The congressman from the 6th District is Howard Coble, a Republican first elected in 1984. Older and far more independent-minded than most of his House GOP colleagues, he has been unable to secure a committee chairmanship despite his considerable seniority. Read More

The congressman from the 6th District is Howard Coble, a Republican first elected in 1984. Older and far more independent-minded than most of his House GOP colleagues, he has been unable to secure a committee chairmanship despite his considerable seniority.

Coble grew up in Guilford County and went to Guilford College. After wrecking his father’s car, he fled to the Coast Guard, where he started off collecting garbage and served for five years. He was an insurance claims representative, went to law school, and became an assistant U.S. attorney and the state revenue commissioner. He served in the state House for eight years. Coble was elected to Congress in what was then a swing district. It was the third time the 6th District had changed parties in three elections. Coble won re-election in 1986 by just 79 votes, in a contest that Democrats complained was decided by the Guilford County election board’s refusal to hold a recount. But his personal popularity and subsequent redistrictings have made this a safe seat.

Coble is a friendly man who asks visitors if they mind if he smokes his cheap cigars. A true product of his district, he likes bluegrass music and eats pork brains and eggs for breakfast. His voting record is mostly conservative, with interesting twists. He is tightfisted, and since his first term, he has tried to pass legislation to abolish pensions or health coverage for congressional retirees, which he calls “a taxpayer rip-off.” He hasn’t found many co-sponsors, but he has refused to back down on his pledge to boycott the program himself.

Like many of his constituents, he is leery of free trade. He initially opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement but voted for it in 1993. He has opposed subsequent trade initiatives, including normalizing trade relations with China and the 2005 Central America Free Trade Agreement. He worked with other North Carolina lawmakers to get into law a tariff reduction bill in 2010 aimed at the Glen Raven textile mill in Warren County. The Raleigh News & Observer later reported that Glen Raven’s president had given Coble more than $7,000 since 2007, including $2,000 two weeks after he first introduced the legislation. Coble responded that there was no link between the donations and his legislation.

In the 112th Congress (2011-12), Coble became the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law. He and Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, immediately riled Democrats by introducing a bill aimed at easing small businesses’ costs of implementing federal regulations. He co-sponsored another bill that Democrats disliked, a measure to repeal a National Mediation Board rule allowing unions to organize railway and airline workers with less than a majority of employees voting in favor of representation.

“I see my role more as one of keeping bad legislation off the books,” Coble once said. Still, he has been legislatively productive on Judiciary, especially in the area of intellectual property. Coble says that industries that depend on copyrights produce more gross domestic product than does manufacturing, and he has supported greater protection for intellectual property. When the Bush administration sought budget cuts from the Patent and Trademark Office, Coble told the appropriators to “keep their grubby paws out of the PTO’s coffers.” In 2002, he shepherded the enactment of additional changes in the patent law, including the development of an electronic system for the filing and processing of patent and trademark applications. In 2004, the Judiciary Committee approved his bill to protect commercial databases from piracy. Despite his own limitations in operating a computer, Coble is a major cheerleader for the digital revolution and says he has come to appreciate the Internet. In 1997, he was in line to be the ranking Republican on Judiciary, but GOP leaders instead gave the post to Lamar Smith of Texas, a more prolific party fundraiser.

Coble voted in 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq, but by 2005 he was raising questions about President George W. Bush’s war policy. In 2007, he was one of 17 House Republicans to oppose Bush’s troop surge strategy but he would not go along with Democratic proposals for a troop withdrawal deadline. He has been similarly skeptical of President Barack Obama’s strategy on Afghanistan. He signed a bipartisan letter to Obama in February 2009 citing Osama bin Laden’s vow to “bleed … America to the point of bankruptcy” in that country.

In July 2008, Coble broke James Broyhill’s record for the longest tenure in the U.S. House of a Republican from North Carolina. Broyhill served 23 years, from 1963 to 1986. When Coble faces a Democratic opponent, which isn’t very often, he typically exceeds 70% of the vote. He faced five Republican challengers in 2010 and dispatched them with ease, drawing 64%; some of them were likely auditioning to replace him when he finally retires. Democrats view this seat as possibly competitive once Coble departs, but that seems a stretch. More likely, the district’s future could hinge on redistricting.