POLITICAL BRIEFING

NO HOLDS BARRED: North Carolina has been the scene of some of the nation’s roughest political battles in recent years, and another one seems ready to join the list. With Democratic Sen. Terry Sanford in the hospital recovering from heart surgery, Republican contender Lauch Faircloth is airing advertisements that offer the thinly veiled suggestion that his 75-year-old rival is senile. . . . As the ads cite contradictions in various statements by Sanford, a narrator says the former Duke University president is “confused” and “doesn’t remember.” Democratic strategists hope the tactic will backfire but concede the race has tightened. . . . GOP prospects for Senate gains elsewhere in the South have faded. Two other Democratic incumbents once viewed as vulnerable, South Carolina’s Ernest F. Hollings and Georgia’s Wyche Fowler Jr., appear to have solid leads.