News-Record.com

From a story in Sunday's paper:

GREENSBORO -- Howard Coble will be the first to admit he's no spring chicken -- or any other cliché you want to use.

"Let's face it, 76 is getting long in the tooth," Coble said Friday after driving home from Washington the day before.

The Greensboro Republican has reached an age when most of his peers think about retiring rather than asking the voters for another term.

It's possible that during the upcoming election campaign, voters could start thinking about the fact that Coble will be 79 before the next Congress adjourns in 2010.

"Surprisingly enough, I don't recall a constituent ever saying that," Coble said.

According to the House clerk's office, the average age of a U.S. representative when the current term began was 55, and the average congressman had served 9.3 years. Coble was first elected in 1984 and was out of high school before that average congressman was born.

While he said he is "nearing the end of his legislative career" and won't "be up there eternally," Coble also said he intends to win another term.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Coble refused to say when he might retire, so I'll put it to you. How old is too old to be knocking about up in D.C.?

Bill Wright, the chairman of the Guilford County GOP, has a letter to the editor today regarding our story on Coble's age and whether he'll retire. From the letter:

But perhaps the article says even more about Jay Ovittore, an announced Democratic challenger. Ovittore suggested that anyone who has served as long as Coble begins to get cynical and corrupt.

I have known Coble for many years and shared the platform with him at numerous events, especially programs honoring our veterans and ex-POWs. Coble is a man of the people, visible throughout the 6th District. He is constantly meeting with constituent groups, area businesses, speaking to schoolchildren, veterans' groups and listening to the concerns of voters. He has assembled a talented and committed staff that provides perhaps the best constituent service of anyone in Congress.

So is Wright right? Can you serve in Washington for more than two decades and still be a "man of the people?" Or do age and length of service eventually take their toll?

Yes! Weekly columnist and local talk show host Jim Longworth has said he won't let Jay Ovittore on his air. Ovittore is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in the 6th Congressional District.

This is reminiscent somewhat of Longworth's complaints about Brad Miller in 2006, when Miller declined to come on his show. I can't say that the tiff hurt Miller in the polls any.

Triad Today is an independent production, not part of a news operation. (ABC 45 where the show is produced doesn't have a news department.)

This is the second time today that this story has sparked some sort of public tussle.

Hat tip: Blue NC

From a Charlotte Observer article about the attendence (or lack there of) for North Carolina's federal delegation:

Rep. Robin Hayes, a Concord Republican, missed 59 votes, tied with GOP Rep. Howard Coble of Greensboro, for the second-largest number of missed votes in the delegation.

That's 59 of nearly 1,200 votes, or a miss rate of 4.8 percent or so.

In this comment to a recent post David Crawford said he's no longer running for Congress this year. He also writes that he will support Johnny Carter over Jay Ovittore in the primary. The winner of the Democratic primary will take on Republican incumbent Howard Coble.

Crawford filed to run and then aborted his City Council campaign against Mike Barber last year. Crawford has switched his Myspace page to a 2009 council campaign mode.

There are two Democrats officially filed to run in the 6th Congressional District according to the State Board of Elections.

Johnny Carter, of Summerfield, has made his bid official. He's been noted here before.

New to the race is Teresa Sue Bratton of Greensboro. I met her at a Democratic gathering Tuesday night. She is a pediatric allergist and says she got into the race after being aggravated by Republican incumbent Howard Coble's vote against SCHIP expansion.

She said that she was in the process of hiring on a campaign manager.

Jay Ovittore, who has announced a run, isn't on the SBOE list yet.

Jay Ovittore endorsed Senate candidate Jim Neal in a blog post on the BlueNC site. This is a bit of an internecine feuding. Ovittore is from Guilford County, as is state Sen. Kay Hagan, Neal's primary opposition in the primary.

From the post:

I have tried to work with both camps in the Senate race and the only one that will give me the time of day is Jim's. The straw that broke the camels back however, Kay Hagan will speak at one of my primary opponent's events. This is after pledging to help my campaign and never following through.

For those of you asking what sort of effect this sort of thing has, I don't know. Ovittore is not a well known commodity and it seems unlikely he's going to swing a lot of voters in state races. Still, he seems to be well-liked by some activists, so maybe those who were fence-sitting in the Senate race might be pushed over the Neal camp.

Just by way of information, the other candidates in Ovittore's primary - 6th Congressional District, now held by Rep. Howard Coble - are Teressa Sue Bratton and Johnny J. Carter. Hagan and Bratton seem to be on pretty good terms.

For those wondering, political consultants would agree with Ovittore when he starts out his post by saying he shouldn't be endorsing anyone. Candidates with their own primaries tend to stay out of one another's' primaries since they run the risk of hacking off potential friends and supporters. That's doubly true in the case of Hagan, who is by far the most influential sitting legislator from Guilford County and backed by a number of local politicos.

The Democrats hoping to win their party's nomination in the 6th Congressional District debated at Guilford College Tuesday night. The winner of the primary will go on to face Republican Howard Coble this fall.

Democrats in the race include Teresa Sue Bratton, Johnny Carter and Jay Ovittore.

Along with a colleague from the Lexington Dispatch, I had the opportunity to ask some questions of the candidates. Some of the highlights from my notes follow.

On Iraq

Ovittore and Bratton they would only vote for further funding of the war in Iraq if it was tied to timetables for withdrawal. Carter said that he would not vote for further military funding but that the U.S. needed to pay for the continued rebuilding of the country.

On Health Care

Carter said that he would put everyone under a national healthcare system.

Ovittore also advocated for a single-payer system.

Bratton said that she did not favor an immediate shift to a single payer or national health care system. She said that we should create a national nonprofit health care company that would cover those without private health insurance. If the country gradually moved to the point of single payer system, Bratton said that would be fine but that she did not want to outlaw an entire industry over night.

On gay marriage

Bratton said she would vote to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act passed under then-President Clinton, which allows states not to recognize marriages made in other states if they involve same sex unions. Bratton said she supports civil unions for same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

Carter said that gay people were being denied rights that others have. He said he was in favor of equitable treatment of all people and didn't see the reason for DOMA being passed.

Ovittore said that he would not only vote to repeal DOMA but would push for a law that would force states to recognize marriages made legal elsewhere, including same-sex unions.

Closings

Ovittore said: "I am the only candidate up here who can beat Howard Coble Nov. 4."

Carter invited people to read his policy positions on his website: "They're coming basically from common sense."

Bratton said she could assemble a coalition that can be Coble in the fall: "I'm a centrist and I believe I can attract Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are worried about their future and the future of our children."

From today's paper: a look at the three Democrats who want to take on Republican Rep. Howard Coble in the 6th Congressional District.

Previously:

• The Democratic primary in the 28th state Senate District.
• The Republican Primary in the 61st state House District.