Helms holds a slim lead, due in large part to Reagan's popularity in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans three-to-one. But Hunt is confident that his superior get-out-the-vote organization will make up the difference.

While the campaign has been waged almost exclusively over the television airwaves for the last 18 months, both men have hit the hustings for the home stretch. Helms, a tall and grandfatherly Southern gentleman with a quick temper, tours the state in "Avocado One," a green and white recreational vehicle.

At every stop, the 63-year-old senator kisses babies, while spinning yarns about the "good ol'days" and his "never-ending battle against communism." Hunt, 47, seems limitless in his energy on the trail. From dawn 'til dusk, the gregarious governor works the factory lines and tobacco warehouses, shaking hands, giving speeches, and "listening to people."

Across the state, Helms, the champion of the New Right, blasts at Hunt, calling the two-term governor a "racist," a "felon," and a "consummate liar." Hunt, whose billing as a moderate New South politician gave him an early but fleeting lead, fires back, attacking Helms as the "High Priest" of a nationwide "network of right-wing extremists."

For the Tar Heel voter, there is no escaping the invective.

Sunday football, for example, takes a back seat to the commercials shown between posessions. Local radio stations, when not airing campaign ads, spin Helms-Hunt musical parodies. Ray Parker Jr.'s hit "Ghostbusters" has been dismembered so that the chorus repeatedly chimes "Who ya gonna call? Mudslingers! They ain't afraid of no mud. They're just out for some blood."

Only a phone off the hook will keep the Helms and Hunt forces from ringing and encouraging voters to exercise their most sacred rights. And in the mailbox, bills from the electric company barely outnumber "Dear Friend" fund-raising appeals from the candidates.

This ceaseless barrage adds up to a staggering figure: $22.1 million. As of October 17, Helms had raised $13.7 million and Hunt had raised $8.4 million, easily breaking all previous Senate campaign spending records. Cumulatively, they have spent about $7 per registered voter--enough to pay the salaries of all 100 U.S. Senators for nearly three years.

The contributions pour in from all over the nation. Almost two-thirds--64.4 percent--of Helms' major contributions have come from out of state, while Hunt has collected more than one-third --36.9 percent--of his major contributions out of state.

Well over three-quarters of the money ads has gone to campaign advertising. Through August, for instance, the candidates purchased air time for more than 15,000 commercials, roughly 11,000 for Helms and 4,000 for Hunt. Those numbers add up to about five and a half days of non-stop vitriol. Since August, Helms and Hunt have stepped up the onslaught.

Helms, a former newspaper reporter and television broadcaster, justifies his advertising blitzes in repeated diatribes against "ultra liberal news media." In speeches and interviews, he insists that he is forced to spend millions on commercials in order to "correct" the deliberate "lies and distortions" printed in North Carolina's major newspapers.

And Helms' commercials have had their desired effect. The senator has gradually chipped away at Hunt's "moderate" armor, portraying the governor as both a wishy-washy leader and a "closet left-winger." Helms, in speeches and commercials, depicts Hunt as a "Mondale liberal" who frequently associates with blacks, homosexuals, feminists, and atheists.

The message has taken hold and Helms, who began the race, ironically, as the "challenger," has drawn even with Hunt.

In July 1983, Hunt led Helms in statewide public opinion polls by as much as 19 percentage points. Thirteen months later, a September Gallup Poll showed Helms leading Hunt by four points, a 23-point reversal. Today, with less than a week to go before the election, the race is a tossup, with Helms showing a slight, statistically insignificant lead. Even in Wilson, the governor's home county in eastern North Carolina, a local newpaper poll shows Helms leading Hunt, 46 to 42 percent. But the poll's 4.5 percent margin of error makes the race a dead heat.

Hunt's message has changed as frequently as the polls. The governor has hit hard at Helms, assailing the senator for votes against Social Security, Medicare and Veterans benefits. And recently, Hunt has attempted to portray Helms as the "Prince of Darkness"--the leader of a national right-wing cabal intent on re-writing the U.S. Constitution and replacing the Republican Party.