http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/us/acrid-air-and-dismay-linger-in-firebombed-gop-office-in-north-carolina.html 2016-10-17 17:36:28 Acrid Air and Dismay Linger in Firebombed G.O.P. Office in North Carolina Local Republicans described the attack as “political terrorism” as they picked through melted campaign signs and got back to work on Monday. === HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Evelyn Poole-Kober was stepping gingerly across the glass-covered floor of the Orange County The walls in the little strip-mall office were blackened by smoke, the air thick and acrid, the aftermath of a A sofa was burned down to an ugly skeleton. A big banner with a photo of a fetus was ruined, but the sentiment could still be made out: “Vote like a life depends on it.” A bumper sticker on a table read “LOCK HER UP.” Morning light shined in through the jagged hole that the authorities said the firebomb had made in the window. The Hillsborough police said they were investigating the attack along with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The hole truncated a message that had been emblazoned on the window: “FREEDOM SPEAKS HERE.” Now it said only “FREEDOM.” A badly charred American flag had been dragged out and displayed by the front door. Ms. Poole-Kober, a retired federal government employee and vice chairwoman of the Orange County Republican Party, still seemed shocked. She was wondering who would have done this. Even in a season boiling over with vitriol — at least on the national level — this did not seem right. Whoever it was, she said, was “someone who’s evil.” She had heard someone on the news describe it as “vandalism.” And she was sure of one thing: That was the wrong word. “In my heart, it’s an evil crime,” she said. “It’s no vandalism. Vandalism is if they would have come out and removed our signs. But to throw a firebomb through this building window is evil, and that’s in my heart. I think it was a political terrorism, I do.” Ms. Poole-Kober has lived in the area since the early 1980s, and she, like other Republicans here, is used to being in the minority in Orange County. Nearly half of the county’s approximately 116,000 voters are registered Democrats, and less than 15 percent of voters signed up as Republicans. A substantial number of voters — nearly 38 percent — are unaffiliated with a particular political party. Daniel Ashley, the chairman of the local Republican Party, said party members encountered “little pockets of super-ugly” in the most liberal enclaves of the county, particularly the small town of Carrboro, next to Chapel Hill. Unpleasant things are almost always said there, Mr. Ashley said, when volunteers hand out fliers. But Ms. Poole-Kober said that for the most part, people got along, even in the season of Mr. Trump. She has Democrats in her garden club. The Republicans participate in Fourth of July parades around here, and are made to generally feel welcome. “Something like this is beyond the normal,” Mr. Ashley said. Ms. Poole-Kober had just finished church services Sunday in Lincoln County, where she grew up on a dairy farm when Mr. Ashley called her in the early afternoon with the news. “It wasn’t like cold chills, but it was like something came over my whole body,” she said. She drove two hours straight to the scene in her church clothes, and when she got here, she cried. By Monday morning, At the shopping mall, Ms. Poole-Kober, Mr. Ashley and some volunteers had set up folding tables under the awning in front of the ruined building. They were back to work, ready to sign up volunteers and give out signs. Mr. Ashley had a phone up and running. TV cameras were everywhere. A Hillsborough Police car was stationed conspicuously out front. The graffiti that had read “Nazi Republicans leave town or else,” spray-painted on the side of the store nearby called Balloons Above Orange, had been painted over. Mr. Ashley had procured a modem from somewhere. Ms. Poole-Kober had brought her laptop in her white Chevrolet HHR, with its bumper sticker that sarcastically proclaimed, “DEPLORABLES Charter Member.”