Sanford remembers the procedural maneuvering that took place in the North Carolina General Assembly during his governorship, through which the Assembly passed a speaker ban law. The law appears to have been aimed at preventing a Communist, Herbert Aptheker, from speaking on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sanford attributes its passage to right wing pressure and Secretary of State Thad Eure's efforts to burnish his credentials as he considered a run at the governor's mansion.