Thousands of young conservatives from across America came to political maturity in Barry Goldwater’s campaign for President.  If they stayed conservative (Hillary Rodham did not), they got to know one another and their careers crossed. 

One of our Founding Faculty members served on Sen. Helms’ staff and married a Helms staff member. Two classmates from Notre Dame worked for Sen. Helms, the father of one of Yorktown University’s Trustees was Helms’ chief of staff.  In the 1970s I hired Senator Helms' pollster, Arthur Finkelstein, to teach a course in Campaign Management at a small Catholic college where I was chairman of my Department.  Through him I was introduced to a delightful attorney, Tom Ellis, and the Congressional Club that managed the Senator’s campaigns and fundraising.  I remember two or three occasions that I met the Senator from North Carolina.  He was older by a generation than the young conservatives who helped Ronald Reagan in his three attempts at election as President, but Jesse Helms was young at heart.

I still remember the embossed plaque on a desk at the entry to the Senator’s office, “Thank you for smoking,” and a tray of small packets of cigarettes.  During the Reagan Administration Sen. Jesse Helms put President Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shulz to the test by criticizing the way the top positions at State were held by careerists—and, therefore, liberals.  Like other conservatives in Congress, Nancy Reagan didn’t invite Sen. Helms to White House dinners.  Sen. Helms couldn’t care less. 

Senator Jesse Helms died yesterday, but the conservative movement that he stood for had died with the election of George Herbert Walker Bush in 1988.  The political face of North Carolina hasn’t seen a conservative Republican since Sen. Helms resigned, and former North Carolina governor James B. Hunt Jr., a Democrat who lost to Helms in North Carolina's 1984 Senate election, served on an important commission at the Department of Education during George W. Bush’s administration.  President George W. Bush chose not to confer the Medal of Freedom on Senator Helms, but last month granted that honor to Donna Shalala.  One wonders whether the future of the GOP in this century would be brighter if Herbert Walker Bush and “W” Bush had understood why Sen. Helms was consistently returned to elective office by his constituents.  Maybe then Republicans gathering in Minnesota this year wouldn’t feel that they were attending a funeral.