The Fire Breather of North Carolina A 3 Part Series
William Gallahue
June 12, 2007
Part 1
In 2006, North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District entered a twilight zone in American political history. One of the candidates, Vernon Robinson ran a campaign that alleged his opponent was a homosexual, illegal alien lover, who sympathized with child molesters, and would rather study the sexual lives of Vietnamese prostitutes than support the troops. The race garnered national attention because an influx of new media including blogs and internet video services covered the race and made turned his political campaign into national headlines.
North Carolina has been a political hotspot the past few election cycles. The state was once one of the Southern Democrat states but when it elected Jesse Helms in 1972, it began a transformation towards a Republican stronghold.
Bush easily carried North Carolina in 2000 and 2004 with 13 and 14 point victories. Both of the state’s senators and seven of the states 13 representatives are Republican .
This contrasts to the state level where Democrat Mike Easley is the current governor and Democrats have majorities in both the state house and senate.
North Carolina had 12 congressional districts but after the 2000 census a 13th was added following expropriation. The new district is located in the northern part of the state on the Virginia border and incorporates portions of Greensboro, Raleigh, and Wake Forest.
Vernon Robinson whose rhetoric and social conservatism made him a Republican favorite hoped to win the house seat for North Carolina’s newest district. He knew it would be a tough fight to beat incumbent Democrat Brad Miller because of a history of previous political failures and his extremely conservative campaign in a heavily democratic district.
As a candidate, Robinson had great credentials but a checkered past. He was the son of a Tuskegee airman and became an Air Force Captain following his graduation from the Air Force Academy. He received an MBA and founded the North Carolina Education Reform Organization and serves as the president of the Carolina Education Opportunity Fund. Both organizations heavily promote school vouchers which has become a common Republican campaign point over the last decade.
While Robinson became a rising figure in the North Carolina political spotlight, he failed to win most political races he entered including North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, state Senate, state House of Representatives, United States House of Representatives, and Chair of the North Carolina Republican Party.
His only successful political endeavor was his 2 terms as a Winston-Salem city council member. Robinson’s campaign for re-election in 2005 was compromised by a report that stated he failed to appear at a majority of meetings for committees he chaired. The city also had to remove a large monument to the Ten Commandments and Bill of Rights which he had lobbied to install at City Hall (and would later come into a 2006 ad).
Yet he was optimistic that his philosophy and spirit patterned from 5-term North Carolina senator Jesse Helms and his connections with local and national Republican Party supporters would put him in a competitive position.
Instead he ran what could be considered the most controversial campaign in recent memory. For the second time.
Part 2
Robinson needed a strategy to win the white vote and decided that racial tension would be one of the avenues his campaign would use. Robinson is an African-American and a conservative Republican, which isn’t the best combination for a politician. That kind of candidate automatically loses most of the African-American vote as they tend to heavily favor Democrats. Further their political affiliation and status can be interpreted as a sign of a disconnect by African-American voters even for Democratic candidates like Barrack Obama.
Facing that situation, black conservatives often must endear themselves to an America that is still by and large a white institution for political survival. The best example of a candidate like Robinson is Alan Keyes who has yet to find any major success despite a near 20-year political career.
In North Carolina, Jesse Helms often used appeals to white society that still resonates as a viable political tactic despite the changing times and attitudes.
The most famous example occurred during his 1990 campaign for re-election. In the weeks before the election, he was trailing Democrat Harvey Gantt in the polls. A political consultant devised the now famous “Hands” ad which exploited Gantt’s poor polling for his position on affirmative action and support for racial quotas.
The spot featured a white male reading a job letter and crumpling it in frustration as a narrator reads, “You needed that job, but they had to give it to a minority.” The ad provided a late surge that would boost Helms to his 4th term in office.
In 2004 Robinson decided to run for the 5th congressional district after it was vacated by Richard Burr who was running for Senate and would later go on to win.
Robinson ran in a crowded 8 candidate primary for the Republican nomination. His initial campaign tried to paint his opponents as criminals, homosexuals, and often exaggerated the truth about their records. Jack Kemp who had been Bob Dole’s choice for running mate during his 1996 presidential campaign initially endorsed Robinson but would later rescind his support as Robinson’s accusations and antics increased.
Robinson won the initial primary after he polled first with 24 percent but failed to capture a majority and would face fellow candidate Virginia Foxx in a runoff.
Robinson almost immediately began blasting Foxx often comparing her to Hillary Clinton and making exaggerated claims about her past. His campaign was motivated by an editorial in the Winston-Salem Journal that proclaimed “Jesse Helms is back! And this time, he’s black.”
Robinson quickly incorporated the insult as a rallying cry and slogan for his campaign hoping to build on the admiration that North Carolina had for Helms. However the support never materialized and Foxx would win the runoff and later beat her Democratic opponent. Despite Robinson’s behavior during the campaign, she would give a contribution and endorsement for Robinson’s 2006 political campaign.
2 years later Vernon Robinson would be transformed into a national phenomenon as his next attempt at public office would quickly became one of the most controversial and popular campaigns by any American politician in history.
Part 3
Robinson did not originally intend to run in the 13th district. He lives in Winston-Salem and announced his candidacy for the 12th district. The day before the filing deadline he switched races because felt the 13th district would make for a more competitive race. North Carolina law permits a candidate to run in any congressional district whether or not they are a resident.
According to voter registration data the district is decidedly Democratic. It contains 217,000 registered Democrats with 122,000 registered Republicans and 87,000 unaffiliated or minor party voters. The district is composed largely of whites as they make up nearly 70% of the district with blacks at 26% and all others at 4%.
Robinson hoped that Bush’s fortune with white protestant voters (24 percent of the electorate) who voted over 90 percent for Bush according to 2004 exit polls would carry into his campaign so he began focusing on white and religious political issues.
On May 2nd, Robinson easily won the Republican primary with 63 percent of the vote and the battle lines were drawn. His opponent Brad Miller had been elected to the North Carolina State House of Representatives and State Senate during his political career. He ran for the newly drawn district in 2002 had held on to his seat with a comfortable margin in the 2004 election.
Miller was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was a practicing lawyer in addition to his political obligations. A soft spoken Southerner with a bright smile, he was a champion of education and a strong advocate against outsourcing which had become a big issue for a state that still relies heavily on manufacturing.
Shortly after winning the primary, Robinson sent about 400 thousand pieces of direct mail to potential voters that referred to his Democratic opponent as a, “childless, middle-aged personal injury lawyer.” Robinson would continue to hit on that point while elaborating that in Miller’s 20+ years of marriage he had never produced a child.
Miller and the media took it as an accusation that he was a homosexual. Robinson had made a similar remark in the 2004 Republican primary when he referred to a male candidate as “limp-wristed.”
"My wife was interviewed on three television stations last week about why we had not had children and what was my sexual orientation," said Miller in a campaign speech. As it turned out, his wife had a hysterectomy when she was younger as the result of a prior medical condition.
During the 2004 campaign Robinson aired an ad called “The Twilight Zone” which includes attacks against homosexuals, the judicial branch of the government, illegal aliens, and even Jesse Jackson. It was then uploaded to his website earlier in the year and from there took on a life of its own.
His ad found its way to internet video provider YouTube and was then picked up by bloggers and political pundits across the nation. Hardball host Chris Matthews and political pundit Rush Limbaugh devoted segments to the spot which according to Robinson helped him earn an additional $200,000 for his campaign. The ad was featured around the world including Canada, England, and Australia often in editorials highlighting American political campaigning.
Robinson’s internet campaigning reached a peak in early September when a rough draft of a new television ad was leaked to YouTube. The ad has since been removed but shortly after it was posted it generated a huge wave of controversy. The ad attacked Bill Miller by claiming he appropriated money to study the sexual lives of prostitutes and grown men instead of approving an appropriations bill for body armor in Iraq.
Immediately the blogging community picked up the latest ad and on September 29th Robinson found himself on the popular Fox News program Hannity & Colmes with his ad being featured under the headline “Too mean for TV?”
The ad which makes sexual references combined with semi-explicit imagery was played in full and afterwards Robinson was put on the defensive being grilled by the hosts. While Robinson never officially aired the ad, it was recycled by Republican Paul Nelson during his run for the Wisconsin House of Representatives as an internet exclusive ad.
In November, search results for “Vernon Robinson” on leading blog search engines Technorati and Google Blogsearch produce around 5,000 results (about 5 to 6 times more than those of any other house candidate) and searches for Vernon Robinson Twilight Zone produce around 200 results for each. The press he received over the summer placed his site near the top 20,000 sites in the world according to Alexa.com’s traffic rankings.
In addition to his television ads, Robinson also created a number of radio spots one of which states “If Miller had his way, America would be nothing but one big fiesta for illegal aliens and homosexuals.” Another message features a country singer singing about Brad Miller’s non-existent nickname and portraying illegal aliens as eating from his hand. The ad ends with the singer saying “Hey all you illegals [sic], put your shoes on and go home. Don’t come back now ya’here [sic].”
The ads played well with the far right but his brash offensive advertising ultimately turned him into a gimmick candidate. During televised debates Miller laughed at Robinson whose claims grew more and more bizarre with Robinson claiming Miller “wants to import homosexuals.”
Ultimately voters chose Brad Miller by a near 2 to 1 margin in the November elections as Robinson’s campaign proved that while a candidate can certainly be noticed and receive national attention, it does not necessarily translate into political success.
A dejected Robinson would later release a statement declaring that he will never again run for public office. But as 2008 approaches North Carolina voters could once again enter “The Twilight Zone.”
In 2006, North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District entered a twilight zone in American political history. One of the candidates, Vernon Robinson ran a campaign that alleged his opponent was a homosexual, illegal alien lover, who sympathized with child molesters, and would rather study the sexual lives of Vietnamese prostitutes than support the troops. The race garnered national attention because an influx of new media including blogs and internet video services covered the race and made turned his political campaign into national headlines.
North Carolina has been a political hotspot the past few election cycles. The state was once one of the Southern Democrat states but when it elected Jesse Helms in 1972, it began a transformation towards a Republican stronghold.
Bush easily carried North Carolina in 2000 and 2004 with 13 and 14 point victories. Both of the state’s senators and seven of the states 13 representatives are Republican .
This contrasts to the state level where Democrat Mike Easley is the current governor and Democrats have majorities in both the state house and senate.
North Carolina had 12 congressional districts but after the 2000 census a 13th was added following expropriation. The new district is located in the northern part of the state on the Virginia border and incorporates portions of Greensboro, Raleigh, and Wake Forest.
Vernon Robinson whose rhetoric and social conservatism made him a Republican favorite hoped to win the house seat for North Carolina’s newest district. He knew it would be a tough fight to beat incumbent Democrat Brad Miller because of a history of previous political failures and his extremely conservative campaign in a heavily democratic district.
As a candidate, Robinson had great credentials but a checkered past. He was the son of a Tuskegee airman and became an Air Force Captain following his graduation from the Air Force Academy. He received an MBA and founded the North Carolina Education Reform Organization and serves as the president of the Carolina Education Opportunity Fund. Both organizations heavily promote school vouchers which has become a common Republican campaign point over the last decade.
While Robinson became a rising figure in the North Carolina political spotlight, he failed to win most political races he entered including North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, state Senate, state House of Representatives, United States House of Representatives, and Chair of the North Carolina Republican Party.
His only successful political endeavor was his 2 terms as a Winston-Salem city council member. Robinson’s campaign for re-election in 2005 was compromised by a report that stated he failed to appear at a majority of meetings for committees he chaired. The city also had to remove a large monument to the Ten Commandments and Bill of Rights which he had lobbied to install at City Hall (and would later come into a 2006 ad).
Yet he was optimistic that his philosophy and spirit patterned from 5-term North Carolina senator Jesse Helms and his connections with local and national Republican Party supporters would put him in a competitive position.
Instead he ran what could be considered the most controversial campaign in recent memory. For the second time.
Part 2
Robinson needed a strategy to win the white vote and decided that racial tension would be one of the avenues his campaign would use. Robinson is an African-American and a conservative Republican, which isn’t the best combination for a politician. That kind of candidate automatically loses most of the African-American vote as they tend to heavily favor Democrats. Further their political affiliation and status can be interpreted as a sign of a disconnect by African-American voters even for Democratic candidates like Barrack Obama.
Facing that situation, black conservatives often must endear themselves to an America that is still by and large a white institution for political survival. The best example of a candidate like Robinson is Alan Keyes who has yet to find any major success despite a near 20-year political career.
In North Carolina, Jesse Helms often used appeals to white society that still resonates as a viable political tactic despite the changing times and attitudes.
The most famous example occurred during his 1990 campaign for re-election. In the weeks before the election, he was trailing Democrat Harvey Gantt in the polls. A political consultant devised the now famous “Hands” ad which exploited Gantt’s poor polling for his position on affirmative action and support for racial quotas.
The spot featured a white male reading a job letter and crumpling it in frustration as a narrator reads, “You needed that job, but they had to give it to a minority.” The ad provided a late surge that would boost Helms to his 4th term in office.
In 2004 Robinson decided to run for the 5th congressional district after it was vacated by Richard Burr who was running for Senate and would later go on to win.
Robinson ran in a crowded 8 candidate primary for the Republican nomination. His initial campaign tried to paint his opponents as criminals, homosexuals, and often exaggerated the truth about their records. Jack Kemp who had been Bob Dole’s choice for running mate during his 1996 presidential campaign initially endorsed Robinson but would later rescind his support as Robinson’s accusations and antics increased.
Robinson won the initial primary after he polled first with 24 percent but failed to capture a majority and would face fellow candidate Virginia Foxx in a runoff.
Robinson almost immediately began blasting Foxx often comparing her to Hillary Clinton and making exaggerated claims about her past. His campaign was motivated by an editorial in the Winston-Salem Journal that proclaimed “Jesse Helms is back! And this time, he’s black.”
Robinson quickly incorporated the insult as a rallying cry and slogan for his campaign hoping to build on the admiration that North Carolina had for Helms. However the support never materialized and Foxx would win the runoff and later beat her Democratic opponent. Despite Robinson’s behavior during the campaign, she would give a contribution and endorsement for Robinson’s 2006 political campaign.
2 years later Vernon Robinson would be transformed into a national phenomenon as his next attempt at public office would quickly became one of the most controversial and popular campaigns by any American politician in history.
Part 3
Robinson did not originally intend to run in the 13th district. He lives in Winston-Salem and announced his candidacy for the 12th district. The day before the filing deadline he switched races because felt the 13th district would make for a more competitive race. North Carolina law permits a candidate to run in any congressional district whether or not they are a resident.
According to voter registration data the district is decidedly Democratic. It contains 217,000 registered Democrats with 122,000 registered Republicans and 87,000 unaffiliated or minor party voters. The district is composed largely of whites as they make up nearly 70% of the district with blacks at 26% and all others at 4%.
Robinson hoped that Bush’s fortune with white protestant voters (24 percent of the electorate) who voted over 90 percent for Bush according to 2004 exit polls would carry into his campaign so he began focusing on white and religious political issues.
On May 2nd, Robinson easily won the Republican primary with 63 percent of the vote and the battle lines were drawn. His opponent Brad Miller had been elected to the North Carolina State House of Representatives and State Senate during his political career. He ran for the newly drawn district in 2002 had held on to his seat with a comfortable margin in the 2004 election.
Miller was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was a practicing lawyer in addition to his political obligations. A soft spoken Southerner with a bright smile, he was a champion of education and a strong advocate against outsourcing which had become a big issue for a state that still relies heavily on manufacturing.
Shortly after winning the primary, Robinson sent about 400 thousand pieces of direct mail to potential voters that referred to his Democratic opponent as a, “childless, middle-aged personal injury lawyer.” Robinson would continue to hit on that point while elaborating that in Miller’s 20+ years of marriage he had never produced a child.
Miller and the media took it as an accusation that he was a homosexual. Robinson had made a similar remark in the 2004 Republican primary when he referred to a male candidate as “limp-wristed.”
"My wife was interviewed on three television stations last week about why we had not had children and what was my sexual orientation," said Miller in a campaign speech. As it turned out, his wife had a hysterectomy when she was younger as the result of a prior medical condition.
During the 2004 campaign Robinson aired an ad called “The Twilight Zone” which includes attacks against homosexuals, the judicial branch of the government, illegal aliens, and even Jesse Jackson. It was then uploaded to his website earlier in the year and from there took on a life of its own.
His ad found its way to internet video provider YouTube and was then picked up by bloggers and political pundits across the nation. Hardball host Chris Matthews and political pundit Rush Limbaugh devoted segments to the spot which according to Robinson helped him earn an additional $200,000 for his campaign. The ad was featured around the world including Canada, England, and Australia often in editorials highlighting American political campaigning.
Robinson’s internet campaigning reached a peak in early September when a rough draft of a new television ad was leaked to YouTube. The ad has since been removed but shortly after it was posted it generated a huge wave of controversy. The ad attacked Bill Miller by claiming he appropriated money to study the sexual lives of prostitutes and grown men instead of approving an appropriations bill for body armor in Iraq.
Immediately the blogging community picked up the latest ad and on September 29th Robinson found himself on the popular Fox News program Hannity & Colmes with his ad being featured under the headline “Too mean for TV?”
The ad which makes sexual references combined with semi-explicit imagery was played in full and afterwards Robinson was put on the defensive being grilled by the hosts. While Robinson never officially aired the ad, it was recycled by Republican Paul Nelson during his run for the Wisconsin House of Representatives as an internet exclusive ad.
In November, search results for “Vernon Robinson” on leading blog search engines Technorati and Google Blogsearch produce around 5,000 results (about 5 to 6 times more than those of any other house candidate) and searches for Vernon Robinson Twilight Zone produce around 200 results for each. The press he received over the summer placed his site near the top 20,000 sites in the world according to Alexa.com’s traffic rankings.
In addition to his television ads, Robinson also created a number of radio spots one of which states “If Miller had his way, America would be nothing but one big fiesta for illegal aliens and homosexuals.” Another message features a country singer singing about Brad Miller’s non-existent nickname and portraying illegal aliens as eating from his hand. The ad ends with the singer saying “Hey all you illegals [sic], put your shoes on and go home. Don’t come back now ya’here [sic].”
The ads played well with the far right but his brash offensive advertising ultimately turned him into a gimmick candidate. During televised debates Miller laughed at Robinson whose claims grew more and more bizarre with Robinson claiming Miller “wants to import homosexuals.”
Ultimately voters chose Brad Miller by a near 2 to 1 margin in the November elections as Robinson’s campaign proved that while a candidate can certainly be noticed and receive national attention, it does not necessarily translate into political success.
A dejected Robinson would later release a statement declaring that he will never again run for public office. But as 2008 approaches North Carolina voters could once again enter “The Twilight Zone.”
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