ABSTRACT
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has an elaborate student government and a tradition of lively campus politics. The years David Eugene Price was there, 1959–1961, were particularly active because of the civil rights movement. In 1976, after Price had permanently returned to North Carolina, friends from the Muskie campaign recruited him to manage two congressional districts in Jimmy Carter’s bid for the presidency. The Fourth District was bound to be a partisan target in 1988. Republicans by mid-1987 settled on Price's challenger: Tom Fetzer, a thirty-three-year-old protege of Senators John East and Jesse Helms who had spent virtually his entire working life as a political operative, including several positions with the National Congressional Club. Price's benchmark poll, taken in late June, contained clear warning signs. President Bill Clinton, who won 47 percent of the district’s presidential vote in 1992, had slipped in popularity.
