House race yields ads with bite

It's an attention grabber -- a campaign mailer showing a box of "Whackos" with Rep. Russell Capps on the front.

On the back are Capps' views about Hurricane Katrina as God's punishment for casino gambling in Louisiana, his voting to keep a forced-sterilization law, and his connecting the Columbine school shootings to the teaching of evolution.

Political committees connected to the Service Employees International Union and the State Employees Association of North Carolina paid for the ad.

"Effective mail pieces are designed to get people's attention and to use humor to do that," said Kevin LeCount, SEANC's director of member action. "Russell Capps' record and his own comments indicate an extreme fringe point of view."

Capps said he has not seen the ad, but others have told him they "haven't seen anything quite so vicious."

A mailer that state Republicans sent on Capps' behalf puts yellow crime tape across the Legislative Building to make a case for changing Democratic leadership. On the back are pictures of Democrats who are in prison or are the focus of federal investigations, including House Speaker Jim Black.

"I'm ashamed of the fact that North Carolina is going through that kind of mess," Capps said.

Capps' opponent, Ty Harrell, said he has nothing to do with the questions surrounding Black.

By Lynn Bonner