Word of former Congressman Bill Hefner’s death last week took me back in time.
Once again, I was sitting in a high school auditorium, a young reporter listening to Hefner sing “I’ll Fly Away” and reassuring senior citizens that Social Security was safe as long as he was in the House.
That was how voters first got to know Bill Hefner ó not through TV spots dragging his opponent through the mud, not through direct mail pieces that fudged the facts.
Pressing the flesh at barbecue suppers and fish camps was still done in the early years of Hefner’s tenure, and he had the touch. He knew how to mobilize his supporters.
Back then, Rowan was the biggest county in the 11-county 8th District. Conventional wisdom held that television advertising wasn’t practical for a district that stretched from Rowan and Cabarrus to Fayetteville ó too many markets to buy. So when I was covering politics in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hefner was a master of politicking the old-fashioned way.
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The Singing Americans performed at a senior citizen rally Hefner held at the Salisbury Civic Center in August of 1981 ó not even an election year.
More than 500 people showed up for gospel music, door prizes, free refreshments and free reassurances.
Social Security might need some changes in about 20 years, Hefner told the seniors, but that was way off.
“People 65 and older have paid their dues,” he said. “We have a commitment to them. Whatever we have to do to honor that commitment, I’m going to support 100 percent.”
That’s about as political as he got.
“You know I used to be in the singing business, until folks began to say I was taking money under false pretenses,” he told the crowd. “They said, ‘You’re no good at it.’
“So I went into politics. Now some people say I’m not too good at that. Well, they’ll have to prove it.”
Congress was on break, and Hefner, a Democrat, was taking some heat for not being more supportive of the Republican-led Reagan Revolution.
That didn’t seem to be on these folks’ minds, though. Hefner shook each person’s hand as the crowd headed for free ice cream and soda.
“You’re doing a beautiful job,” Ruth Leazer told him, “and you know, you even sing good.”
“I’ve been reading a lot about you,” another woman told the congressman. “I’ve got a good mind to kiss you.”
Go ahead, Hefner said ó and she did.
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The Reagan Revolution was also on people’s minds at a Hefner town hall meeting that April ó nothing like this year’s town hall meetings. People packed Salisbury City Council chambers to get Hefner’s take, but they were polite even when they disagreed.
The congressman said he stood behind some of Reagan’s budget cuts, but not all. “You didn’t elect me to be a rubber stamp for anybody,” he said.
And he refused to condemn welfare, food stamps and the school lunch program.
“I hope I am never asked to abandon people in need,” Hefner said. “Contrary to what people say, there are some people who need help.”
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Gov. Jim Hunt accompanied Hefner on a campaign swing through Albemarle in October 1982. At the time, Republican opponent Harris Blake was criticizing Hefner’s vote for most-favored-nation status for China ó something Blake predicted would force layoffs and plant closings.
But China was as far away as ó well, China ó to the 700-plus people who missed a Reagan TV address to hear Hunt rattle the Republicans’ chains and drum up Democratic spirit.
Hunt gave Democrats credit for leading the nation out of the Depression, winning World War II and building a prosperous economy. He went on to describe a new Republican tractor that had no seat or steering wheel. It’s for farmers who have lost their rear ends and don’t have anywhere to turn, he said.
Hefner poured it on, too. Republicans, he said, had opposed the creation of Social Security, rural electrification and the postal service.
Hefner ended the rally with a couple of stanzas of “Amazing Grace.” Everyone was about to leave when Rowan native Jim Graham, commissioner of agriculture, stepped up to the microphone and loosened his tie.
“This is for Bill Hefner,” Graham said, and with some kicking and wheezing, he let out his traditional donkey bray, Graham’s cry of victory.
They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
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Elizabeth Cook is editor of the Salisbury Post.