,396 votes.  Ester Hall and Ron Campbell were the next two
highest vote getters in the contest for the two at-large seats.  Hall's
position on gay issues is unknown.  Campbell is a Republican, was
supported by many Fetzer supporters and is rumored to have
Congressional Club connections.  These four will compete for the
two at-large seats on 2 Nov.

Of the remaining six candidates for the at-large seats, Zeidman,
a conservative Jew who has appeared at Christian Coalition meetings
promoting "Christian values," lost the chance to compete in the run
off by 2700 votes.  McClelland-Papp, once described as the darling
of the Christian Coalition, came in 8th by 11 votes.

In school board elections, three seats were open out of at least nine.
Steve Andrews, an assistant professor at the conservative Baptist
Theological Seminary in Wake Forest and with appeal to the religious
right, led in a field of six to win a spot in the 2 Nov. run off in
school district 1.