By David A. Vise and Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 4 1998; Page D01

The North Carolina senator responsible for reducing Mayor Marion Barry to a virtually ceremonial role is touting that accomplishment in a fund-raising letter as he faces a tough reelection campaign.

"I took on a job no other senator wanted when I agreed to help fix the problems in the city of Washington D.C.," wrote Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District. "I was appalled at the mismanagement of Mayor Marion Barry and I helped take away the power he proved incapable of using.

"Just as you'd expect, I've incurred the wrath of Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, and D.C. Mayor Marion Barry."

Barry shot back yesterday, saying Faircloth's letter was laced with "racial overtones."

"It certainly has racial overtones when you put Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and myself together," Barry said. "It is clear he is appealing to the racial instincts of people in North Carolina."

Aside from the troika of black leaders, Faircloth lists his "enemies" as "Big Government Liberals," "liberal trial lawyers," President Clinton and "the National Democratic Party." And he views his enemies as a badge of honor.

"When you're fighting for North Carolina's conservative values as hard as I am, you're bound to make some enemies," he wrote.

Faircloth, a former conservative Democrat, faces a tough reelection campaign against John Edwards, a wealthy trial lawyer who is expected to pour millions of dollars into his campaign. A number of liberal groups have targeted Faircloth for defeat.

A spokesman for Faircloth dismissed charges that the fund-raising letter was racially loaded. He said the references to Barry, Jackson and Farrakhan were in the context of a broader statement about Faircloth's political enemies.

"That fund-raising letter refers to liberals opposed to Senator Faircloth's reelection," spokesman Peter Hans said.

Hans said that Farrakhan and Jackson struck first by harshly attacking the senator. And he noted that Barry's allies traveled to Faircloth's North Carolina hog farm last summer to protest the senator's role in stripping away the mayor's powers.

"The mayor and his political allies have helped to elevate the issue in North Carolina considerably with their extreme rhetoric and visit to the state," Hans said.

That was hardly a mortal blow, however. In fact, several political observers in North Carolina chuckled at the notion that the protest by a group of liberal Washingtonians was anything but a godsend for the senator.

"Faircloth would never say this, but I'm sure his attitude was, `Come on down,' " said Ferrel Guillory, director of the southern politics and media program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It doesn't hurt him down here to show that he knocked Marion Barry down to size."

Guillory and others said that Faircloth's letter is part of a political tradition, whereby conservative North Carolina politicians raise money by invoking the names of liberal opponents.

"Senator [Jesse] Helms used to do this all the time," Guillory said. "He would introduce some motion that he knew the liberals in the Senate would knock down, and then he'd use the defeat to rally his supporters."

Thad Beyle, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he did not see much racial coding in Faircloth's letter.

"Back 20, 30 years ago, you would have had seen some racial stuff," Beyle said. "But Faircloth is playing it straight."

Meanwhile, Barry took his own shot at Faircloth, suggesting that the people of North Carolina should take a closer look at the record of their junior senator.

"Why does he have to talk about what he is doing up here?" Barry asked. "From what I can find out, he has neglected the needs of the people in North Carolina."