I sat down with US Rep. Howard Coble and his chief of staff, Ed McDonald, this morning at the congressman’s office on North Elm Street in Greensboro.
From my experience as a reporter, Coble consistently offers 30 minutes of his undivided attention in response to interview requests. This morning, the 79-year-old congressman thanked me for an e-mail I sent to his chief of staff in February expressing concern following Coble’s fainting spell in High Point, and apologized for not recognizing me at business networking meeting a week ago in Greensboro. Part of the congressman’s style is assiduous attention to personal relationships, which extends to the press.
McDonald sat through the interview. He said he tries to make it a practice to be anywhere in which the congressman interacts with the press. Friendly and helpful as his boss, the chief of staff corroborates colorful anecdotes.
For the first time since winning the District 6 seat in 1984, Coble is facing a primary. This year, five Republicans are challenging the veteran lawmaker for the seat.
Following his fainting spell while delivering a speech to the High Point Rotary Club in February, Coble spent one night in the hospital, underwent a battery of tests and was released with a bill of good health. Coble told me his nephew, a veterinarian with a history of heart problems, reviewed the readings from his tests and said, “I would kill to have these numbers.”
Coble’s five Republican challengers share some several commonalities: a conservative outlook, a desire to restrain spending and cut taxes, and a pledge to show responsiveness to constituents. Those are all strong qualities in the Coble brand.
“About the only complaint they’ve had with me is the fact that I’ve been up there too long,” Coble said. “They’ve had no problem with my voting record.”
The congressman said several weeks ago a constituent came up to him and said that although he agreed with 85 percent of his votes he would not be voting for him this year.
“One word: Incumbent,” Coble said. “Well, there may an incumbent or two you’d like to keep around.”
The one legislative decision challenged by one of the conservative candidates in the race is Coble’s affirmative vote in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program to bail out the banks at the tail end of George W. Bush’s presidency in late 2008. Candidate Jon Mangin said he would not have voted for the program.
Coble and McDonald emphasized to me that at the time of the vote there was panic and uncertainty about whether the financial system would survive. Before the first vote — in which Coble voted no — the congressman said almost all his constituent calls were coming from people opposed to the bailout. Afterwards, as the stock market teetered, the majority of the callers favored taking action.
McDonald recalled the father of a former staffer screaming at him over the phone, questioning Coble’s judgment over his vote against the first bailout because his stock portfolio was “cratering.”
Coble added that the president of Elon University urged him to vote for the bailout because he wasn’t sure the university would be able to make payroll otherwise.
The congressman told me that if he had to do it again, he probably would make the same decision.
Coble told me he faults president Obama for pursuing healthcare reform instead of staking more political capital and energy on job creation.
“Our three priorities are jobs, deficit spending and reckless spending,” Coble said. The congressman is pessimistic about Republicans playing much role in setting policy until after the November election, when they hope to pick up seats if not take control of the House.
He said he is not all that vexed about the climate of partisanship in Washington.
“It is as bad as I’ve seen it,” he said. “In a system where there are two major parties, you expect partisanship on issues. You expect argument. The fact that there’s partisanship doesn’t concern me.”
Asked if he considers it a problem that government can become dysfunctional when partisanship goes too far, he allowed that it might be.
Coble said he believes Congress will have to tackle entitlement reform to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent by, at the very least, raising the retirement age and possibly reducing benefits. I asked him what he thought about President Bush’s failed initiative to privatize Social Security, including allowing citizens to invest retirement funds in the stock market.
“I was not averse to it then, and I’m not averse to it now,” Coble said. “Let each beneficiary, if they opt to do it, they assume that risk.”
While the president’s priorities are difficult to predict, Coble and McDonald speculated that Obama might try to push through cap and trade legislation to reduce carbon emissions and legislation to make it more easier for workers to unionize through a card-check process.
Coble’s opposition to both is firm. He voted against cap and trade last year, and he showed off a lapel pin given to him by the National Right to Work Association.
I asked Coble why he wants to serve another two years.
“I think we’ve represented the district fairly,” he said. “I still have the energy to be accessible to constituents. I go to practically every reception in Washington that involves District 6. I’ve had very little attrition on my staff, and so we’re very stable. I’d like to give it one more go.”
I followed up by asking what he wants to accomplish in the legislative process in the next two years.
He rattled off a handful of tasks. Among them are getting $300 million allocated to replace the Yadkin River Bridge on Interstate 85 between High Point and Charlotte, appropriating funds for offender reentry programs in the Second Chance Act, and shepherding a patent reform bill through the House once it clears the Senate.
Triad Elections '10
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