Tom Fetzer's libel lawsuit has no merit, said Paul Knight, the general manager of a Wilmington radio station being sued by the former Raleigh mayor.

"We didn't slander or libel him," Knight said this afternoon, Sarah Ovaska reports.

Fetzer, who is campaigning to head the N.C. Republican Party, filed a libel lawsuit Monday in Wake County against Curtis Wright and Sea-Comm Inc., the company that runs 93.7 and 106, two Wilmington-area talk radio stations that Wright has a morning show on.

In the lawsuit, Fetzer claims that Wright sent an email to multiple county GOP chairs questioning the candidates for the selection next weekend of a new state party chair. The email included a copy of an anonymous letter insinuating that Fetzer is gay.

Though Fetzer doesn't mention specifically what the potentially libelous statements are in his lawsuit, he has denied he is gay.

Knight said he will have his lawyers file a motion to dismiss the suit either the end of this week or next.

Tom Fetzer filed a libel lawsuit late Monday afternoon against a Wilmington radio host who forwarded an email insinuating that Fetzer was gay.

The suit seeks damages of $10,000 or more from Curtis Wright, the host of "The Morning Beat with Curtis Wright," as well as Sea-Comm, Inc., the corporate owner of WLTT, Curtis' employer, Sarah Ovaska reports.

Wright had forwarded an email that included allegations that Fetzer is gay, though Wright is not thought to be the author of the anonymous email, according to the lawsuit.

In the suit, Fetzer accuses Wright of concocting a smear campaign to thwart his campaign to lead the state Republican Party. Curtis, Fetzer claims in the suit, has endorsed Marcus Kindley from Guilford County for the position.

The lawsuit never mentions the word gay nor does it specify the potentially libelous statements. 

Fetzer and his attorneys wrote that Curtis spread rumors that "tend to charge Mr. Fetzer with a crime of offense involving moral turpitude, to charge Mr. Fetzer with dishonesty, to disgrace and degrade Mr. Fetzer, to hold Mr. Fetzer up to public ridicule and contempt, and to cause Mr. Fetzer to be avoided and shunned."

Former Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer says he will sue a Wilmington radio host for libel for forwarding an e-mail that alleges he is gay.

A longtime Republican political consultant, Fetzer is running for head of the state party.

In an e-mail to supporters today, he said that he intends to "vigorously pursue legal action" against radio host Curtis Wright, his employer, WLTT, and corporate owner Sea-Comm Media.

"The fact that I'm 54 and single does not mean that I have to put up with vicious rumors that I'm gay," he wrote in the e-mail. "The fact that I am heterosexual is a matter of public record."

Fetzer told Dome he will file the lawsuit on Tuesday.

North Carolina's case law may present a challenge to a potential lawsuit.

In 1994, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled that falsely claiming that someone was gay or bisexual was not libelous by itself.

After the jump, Fetzer's letter.

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