North Carolina And Real Power In Washington

The Raleigh News & Observer posted an excellent article on North Carolina's political clout in the US House today.

It seems we don't have any . . . even with Howard Coble being there forever, and chairing subcommittees and being "the man" on "intellectual" property issues (an arguable point).

According to the the article:

North Carolina "has the 11th biggest population in the US but is ranked 44th in congressional clout".

"(Howard) Coble (R-6th), North Carolina's longest-serving member of Congress, has all kinds of friends. But Coble has little real power in Washington.

Really, no one in North Carolina's House delegation does. None of the state's 13 members can march into the House and make things happen on a broad, national scale.

By an imprecise and anecdotal gauge, North Carolina is a lightweight in Congress. The Tar Heel delegation boasts no full committee chairmen, no one in top party leadership, no one willing to play the national fundraising game. The state's members haven't been the architects of sweeping national policy changes of late, and, collectively, they aren't funneling tax dollars back home the way other delegations have."

It's all kind of depressing. It gives "write your Congressman" a whole new meaning.

Of course people say "write your Congressman" because writing your Senators (especially ones using the office as a stepping stone to the Presidency) is a black hole.

Coble is getting a boost in keeping the power he has from President Bush. He's popping into Howard country next week (right before the election - no coincidence) to shore up the faithful and raise some money.

Per Coble, the power he does have is all about trust. "If you mislead or are deceptive one time, the person you mislead will never forget it".

Yep.