News
Getting out the vote key in Fifth District primary
Democrats Carter and Hamby want nomination to take on Foxx, but are far behind her on cash
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Published: May 2, 2008
Updated: 05/02/2008 12:35 am
In Northwest North Carolina politics, the fundraising tally tells the tale of two underdogs trying to oust a two-term congresswoman.
Roy Carter and Diane Hamby, the Democrats running for their party's nomination to represent the Fifth Congressional District, have not come close to matching what incumbent Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx has raised.
Carter of Glendale Springs has pulled in about $65,000, and Hamby, of Statesville, has gotten nearly $10,000. Both have been dwarfed by Foxx, a two-term incumbent who had more than $900,000 cash on hand, according to the latest campaign reports filed last month with the Federal Election Commission. Foxx has no primary opponent.
The fundraising machine is part of the problem, Carter and Hamby say.
The Democrats, one of whom will be picked in Tuesday's primary to challenge Foxx, say that because they have not been in Washington for the past four years or made a career of politics, they are better suited to represent the district's more than 600,000 people.
Their portrayals as everyday people are backed up by their day-to-day affairs.
Carter was hustling Wednesday to get some yard work done before his tour of the district's 12 counties, which wraps up today in Winston-Salem.
If the possibility of going up against Foxx frames Carter an underdog, it's a scenario he's familiar with. Carter has been a teacher and football coach for more than 30 years. His latest stint was at North Wilkes High School, where he was head coach.
He took over teams with few notches in the win column, he said, but the important thing was making players better.
These days, his coaching past pays dividends.
"Right after I announced, I had two students that went to Winston-Salem State University and Appalachian State University call me and ask, ‘How can I help?'" he said.
In keeping with that grass-roots campaign, Carter said he would have one staff member in charge of keeping tabs of the agriculture economy, one of Northwest North Carolina's largest sectors.
For her part, Hamby runs a painting company, and she says she is also in touch with kitchen-table issues. Hamby was quick to talk about how the price of such staples as milk, bread and gasoline has gone up. And, like Carter, she has had former students, now in college, willing to help her campaign.
Hamby isn't a teacher or coach, but she is a founding member of two charter schools in Statesville, as well as being a former member of the Iredell County Board of Commissioners.
When she helped open the first charter school in 1997, it had 125 students. In 1998, she helped open a charter middle school. Now, the merged schools, called American Renaissance Charter School, have about 585 students, she said.
Charter schools tend to be advocated by Republicans, and that notion was not lost on Hamby, who noted that charter schools keep in line with the state's course of study. She said she does not support vouchers, another type of alternative-education program, because they threaten to take money from public schools.
"I believe in school reform regardless of political affiliation," Hamby said. "A lot of people talk about school reform -- I just do it."
On education and such other issues as the Iraq war, economy, and health care, Hamby and Carter had few disagreements during two debates last month at Wake Forest and Appalachian State universities.
Both candidates favor ending the war, saying that its cost in human life has been a tremendous burden on families and has hamstrung efforts to pay for local programs. Both favor ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas, and giving breaks to companies that keep jobs in Northwest North Carolina. And both said they favor some form of universal health care.
What will separate them on Tuesday, they said, is their ability to get out the vote.
Hamby said she is confident that her time as an Iredell commissioner in the early 1990s will give her name recognition among Democrats at the polls. Carter, who announced his candidacy before Hamby, said that he has worked harder and longer.
"I think it just comes down to legwork. People will put their vote on who contacts most people, who gets word out, who is the most likable," he said.
■ Bertrand M. Gutierrez can be reached at 727-7283 or at bgutierrez@wsjournal.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( citizen ) on May 2, 2008 at 7:02 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Virginia Foxx has done good service to the people she represents. Some individuals try to dismiss her good work; however, Rep. Foxx does not let her election stand in the way of her convictions and she votes accordingly. All congress people should vote for the benefit of the country and not for the reelection to that office.
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