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Foxx toes own line
She is credited with hard work, personal touch
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Published: November 29, 2009
Updated: 11/29/2009 04:57 pm
RALEIGH
In the post-Jesse Helms era, it's hard to find a North Carolina politician more polarizing than Virginia Foxx.
A three-term congresswoman from Avery County, Foxx is seen by some as offensive and others as courageous. At 66, she clearly hasn't lost her zest for the thrust and parry of congressional politics.
"I'm a small-government conservative, and that's not very fashionable in Washington," Foxx said last week during a wide-ranging telephone interview. "The liberals have no new ideas, and so they're reduced to character assassination."
The casual voter may know Foxx primarily for her tendency to generate outlandish sound bites that whip up the blogosphere, cable-news commentators and newspaper editorial writers.
Less well-known are other sides of Foxx: The woman who works a relentless daily schedule, personally responding to hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from constituents. A principled conservative who got a perfect score from the Club for Growth for voting consistently against pork projects. An aggressive fundraiser who has amassed huge sums of campaign money despite never facing a serious Democratic challenger.
Those descriptions all fit Foxx, even though her reputation has been defined, especially in the past year, by several one-liners Foxx made on the floor of the U.S. House, all of which drew negative national attention.
□ In April, during a House speech on a Democratic proposal to ban bonuses for some executives, she used the term "tar baby," a phrase that has carried various connotations over the years but is now seen by many as a racial epithet.
□ A few weeks later, she said it was a "hoax" to characterize the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard as a hate crime. Witnesses during the murder trial testified that Shepard was killed because he was gay. When Foxx made her comments, Shepard's mother was in the House gallery to watch a debate on hate-crime legislation. Foxx later issued a quasi-apology.
□ During debate over health-care reform, Foxx said that Democratic proposals would "put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government." Later, she said, "We have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist."
□ Most recently, on Nov. 19, Foxx said it was Republicans, not Democrats, who were mainly responsible for passing civil-rights legislation during the 1960s.
A narrow point
That last remark caused some commentators to note that the Civil Rights Act was pushed by Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and was sponsored by Democratic leaders in Congress.
Still, Foxx's description had a degree of factual accuracy. Although more Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act than Republicans, the Republicans had a higher percentage of their members supporting it.
"On that narrow factual point, she is correct," said Harry Watson, a professor of history at UNC Chapel Hill and an expert on the Civil Rights Movement.
But Watson added that Foxx is wrong to omit the political and historical context. Most of the opponents of civil rights were from the South, and most Southern congressmen at the time were Democrats. The passage of civil-rights legislation ushered in a political tide that allowed Republicans to dominate the South.
"The people that the Republicans recruited into their party, and which came to dominate it, were by and large unfriendly to civil-rights legislation," Watson said.
Foxx said that the political ramifications after the Civil Rights Act was passed are irrelevant to the point she was trying to make.
When she made her remark, she said, she was responding to a Democratic House member who accused Republicans of having a weak record on environmental issues. Foxx was arguing that, contrary to what some Democrats claim, Republicans actually have a strong record on the environment, just as they do on civil rights.
‘Constituents are very happy'
In any event, Foxx dismisses any suggestion that her public comments at times may be counterproductive.
"They're not controversial to my constituents," Foxx said. "My constituents are very happy about them. Everybody I talk to says ‘Keep firm, you're doing the right things, you're speaking to me.'"
It's true that North Carolina's 5th Congressional District, which Foxx represents, is a highly conservative district. It has about 50,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. The district includes part of Winston-Salem and all of Northwest North Carolina.
A former state senator, Foxx won the congressional seat -- vacated when five-term incumbent Richard Burr won election to the U.S. Senate -- in 2004, after emerging from a bitter, eight-candidate Republican primary. Since then, she has easily defeated Democratic opponents to retain the seat. No one has announced a formal intention to run against Foxx in 2010, although at least two Democrats are considering challenging her.
Despite the apparent safety of her seat, Foxx consistently raises more money than other House members from North Carolina. Federal election documents showed that, as of last month, she had $1.1 million in her campaign account.
Constituents who contact Foxx's office frequently find that she responds to them personally -- not with a simple form letter, which is common among many members of Congress. Foxx said she often works in her Washington office until 1 a.m., responding to voters who write to her.
"I think if constituents go to the trouble and let you know how they feel, they deserve an answer from the member, not some form letter from a staffer," Foxx said.
Fred Newman, a retired administrator from Winston-Salem, remembers getting a phone call one evening after he had e-mailed Foxx about an issue.
"She knew exactly what I had written about and was explaining some of her feelings about it," Newman said.
He said they talked for about 30 minutes. At one point, they lost their phone connection -- and Foxx called back. Newman said he was pleasantly surprised at the opportunity to discuss his concerns at length with his representative.
Burr also praised Foxx's work ethic.
"If one's ability to get re-elected is based upon how hard they work, she'll never be defeated," he said.
A difference of style
Although the two agree on many issues, Burr's low-key style is the opposite of Foxx's.
For instance, Burr said there is no question that terrorism poses a greater threat to America than the Democrats' health-care plans. But, he said, when Foxx expressed otherwise, it was simply her way of emphasizing the grave nature of the health-care debate.
"I probably would choose a different way to say it, but there's very little sunlight in between Virginia and I as to where we are on the issues," Burr said.
As for her chief issues, Foxx said that her goals are to slow down government spending and decrease the size of government. Her work in Congress has reflected that.
In 2005, she was one of just 11 House members to vote against a $51 billion aid package for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
In 2006, she was one of a small number of Republicans who opposed extending the Voting Rights Act.
She was the author of a law that allows members of the military to invest combat pay in individual retirement accounts. She also sponsored and led debate on a bill this year that tried to block President Obama from distributing the second wave of money in the government's bailout of financial institutions. Foxx's bill passed in the House but was never taken up in the Senate.
In 2007, she was criticized for helping to secure federal money for a teapot museum in Alleghany County. But since then, she has been firmly opposed to earmarks.
The question of whether Foxx's penchant for remarks that make controversy is simply an extension of her conservative views is, ultimately, a question for voters.
Newman, the retiree from Winston-Salem, said he mostly agrees with Foxx's positions, but sometimes wishes she would express herself in a more temperate way.
"With those who don't like her, it fuels the fire," Newman said. "With those who believe everything she says, it probably doesn't make any difference. Those in the middle? I'm not sure."
jromoser@wsjournal.com
919-210-6794
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