Carolina North Carolina at a Glance State Profile - Gov. Hunt (D) - Sen. Helms (R) - Sen. Edwards (D) Presidential Politics Congressional Districting - 01 - Clayton (D) - 02 - Etheridge (D) - 03 - Jones Jr. (R) - 04 - Price (D) - 05 - Burr (R) - 06 - Coble (R) - 07 - McIntyre (D) - 08 - Hayes (R) - 09 - Myrick (R) - 10 - Ballenger (R) - 11 - Taylor (R) - 12 - Watt (D) Almanac 2000 Home States & Districts Elected Officials For district profiles and additional information on the elected officials of North Carolina, please use the pull-down menu above.

From the coastal plain of North Carolina, the terrain rises slowly through modest hills cut by rivers in the Piedmont, until finally the first mountain ridges appear, their mysterious blue haze filling the crevasse valleys or clinging to the steep hillsides. The Piedmont, in between the plain and the mountains, was first settled by independent-minded Scots-Irish farmers and by followers of British and German sects like the Moravians. This was hardscrabble farm country at the time of the Civil War, with few slaves. By the late 19th Century, it was becoming industrialized, with textile mills alongside streams, furniture factories not far from hardwood forests and the R. J. Reynolds cigarette factories in Winston-Salem (the only city to be honored by the name of two cigarette brands). This Piedmont economy was hailed as the basis of a progressive New South, although textile mills paid low wages and tobacco employed few workers. In fact, North Carolina's present day affluence owes more to pharmaceuticals and banking and to high-skill Piedmont factories like the country's most advanced tire recycling plant in Winston-Salem, and a custom furniture-making operation in Kernersville.

All these are within the boundaries of the 5th Congressional District, which sweeps along the northern edge of North Carolina across the Piedmont to the Blue Ridge, stopping along the way to include the northern fringe of Greensboro and most of the Winston-Salem area. About half the district's votes are cast in and around Winston-Salem; the rest are sprinkled across the countryside and in small industrial cities like Reidsville, Eden and Mt. Airy (the setting for the fictional town of Mayberry in the ''Andy Griffith Show''). The legislature's May 1998 redistricting excised the 5th's eastern and western extremities, making it somewhat more compact but not changing the political balance; most of the black sections of Winston-Salem remain in the 12th District.

The congressman from the 5th District is Richard Burr, a Republican elected in 1994. Burr grew up in Winston-Salem, was a star football player at Reynolds High and Wake Forest, then worked for a wholesaling firm. In 1992, Burr ran against Congressman Steve Neal, a Democrat first elected in 1974, who usually won by close margins; Burr was outspent 3-1 and lost 53%-46%. Neal retired in 1994 and Burr ran again, with no opposition in the primary. His Democratic opponent was state Senator Sandy Sands, a rural trial lawyer who attacked Burr for using Jerry Falwell's Liberty University studios to produce his 1992 ads. Burr supported the Contract with America, promised to make defense of tobacco his number one issue, and worked hard to tie Sands to the Clinton Administration. Burr won a solid 57%, carrying all but two counties and carrying the Winston-Salem area by nearly 2-1.

In the House he has a mostly conservative voting record, was treasurer of the freshman class and, with help from Greensboro's Howard Coble, won a seat on the Commerce Committee. His main cause there has been streamlining the FDA drug and medical device approval process, which he claims keeps valuable and life-saving products from patients; in March 1996 he introduced an FDA reform bill and held hearings, but no vote was taken in the full committee. He also attacked the FDA's move to regulate tobacco as a drug as a ''witch hunt.'' ''The tobacco industry currently spends millions of dollars to educate kids that smoking is an adult choice,'' he said. He helped defeat an amendment to an agriculture appropriations bill that would have cut funding for crop insurance for tobacco; the vote was 212-210. On other issues, he worked to change the Medicaid formula, which got $900 million more for North Carolina over seven years, and he sought a crackdown on illegal textile imports, routed by China through other countries to evade quotas.

His major achievement has been the FDA Modernization Act signed in November 1997. By the mid-1990s the FDA was moving so slowly that it took more than 10 years and $350 million to move a prescription drug from idea to market, and 773 days to approve a medical device. Burr at first took a radical approach that aroused much opposition, but then for over two years worked with the agency, doctors, patients, consumer groups and the pharmaceutical industry to come up with a consensus approach. The new law requires the FDA to establish protocol guidelines before extensive research is begun, to review applications in a more timely manner, to use due process to determine scientific disputes and to create a scientific advisory panel; it was criticized by some on the left but praised by HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and signed by Bill Clinton. As a bonus, that same month the FDA approved the Sensor Pad, a device to help breast self-examination, which had been a Burr crusade.

Burr's next big cause is electricity deregulation. He has been sponsoring a bill to give states the ability to design deregulation if they want; it bars mandatory power purchases but continues current contracts, and allows rural cooperatives to compete wherever investor-owned utilities can. He has also sponsored a bill to allow satellite TV providers to include local network stations. He has sponsored a bill to delay for five years EPA's new air-quality standards. He was named vice chairman of Commerce's famed Oversight Subcommittee. Burr strongly opposed tobacco legislation and when Clinton in January 1999 called for the Justice Department to sue the tobacco companies, Burr said, ''He played the card of fear again. … This is an administration whose policy is to drive the industry out.''

Burr has worked the district hard, holding women's health and electricity summits in Winston-Salem, and employing a 30-cup rule: he buys a cup of coffee everywhere he stops to talk to constituents and says he has bought as many as 30 in a day. In 1996 he was re-elected 62%-35%; he had underfunded opposition and the only county he didn't carry was removed by redistricting. In 1998 he almost avoided any Democratic opposition at all; only after the primary was delayed until September did he draw a challenger, a man who had won 3% in the Senate primary in May. Burr gave $80,000 to the Republicans' House campaign committee and ran statewide ads about the importance of voting. He won easily, and there was talk he would run for statewide office. After Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer, a longtime friend, dropped out of the gubernatorial race in January 1999, Burr considered running but decided in February he didn't have ''the fire in my belly.'' But he added that his sights were set on running for the Senate in 2002 or 2004; that would be in line with his 1994 promise to serve no more than five terms in the House.

Cook's Call:
Safe. After taking himself out of the 2000 governor's race, Burr is reportedly looking at running for Senate in 2002 should Jesse Helms retire. Burr is a solid fit for this conservative district and will have no problems here in 2000. Even if this seat opens up in 2002, Republicans would still have the edge here.

The People:

• Pop. 1990: 552,337
• 60.4% rural; 14.5% age 65+;
• 85.2% White, 13.9% Black, 0.4% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.8% Hispanic origin; 0.3% Other.
• Households: 56.4% married couple families; 25.2% married couple fams. w. children; 35.9% college educ.; median household income: $25,543; per capita income: $12,716; median gross rent: $264; median house value: $59,500.

1996 Presidential Vote Dole (R) 134,379 (57%) Clinton (D) 86,437 (36%) Perot (I) 16,203 (7%)

1992 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 118,496 (48%) Clinton (D) 92,933 (38%) Perot (I) 34,517 (14%)