THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 31, 1995 TAG: 9507280023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By ROB CHRISTENSEN
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Call it the killer commercial. You remember the 1990 Jesse Helms ads showing a pair of white hands crumpling a job-rejection slip.
``You needed that job,'' the announcer says. ``And you were the best-qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair?''
The TV ad was the brainchild of Alejandro ``Alex'' Castellanos, a Cuban-American who grew up in Eastern North Carolina. Castellanos, 41, is regarded as one of the hottest political consultants in the country. If Phil Gramm is elected president next year and if Helms is re-elected to the Senate, then Castellanos will deserve some of the credit.
The ``white hands ad'' is as topical as recent newspaper headlines on affirmative action. No North Carolina TV ad has been more studied by scholars looking for deep meanings.
But Castellanos says it was all seat-of-the-pants campaign strategy. The ad was produced in the final days of the 1990 Senate campaign, when Helms' internal campaign polls showed him down nine points to Democrat Harvey Gantt, Castellanos says. The Helms campaign decided to gamble on two issues: racial quotas and a TV deal from which Gantt benefited.
The racial-quota ad was shot in a hurry in an Alexandria hotel. The pair of famous white hands belonged to the cameraman. Castellanos liked his shirt and wedding ring. Castellanos ran the camera.
The work was finished too late to be flown down to North Carolina. So after midnight, Tom Ellis, a Raleigh lawyer and longtime Helms adviser, rented a limousine, piled the videocassettes in the trunk and drove them back to Raleigh - a kind of conservative Paul Revere with a message that ``the quotas are coming, the quotas are coming.''
That commercial, Castellanos believes, was crucial to Helms' re-election. And it also demonstrated Helms' instinct for sniffing out an issue.
``Helms wins because he is ahead of his time,'' Castellanos says. ``It is strange that this guy whom so many people view as a reactionary has been the progressive leader of the conservative cause. Whatever everybody else is talking about now, he blazed the way.''
But the ad also troubled some people such as Congressman Mel Watt, who viewed it as playing the old racial card.
``I think it was clearly designed to appeal the most basic racial instincts of people,'' says Watt, Gantt's campaign manager in 1990.
Castellanos says the issue was quotas, not race.
``I think it's easier for me to do that spot with my (Latino) background than it would be for someone else,'' Castellanos said. ``I don't feel any tremendous racial guilt about that.''
All this is not just of historical interest. There may be a Helms-Gantt rematch next year, and Castellanos expects to be doing Helms' TV commercials again.
Castellanos is a conservative because of Fidel Castro. He was born in Havana, but came to this country at age 6. His parents fled Cuba with one suitcase and $11 in their pockets.
His father, a doctor, eventually set up a practice in the Harnett County town of Coats. Castellanos earned a Morehead Scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He learned his politics at the National Conservative Club, the Raleigh-area political-action committee that, until recently, served as Helms' political organization.
When he left Chapel Hill, he headed to the Conservative Club to help Ronald Reagan's 1976 primary fight. He quickly encountered Carter Wrenn, the field boss for the political organization.
``I went over there to volunteer to stuff envelopes,'' he said. ``I was expecting to meet Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, the guy in the powdered wig, and there is this big plastic table and this big heavy kid (Wrenn) with canvas Converse All-Stars sitting there smoking a cigar. And I'm thinking - what happened to Thomas Jefferson?''
At the club, Castellanos was a creative force. He helped pioneer direct-mail political fund-raising. He created Jefferson Marketing, a spinoff marketing firm. But he says there was real political genius in Wrenn and Ellis - the two gurus who helped fuel the conservative movement in the country.
After working on Helms' 1984 Senate race against Gov. Jim Hunt, Castellanos went on to work in dozens of campaigns for senators, governors and congressmen, creating more than 750 commercials. He has been a media guru to presidential candidates such as Bob Dole and George Bush.
His firm, National Media Inc., now places more TV ads than any GOP firm in the country - more than $50 million worth last year.
Castellanos says he has found what he was looking for in life: a little passion, some poetry and a cause.
``I'm very fortunate,'' he says. ``I've got a great wife. I got two good kids. I fight for things I believe in that I think will make the world better, like truth. I get to go to war with friends. I'm a very lucky guy.'' MEMO: Mr. Christensen writes for the (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer.
KEYWORDS: POLITICAL CONSULTANT by CNB