1 - 2 - 3 - 4   Rob Christensen Reporter, Columnist and Chief Political Correspondent Raleigh News & Observer Rob Christensen has covered North Carolina politics for over thirty years at The News & Observer in Raleigh. In his new book, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events That Shaped Modern North Carolina, Christensen ponders such questions as: "How can a state be represented by Jesse Helms and John Edwards at the same time?" The University of North Carolina Press will publish The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics in April 2008.      Patsy Clarke Co-founder, MAJIC (Mothers Against Jesse in  Congress) Patsy Clarke was a Jesse Helms supporter through the early '90s, and her late husband had been a Helms advisor. In 1994, after her son Mark died of AIDS, Clarke wrote Helms asking him not to pass judgment on people with AIDS. Helms wrote back that he wished Mark "had not played Russian roulette in his sexual activity," and was later quoted saying the disease was the result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." In response, Clarke and Eloise Vaughn, also the mother of an AIDS victim, established "MAJIC: Mothers Against Jesse in Congress" to oppose Helms’s bid for a fifth Senate term in 1996.      Tom Ellis Former Helms Political Strategist Tom Ellis has more than 50 years of experience as a leader in the public policy arena. Specifically, Ellis was the chief strategist for Jesse Helms and is credited with helping elect Ronald Reagan to the presidency, John East and Lauch Faircloth to the U.S. Senate, as well as elevating his friends and proteges to the federal bench and shaping the modern conservative movement. Today, he continues to be active in the Republican Party on the local, state, and national levels. Prior to entering into a private law practice, Mr. Ellis was Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He has served as Special Counsel, Governor's Advisory Committee on Education, 1955-1956; President, 10th Judicial District, 1960; Chairman, U.S. Condemnation Commissions, Eastern District of North Carolina, 1963-1966; and is a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference.     Reverend Jerry Falwell (1933-2007) Founder, Moral Majority Jerry Falwell was a fundamentalist Christian pastor and televangelist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, and founded Liberty University in 1971. With the help of Senator Jesse Helms and others, Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979, mobilizing Christian conservatives to political action with moral and social issues, including opposition to abortion, gay rights and pornography. The Moral Majority played a major role in electing Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980 and Jesse Helms to his third U.S. Senate term in a heated 1984 battle with Democrat Jim Hunt.     Ernest Furgurson Author, Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms Ernest B. "Pat" Furgurson, formerly a correspondent and columnist for The Baltimore Sun, is the author of the 1986 biography Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms.  His other books include Westmoreland: The Inevitable General, Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War, Chancellorsville 1863: The Souls of the Brave, Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War, and Not War But Murder: Cold Harbor 1864.       1 - 2 - 3 - 4   TOP