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The Pride of Pine Hill
00:43:10
In the midst of the 1996 race for North Carolina governor, a new candidate emerged. Her name was Jolene Strickland, and her campaign slogan was “Too Good to be True.”
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- [00:01]
Phoebe Judge
Support for Criminal comes from Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one platform designed to help you make a great website. Whether you're just starting out or trying to grow your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to choose a URL, show off what you're selling, reach more customers, get paid, and do it all while looking professional. Everything in one place. Check out squarespace.com criminal for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code criminal to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Support for criminal comes from BetterHelp therapy can feel like an expense that's hard to justify, both in terms of time and money, especially when sessions with a traditional in person therapist can cost hundreds of dollars. But with BetterHelp online therapy, you can do something good for yourself on your schedule while saving as much as 50% per session. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp says they're the world's largest online therapy platform. Having served over 5 million people globally, your well being is worth it. And now it's within reach. Visit betterhelp.com criminal to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelphelp.com criminal what was going on during the 1996 campaign season here in North Carolina? Who was running?
- [01:22]
Barry Yeoman
So in 1996, there were two candidates for governor. One was Jim Hunt, who was the incumbent. He was a Democrat. He was well respected, well loved. He was a champion of kids. He was also somebody who was very mainstream establishment.
- [01:42]
Phoebe Judge
This is journalist Barry Yeoman.
- [01:44]
Barry Yeoman
And then he was being challenged by Robin Hayes, who was a Republican who was most famous for for a sex education bill when he was in the state legislature that required the state to adopt a curriculum that, among other things, suggested that the kids wash their genital regions after having sex.
- [02:09]
Phoebe Judge
Robin Hayes also suggested that people could use lysol to prevent STDs, leading some people to refer to him as Lysol Man. His mother had contributed a million dollars to his gubernatorial campaign and an additional $500,000 to the Republican National Committee, telling a reporter that she made the donation because, quote, my son is very anxious to continue the things he started in the legislature. At the time, Barry Yeoman was working for an alt weekly based in Durham, North Carolina called the Independent Weekly. The newspaper was covering the governor's race closely. In 1996, Barry's editor was Bob Moser. Bob had started out as the calendar and arts editor. He was only 32 when he became the editor in chief.
- [03:00]
Barry Yeoman
And we were having a Staff meeting, figuring out how would we cover the elections in a way that other newspapers didn't. And Bob said, I'm gonna walk out of the room and you all figure it out and I'm not coming back until you, you have an idea.
- [03:17]
Phoebe Judge
So what were some of the ideas?
- [03:20]
Barry Yeoman
There may have been more ideas, but I only remember one because it's the one we chose, which was if we had two candidates who we were not crazy about, that we would make up one of our own.
- [03:32]
Phoebe Judge
I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. So when you, when you went back to Bob Moser and said, okay, you wanted us to come up with something, here's what we came up with. We're going to create our own candidate, what did he say?
- [03:52]
Barry Yeoman
He. He was both excited and nervous. He was. He was excited because it was bolder than what we normally do and it would be fun. And he was nervous because it wasn't what we normally did. And we were striving every week for credibility as an alternative weekly. We had one strike against us automatically, which was that we were viewed as biased. This was the end of the golden era of alt weeklies, alternative weeklies, which were weekly newspapers that very intentionally tried to zig left as the rest of the media zig right. We were always looking for the way that we can fill the gap in the mainstream press.
- [04:43]
Phoebe Judge
The first alt weekly in America is generally considered to be the Village Voice, which was first published in New York City in October of 1955. New York Times book critic Dwight Garner wrote, quote, for many oddballs and lefties and malcontents out in America's hinterlands, finding their first copy of the Voice was more than eye opening. Here was a dispatch from another, better planet. There was nothing else like it. Dan Wolf, the editor and co founder, said the Village Voice was originally conceived as a living, breathing attempt to demolish the notion that one needs to be a professional to accomplish something. In a field as purportedly technical as. As journalism, the Village Voice didn't take itself too seriously. The first edition included a short piece by a four year old titled A Joke by Philip. It read, a horse can't say yes or no, but a donkey can. But the paper didn't hold back. They ranked the worst landlords in New York City. They reported on abortion suits in the 1960s before Roe v. Wade, covering the most famous abortion doctor on the east coast to cover an anti prostitution measure in New York that said that women could not be served at bars and restaurants if they were not in a group that included men. A group of women Voice reporters went from restaurant to restaurant and demanded to be served. When a bartender seemed to panic about the big group of women at the bar, the author of the article wrote, what do you think we are, a whorehouse on a field trip?
- [06:26]
Barry Yeoman
Um, and, yeah, I mean, I think that that was the secret sauce that.
- [06:32]
Joanna Maclay
Made the Village Voice so influential.
- [06:37]
Phoebe Judge
This is Tricia Romano. She started as an intern at the village voice in 1997 and worked as a writer and fact checker there for many years.
- [06:47]
Barry Yeoman
Because instead of pretending that they're not.
- [06:51]
Joanna Maclay
A person, they're a robot, and they don't have opinions or they can't really.
- [06:58]
Barry Yeoman
Tell you what they're seeing, they just said it. You're not gonna say.
- [07:03]
Joanna Maclay
The sources say that it might be raining outside.
- [07:07]
Barry Yeoman
You just say, it's raining.
- [07:09]
Joanna Maclay
I saw the rain.
- [07:12]
Phoebe Judge
She published an oral history about the Village Voice. In it, she writes, I wanted to tell the story of how media overall has been hampered by greedy, imperious, and or incompetent management. These factors have shrunk the media landscape, whittling it down to the largest, most powerful publications, leaving a void most largely felt in local and independent news. Barry Yeoman says, at the Independent, the writers and editors wore their values on their sleeves, for better or for worse.
- [07:47]
Barry Yeoman
We were viewed as not neutral, and people called our journalism into question as a result of that. And we were doing great journalism. We were doing really strong investigative reporting. And the way that we got our word out, because we were a small paper, was we relied on other publications who would serve as amplifiers. And Bob was afraid that if we had something that they perceived as a. As a stunt, as fake news, that we would lose their credibility, we would lose their respect, and that that careful relationship that we had built would be threatened.
- [08:26]
Phoebe Judge
But still he said, go ahead with it.
- [08:28]
Barry Yeoman
But still he said, go ahead with it. Yes.
- [08:32]
Phoebe Judge
So tell me a little bit about the character, the politician that you created. Who was she?
- [08:38]
Barry Yeoman
So her name was Jolene Strickland, and she was the mayor of Pine Hill, North, Carol. Which, according to our very first article, is so small that there's no trace of it on the state's own maps. And she was the daughter of a tobacco farmer who had gotten lung cancer. She was a retired educator. She was active in her community. She was a lapsed evangelical Christian who had become an active Methodist. She represented rural North Carolina at its most progressive. She was outspoken. She was funny. She also had all the problems that every working class person in North Carolina had. Money was tight. She clipped coupons. She knew the cost of bread because she she budgeted her household budget that closely and she was somebody who articulated the values that we wanted to articulate, but in very homespun ways.
- [09:46]
Phoebe Judge
She would be perfect. We'll be right back. Thanks to Squarespace for their support. Squarespace is the all in one platform designed to help you make a great website. Whether you're just starting out or trying to grow your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to choose a URL, show off what you're selling, reach more customers, get paid, and do it all while looking professional. Everything in one place, no matter what you're working on. Whether it's a podcast, a special event, photography services, or a consultation business, you can customize your website to reach the right people. If you're creating video content like online courses, tutorials or workshops, Squarespace has built in ways to support that. With Squarespace, you can upload your videos into an organized paywalled library, and they make it easy to collect payment with thoughtfully designed invoices and online payments. Plus they have tools that make it convenient for people to keep in touch with you, tools that help you send emails to potential customers or that let your customers schedule their own appointments. Check out squarespace.com criminal for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code CRIMINAL to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do.
- [11:28]
Barry Yeoman
Like I did and have one of.
- [11:30]
Phoebe Judge
Your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com the first draft of the first article about Jolene Strickland was written by a journalist at the Independent named Melinda Ruley. Barry Yeoman says that the hope was that, quote, everybody would know that this was fictional, but they would have this really happy place where they could go and just dream about what an election would look like with a candidate who actually spoke to their needs. But he says the first draft was so believable that he and the other journalists at the Independent worried that readers wouldn't be able to tell that this wasn't an actual candidate for governor.
- [12:26]
Barry Yeoman
And then she crafted and crafted and crafted the story until we thought we had the balance right, that readers would love this character, but they would know she was a character.
- [12:39]
Phoebe Judge
And how would they know?
- [12:42]
Barry Yeoman
Well, for example, she lived on Big Bluffs Road, and her campaign slogan was Too Good to be True. And the phrase too good be true was. Was littered throughout the story.
- [12:57]
Phoebe Judge
They realized they needed to include a photograph of their candidate, so they had to find someone who looked like a retired schoolteacher from a small town. Barry Yeoman said he knew the perfect person. She was the mother of a friend of his named Joanna Maclay. Joanna Maclay was a professor at the University of Illinois, but was in North Carolina that spring on sabbatical.
- [13:21]
Barry Yeoman
And she really looked the part. Back then, one of the real political stars in the country was Ann Richards, the governor of Texas, who was this charismatic populist public speaker. And Dr. Maclay looked a lot like Ann Richards. She was in her middle age. She had silver hair, she was tall, and she looked very rural. And so she was willing to be the face of Jolene Strickland.
- [13:55]
Phoebe Judge
So you set up a photo shoot.
- [13:59]
Barry Yeoman
We set up. We set up many photo shoots. We basically sent our photographer, M.J. sharp, out with her. She posed in front of the Governor's mansion. She went to a Durham Bulls baseball game. She went to a popular restaurant in Raleigh where a lot of politicians and lobbyists hang out.
- [14:17]
Joanna Maclay
It was run by a husband and wife team. This particular diner or restaurant.
- [14:25]
Phoebe Judge
Joanna McClay speaking to Barry Yeoman in August of last year.
- [14:29]
Joanna Maclay
And we were in there eating, me and the photographer, and she was taking pictures of me while we ate. And so it was full. It was really full with lots of guys. And they're having lunch. Figured most of them were politicians, probably, or wannabes. And so finally, we're still there, and the restaurant's starting to kind of thin out. And the. The wife comes up from the back, and she said, we were getting ready to leave. And I said, thank you. Knows lovely, and food's so good and all that stuff. And she said, I just. I need to ask you something, if you don't mind. And I said, sure. And she said, are you. My husband and I were talking about it. We kind of think maybe you are. Are you somebody? And I looked at her and I said, well, I sure am.
- [15:39]
Phoebe Judge
They even found a dog for her to pose with. They decided Jolene Strickland would have a dog. Do you remember the night before the story was gonna be published, thinking, well, this is Exciting. I wonder how this is gonna go over.
- [15:52]
Barry Yeoman
Oh, we were all really excited. Our editor, Bob Moser, he told me much later that right before the story ran, he was driving to work and he pulled over his car and just started crying because he was so scared that something would go wrong. He was excited, but he was afraid that people wouldn't get the joke or they would get the joke and they would be angry at us or some reader reaction would not go as expected.
- [16:25]
Phoebe Judge
In May of 1996, the issue went to print. The whole cover was a picture of Joanna Maclay as Jolene Strickland standing in.
- [16:35]
Barry Yeoman
Front of the governor's mansion. She's in a red suit, has a red blazer. She's wearing a dogwood boutonniere. She's looking directly at the camera. Her head is tilted, and it said, move over, Jim Hunt. And there's a smaller subhead that said, independent candidate Jolene Strickland takes aim at the Governor's Mansion.
- [17:00]
Phoebe Judge
And how long was the profile inside? I mean, it wasn't. This wasn't a short article.
- [17:06]
Barry Yeoman
No, this went on for pages and pages. I mean, this was really like a life story. It was a biography. It went on thousands of words.
- [17:15]
Phoebe Judge
Jolene Strickland was 48. She always wore red. She once told her mother she hoped that someday she wouldn't have to clip coupons. And her mother said, joe, you stop practicing thrift and the devil will move into your kitchen. Her campaign manager told the Independent that they'd returned a $10,000 campaign contribution because Joe believes the governor of North Carolina should be elected, not bought. She had a husband named Bob and a son named Bobby. The dog was named Mercy Me. Jolene met Bob when she was 18, on her way home from her job at the utterly Butterly Dairy Barn. Bob was participating in a strike for better working conditions at a poultry plant. They dated for five years. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and got her teaching certificate from unc. They got married, and her parents gave them a book of baby names and a year's supply of ground chalk. She described teaching public school during the day and watching news from Vietnam at night. Quote, anyone not in a coma was getting the political lesson of a lifetime. Bob is quoted as saying, jolene can smell a pile of you know what from a mile away, and she doesn't rest until it's cleaned up. She went on to become the mayor of the, quote, storybook town, Pine Hill. And one of the things she focused on in her campaign to challenge Jim Hunt and Robin Hayes and the governor's race was crime. She said building new prisons was a wasteful and useless so called solution to a serious problem. She wanted job programs for non violent offenders, drug rehabilitation and education programs. She was quoted as saying, crime does not pay is such a tired cliche. We've got to teach kids that a life well lived does pay. She wanted clean rivers, affordable health care and strict rules about money and politics. What was the reaction?
- [19:31]
Barry Yeoman
Incredibly positive. But there was no indication that people understood that it wasn't real. So, so people were really excited about her as a candidate. We began receiving phone calls at the Independent. Remember this is basically pre email, it's 1996, so a few people have Internet, but mostly this is entirely non digital. We got phone calls, we got letters. People really wanted to send her campaign contributions but they didn't know where to send them, so they sent us campaign contributions. We also had an ad for bumper stickers and buttons and T shirts and people ordered all of those things. There was this real excitement about having a candidate who people really believed in her values.
- [20:21]
Phoebe Judge
So did anyone say, oh no, they're sending in contributions and they're buying buttons. What are we going to do?
- [20:28]
Barry Yeoman
So we weren't worried about the buttons, but we were very worried about the contributions. The buttons we thought meant that people were in on the joke and they wanted to spread the news of this mythical candidate. When we began getting contributions, there was this, oh no light bulb that went off over our head. So it was starting to become apparent to us that we didn't lay it on quite as thick as we had hoped to.
- [20:56]
Phoebe Judge
Two weeks after the article about Jolene Strickland ran, the Independent published a follow up article. They dropped more obvious hints reiterating her campaign slogan, too good to be true and saying outright that her campaign was conveniently headquartered here at the Independent. They quoted three readers who said they doubted that there was a real Jolene Strickland. They repeatedly referred to her as the Independent candidate, but they also published Jolene Strickland's response to her skeptics.
- [21:31]
Barry Yeoman
And her response to it was something that we thought all but confirmed that she was not real. She said, my campaign is about giving people a way to imagine just how good our government can be.
- [21:45]
Phoebe Judge
She said, quote, I'm as real as any other candidate in this race. And my daddy once said that too many politicians are like that monster, Dr. Frankenstein, brought to life loud, scary and held together by some rich guy's money. The paper sought comments from her opponents. A spokesperson for the Republican candidate Robin Hayes said she's for universal health care and she's very pro abortion. He went on to say, if she does the right things, she might catch on. The press secretary for the sitting Democratic governor, Jim Hunt, said that the governor would be willing to debate Jolene Strickland.
- [22:29]
Barry Yeoman
And neither of them suggested that they knew that Strickland was a fake. And so we published their comments because we figured if they're not doing their due diligence, we'll bet on them.
- [22:43]
Phoebe Judge
The follow up article also announced that there would be a press conference on May 30 at the State legislature so that Jolene Strickland could answer questions in person. It would be the first time that Joanna Maclay would be in front of other journalists and have to respond to their questions in real time. Barry remembers that they gave her a list of talking points and a statement to read, but that was about it in the way of prep. Still, everyone was confident that she could make it seem believable.
- [23:15]
Barry Yeoman
She was a scholar of Southern accents, so she had been studying Southern accents, and she was an actor. And so she knew how to perform Southern accents and in fact, had done some of her studying in North Carolina.
- [23:30]
Phoebe Judge
They also hired someone to play the part of her press secretary.
- [23:34]
Barry Yeoman
By all accounts, it went well in the beginning. She was very good on the policy talking points. And there were a bunch of reporters there. There are photos from that day, so we can see that there were a bunch of reporters. And she delivered her talking points really well. And the guy we hired as her press secretary stood by her. But then the journalist began asking her questions, and they were all questions that were designed to ferret out if she was real.
- [24:13]
Phoebe Judge
One journalist asked about her claim that her town, Pine Hill, wasn't on any maps because it was too small. Jolene Strickland said, well, you know maps, you know, mapmakers, you know, they're not perfect. Someone asked how long she'd been mayor of Pine Hill. She said since 1986. But her own campaign had printed her election date as 1993. The reporters kept asking questions.
- [24:42]
Barry Yeoman
Why is there no record of her as having graduated from the University of North Carolina? What highways run through Pine Hill? And she began panicking and she knew she was gonna panic. She had told us that the day before that she was not prepared for this. And my editors reassured her that she'd be fine. And she was not fine. She looked to the guy who had been hired as her press secretary. He didn't have answers, and she just panicked.
- [25:15]
Joanna Maclay
That was. I was. I was unhappy.
- [25:24]
Phoebe Judge
Okay, Joanna Maclay.
- [25:26]
Joanna Maclay
Because I was like, I. I'm not ready to do a press conference, guys. I don't have enough information. And they told me, listen, you'll be fine, because Bob will pick up any. Bob will deflect any problems. You know, he's really good at this. Well, he didn't.
- [25:55]
Phoebe Judge
Joanna McClay remembered finally telling one reporter, look, all these questions you're asking, it sounds like you're trying to say that I'm not real. The reporter said, that's right.
- [26:07]
Barry Yeoman
After the press conference, we had this real reckoning, and we tried to figure out, what do we do? Because this felt like it was worth doing. It was a great idea. And so what we decided that we would do is that we would issue a mea culpa that in the next issue we would come clean very clearly. It would be signed by Bob Moser, the editor, because at our fundamental core, we were deeply, painfully earnest.
- [26:42]
Phoebe Judge
The column read, we made her up. Jolene was one of those inspired ideas that springs from frustration. We wanted to address real issues. How to have universal health care, how to give everyone a fair chance at a prosperous life. How could we address such complicated issues without putting everyone to sleep? If you believed in Jolene, you're an awfully good company. Not only the company of a couple of astute political reporters and a bunch of shrewd readers, but also the offices of the actual gubernatorial candidates. Maybe we made Jolene too believable, and maybe in the process, we eroded your trust in the basic factuality of what we report. If so, we sincerely apologize.
- [27:29]
Barry Yeoman
And then we urged them to believe in Jolene the idea, if not Jolene the person. And we ran about a dozen more stories that had a disclaimer at the bottom.
- [27:43]
Phoebe Judge
The disclaimer read, the Jolene Strickland campaign for governor is, unfortunately, a fictional creation. The ideas are not. And they kept writing about her. In one article, the reporter described Jolene Strickland's visit to a polluted river where she waded through dead fish and picked up trash fortified by a glass of iced tea and a cheese sandwich, and gave a statement, quote, it's a question of who really owns these rivers, the businesses that pollute them or the citizens of North Carolina. We need a governor willing to withstand the wrath of big money. The pieces were a mix of policy and personal details. Jolene speaking about the loss of generational family farms to land developers while putting peanuts in her Coke. Jolene speaking against tax deductions for corporations in front of the Piggly Wiggly grocery Store a reference to her cousin Donna's. You pick Strawberry Farm in the middle of a piece about the state's Department of Transportation. Jolene at a fiddle festival. How did. How did the other politicians in their campaigns react when they realized this was all a stunt?
- [29:00]
Barry Yeoman
They spoke to other newspapers and they accused us of deception. The other campaigns definitely put on a show of righteous anger. When other reporters from other newspapers reported on the press conference, they called both the Hunt campaign and the Hayes campaign. And, for example, Hunt's spokesman said, there are better ways to discuss substantive issues than to mislead your readers. I think there was a little bit of embarrassment that earlier on they had not picked up that it was a fake. And so they were definitely. They were definitely putting on the righteous anger.
- [29:42]
Phoebe Judge
And did you get any strong criticism from anyone else from other newspapers, from, you know, people writing in saying, why would you do this? I don't trust you anymore?
- [29:53]
Barry Yeoman
We, we heard from readers who felt like their trust had been violated.
- [29:59]
Phoebe Judge
One reader named Jim Emery from Chapel Hill wrote in a letter to the paper, boy, do I feel deflated. This profile was exhilarating to read, and it stirred up a lot of talk. But how will we know if future stories are truth or fiction? It goes on to say, the overall feeling I'm left with is like a bad taste in my mouth. Sign me a hurt admirer of your paper. The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia wrote an article about Jolene saying, faster than you could say, liar, liar, pants on fire. The newspaper's senior staff writer admitted that it was not factual reporting, but a stunt to bring out certain issues during the summer's campaign. The article quoted Barry Yeoman, who said, newspapers have a lot of functions. One of them is reporting what happens in government. One of them is helping readers imagine the possibilities. He was also quoted saying, every politician is in some way fictitious. The Augusta Chronicle wrote, Mr. Yeoman is, of course, full of it. Real newspapers don't make up candidates. They do their best to expose bad ones.
- [31:15]
Barry Yeoman
But we also got praise, and it took a while after that press conference before we got praise. The first time that we saw some vindication was a couple of weeks later from the Greensboro News and Record that. That said that a specialized newspaper like the Independent is freer to experiment, and that, in fact, what we were doing was, well, in the tradition of literary journalism, which is. Which is true. Newspapers in the late 18th century and the early 19th century used parody, used satire much more frequently. And it wasn't until the Greensboro News and Record wrote its column that anybody acknowledged that there was real value to what we were doing.
- [32:13]
Phoebe Judge
That piece reads. Irony is a marvelous tool, but its uses are regrettably limited. In a modern newspaper, a specialized publication like the Independent is freer to experiment. And by supplying a foil for the real politicians, a fictional Jolene Strickland has the potential to clarify what the race for governor is really all about. The writer said, I think Jolene was a stroke of genius. We'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Selectquote Life insurance can have a huge impact on our family's future with Selectquote Getting covered with the right policy for you is simple and affordable. Selectquote's licensed insurance agents will tailor your experience to find a life insurance policy for your needs in as little as 15 minutes. And select selectquote partners with carriers that provide policies for many conditions. Selectquote they shop, you save. Go to selectquote.com Spotify Pod today to get started. This episode is brought to you by Greenlight. Get this Adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't. From swimming lessons to piano classes, us parents invest in so many things to enrich our kids lives. But are we investing in their future financial success? With Greenlight you can teach your kids financial literacy skills like earning, saving and investing. And this investment costs less than that. After school treat start prioritizing their financial education and future today with a risk free trial@greenlight.com Spotify greenlight.com Spotify did anyone actually try to vote for her?
- [34:03]
Barry Yeoman
Yes. Yes. In North Carolina you can't be a write in candidate unless you register as a write in candidate. And so we don't know for sure how many people wrote her in. But here's what we know. After the election, somebody who was involved in the vote counting in Wake county, which is the county seat of Raleigh, the state capitol said that as they were counting the votes there was one name that came up over and over, which is Jolene Strickland. And by our calculations in that one county she probably got dozens of votes.
- [34:46]
Phoebe Judge
Was everyone glad they did this?
- [34:48]
Barry Yeoman
I think by and large we were glad that we did it. We, we did it wrong. Clearly we didn't drop enough hints. We panicked when we were exposed. We didn't prepare our actress well enough. There were a lot of things that we made mistakes on, but I think that by and large that all of us feel glad that we did it. There was a place for alternative weeklies to challenge the kind of stenographic reporting that the press did to help readers see the possibilities. And so for us, having this vehicle of this likable, relatable character felt like the right thing, even if we did parts of the operation wrong. Having Jolene Strickland as this upbeat candidate allowed us to tackle these issues without saying, Jim Hunt, you are a tool of big corporations who include polluters who are funding your campaign. We never had to say that. We, we never had to say, Robin Hayes, you are bringing your own personal morality into a sphere where personal sexual morality has no place. We were able to do this in a way that was friendly and upbeat.
- [36:18]
Phoebe Judge
Jim Hunt won reelection in the 1996 North Carolina Governor's race. He went on to be the longest serving governor in the state's history. Robin Hayes, the Republican candidate, went on to become the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. In 2019, he was accused of bribery and pled guilty to lying to the FBI. He was later pardoned by President Trump. Barry Yeoman remained friends with Joanna Maclay.
- [36:50]
Barry Yeoman
And one of the things she told me was that she was finally moving her residence from Illinois to North Carolina so she could vote for governor of North Carolina. In 2024, she was 86 years old. She voted for governor of North Carolina. And then on election Day, she was diagnosed with cancer. And she passed away right before Thanksgiving. There was standing on her desk in Illinois, there was a picture of her as Jolene from that period. A 28 year old photo.
- [37:30]
Joanna Maclay
I love doing Jolene so much. And I was so reluctant to do it because I thought, I can't pull this off. And I said, ooh, that sounds like fun. I don't think I can do it, but it would be a roll of a lifetime.
- [37:51]
Phoebe Judge
Are you nostalgic at all for a time when alt weeklies were more of an institution?
- [37:59]
Barry Yeoman
I am so nostalgic for alt weeklies. You know, alt weeklies were killed by Craigslist and the Internet because what funded us were classified ads and personal ads and those moved off of print online as soon as there was a Craigslist. And we lost our base of advertising. We, meaning all alt weeklies around the country. In the Gap, what we've seen are much less credible online sources. People are turning to Reddit. People are turning to truly fake news journalism that pretends that it's real news. And that era that ran really from the 1970s until the 90s, it feels really precious and I am deeply sad that it's gone.
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Phoebe Judge
Barry Yeoman wrote the last piece about Jolene Strickland for the Independent. It's set on election night 1996 and describes the scene at her campaign headquarters, 200 people crowded together eating ham, biscuits, macaroni and lemon chess pie. He described everyone watching the results roll in and then Strickland giving a concession speech. She tells her supporters, it's impossible to get elected in North Carolina unless you have lots of your own cash or know how to kowtow to those who do. At the end of her speech, she says, the struggle continues. Besides, there's plenty of food left and Bob and I don't have enough Tupperware to take it all home. Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Roberson, Jackie Sajiko, Lily Clark, Lena Sillison and Megan Kinane. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them@thisiscriminal.com and you can sign up for our newsletter@thisiscriminal.com Newsletter we hope you'll consider supporting our work by joining our membership program Criminal. Plus, you can listen to Criminal, this is Love and Phoebe reads a Mystery without any ads. Plus you'll get bonus episodes. These are special episodes with me and Criminal co creator Lauren Spohr talking about everything from how we make our episodes to the crime stories that caught our attention that week to to things we've been enjoying lately. To learn more, go to thisiscriminal.com plus we're on Facebook criminalshow and Instagram and TikTok criminalpodcast. We're also on YouTube at YouTube.com criminalpodcast Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great shows@podcast.voxmedia.com I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.