. Carolina North Carolina at a Glance State Profile - Gov. Easley (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 2002 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.

For more than half a century, furniture store managers and owners from all over the country twice a year have converged on the huge Furniture Mart in High Point, the center of the U.S. furniture business, for the giant trade show put on by manufacturers. High Point sits amidst rolling farmland originally settled by Quakers, the site of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in the Revolutionary War, then slaveholding country in the years before the Civil War. The furniture business grew here early in the 20th Century because of the hardwoods in the mountains not far west and the abundance of low-wage labor in the flatlands not far east. Soon it was said of High Point that there were so many factories, "only a wise man knows his own factory whistle." Today, employment in furniture continues to grow, unlike in textiles and tobacco, and wages have risen. Race relations are now outwardly pleasant in Greensboro, where in 1960 black students at North Carolina A&T started the first lunch counter sit-in at a local five-and-dime.

The 6th Congressional District of North Carolina covers most of Greensboro and High Point in Guilford County, Quaker-settled Randolph County and golf-course-sprinkled Moore County to the south and part of furniture-manufacturing Davidson County to the west. The May 1998 redistricting took black precincts in Guilford County away from the 12th District and placed them back in the 6th; the result is that the 6th's black percentage increased from 7% to 11%.

The congressman from the 6th District is Howard Coble, a Republican first elected in 1984. He grew up in Guilford County, went to Guilford College, then after wrecking his father's car joined the Coast Guard, in which 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, state revenue commissioner and served in the state House from 1968-70 and 1978-84. In 1984 Coble was elected to Congress in what was then a swing district; it was the third time the 6th had changed parties in three elections. Coble won reelection 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 the 1992 redistricting made this a safe seat; the later addition of black precincts posed no jeopardy.

Coble is a friendly man who asks visitors if they mind if he smokes his cheap cigars; he likes bluegrass music and eats pork brains and eggs for breakfast. He is solidly conservative, with interesting twists. He is tightfisted, and since his first term he has tried to pass legislation to abolish congressional pensions; he boycotts that program himself, but hasn't found many co-sponsors. Like many of his constituents, he is leery of free trade. He opposed fast-track for NAFTA, but finally voted for it in 1993 (without visiting the White House or selling his vote, he said); but he opposed GATT and permanent normal trade relations with China. Unsurprisingly, he opposes FDA regulation of tobacco.

"I see my role more as one of keeping bad legislation off the books," Coble once said. But as a subcommittee chairman he became legislatively productive. In 1995 he became chairman of the panel with jurisdiction over the Coast Guard, and steered to House passage bills replacing the maritime cartel with free markets and closing down Coast Guard stations; but they went nowhere in the Senate. In 1997 he became chairman of the Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee of Judiciary. Suddenly this cigar-chomping and suspender-wearing Tar Heel hayseed found himself sought out by Hollywood and Nashville stars: he dined with Billy Joel and had office visits from Johnny and June Carter Cash, Michael J. Fox and Paul Reiser. Arguing that copyright industries produce more GDP than manufacturing and that patent protection is essential to technological progress, Coble supports greater protection for intellectual property--to consumerists' dismay. He passed a bill to extend the term of copyright by 20 years. (Otherwise Mickey Mouse would have gone out of copyright by 2004.) He introduced measures to make it illegal to circumvent encryption technology used to protect copyrighted material and to remove digital author codes from copyrighted material, to protect creative work transmitted over the Internet. This law, signed in October 1998, conforms U.S. law to World Intellectual Property Organization treaties.

Coble concedes that he is not computer literate, but says that has not been an obstacle to dealing with the digital revolution and that he has come to appreciate the developers of the Internet. His bill to impose criminal penalties for unauthorized use of materials in electronic data bases generated fierce opposition; critics complained that it would permit the stock exchanges to prevent publication of stock prices. In the 106th Congress, Coble became the center of added controversy after he slipped a four-line amendment to the copyright law into an unrelated bill on home satellites; his "work for hire" provision, which recording companies requested, extended their control of recorded music past 35 years after its release; Coble thought that he was merely formalizing what already was common practice. Following strong objections from prominent musicians such as rock star Don Henley (who wrote a song complaining about the unfairness) and bluegrass banjoer Earl Scruggs--and, not incidentally, from fellow subcommittee member Mary Bono, widow of Sonny--Coble before the 2000 election agreed with ranking Democrat Howard Berman to repeal the earlier measure. Still, he enacted more than a dozen bills after taking over the copyright subcommittee and remained popular with colleagues. In the 107th Congress, Coble was named chairman of the revamped Internet and Intellectual Property subcommittee.

On other court-related issues, Coble sponsored the law that established a commission to consider realignment of the federal appeals courts, especially the cumbersomely large and often-reversed 9th Circuit. He proposed cutting the fees that finance the Patent and Trademark office, whose surplus the Clinton administration was raiding. When former Congressman Robert Drinan said Republicans were seeking "vengeance" against Clinton, Coble replied, "We're going about our business, and if anybody thinks that vengeance is involved, I'll meet 'em in the parking lot later on tonight." No such meetings took place. Coble--who became a friend in the Coast Guard with fellow Tarheel Erskine Bowles, Clinton's chief of staff in 1997 and 1998--voted to impeach but declined to become a House manager, because of his father's illness.

Coble was the only North Carolinian on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as it put together the huge highway bill in 1998. The highway formula was shifted very much to his state's advantage, and Coble brought home some bacon: $22 million for the Greensboro Outer Loop, $22 million to build the U.S. 311 expressway in High Point, $6.6 million for a Greensboro Intermodal Center at the old train station and $3.3 million for new Greensboro buses and vans.

Coble has had no Democratic opponent in three of four contests since 1994. Democratic redistricters may make the district more Democratic, not so much with the hope of defeating Coble as making it a winnable district if he retires.

Cook's Call:
Safe. Coble has had little competition here since 1986, and he is not likely to see any action in 2002 either. This district needs to shed about 70,000 residents in 2002 redistricting, but it is unlikely to undermine the Republican-leaning nature of this district. He is safely situated here.

The People:

• Pop. 2000: 689,529; Pop. 1990: 552,663, up 24.8% 1990-2000.
• 84.1% White, 10.9% Black, 1.3% Asian, 0.4% Amer. Indian, 1.1% Two+ races, 2.2% Other. 4.4% Hispanic origin.

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 169,105 (64%) Gore (D) 92,116 (35%)

1996 Presidential Vote Dole (R) 105,779 (50%) Clinton (D) 88,812 (42%) Perot (I) 15,484 (7%)