Rep. Cass Ballenger (R) Elected 1986, 9th term
Born:	Dec. 6, 1926, Hickory
Home:	Hickory
Education:	U. of NC, Amherst Col., B.A. 1948
Religion:	Episcopalian
Marital Status:	married (Donna)
Elected  Office:	Catawba Cnty. Bd. of Commissioners, 1966-74, Chmn. 1970-74; NC House of Reps., 1974-76; NC Senate, 1976-86.
Military Career:	Naval Air Corps, 1944-45.
Professional Career:	Businessman; Pres., Hickory Paper Box Co., 1948-70; Founder & Pres., Plastic Packaging Inc., 1957-present.
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Steeped in the hues that gave them the name "Blue Ridge," the heavily wooded mountains of North Carolina seem placid and ancient. Geologically, they are some of the oldest ranges in the world; economically, the region is blue collar and oriented towards manufacturing, though there is some cotton farming, too. During the 1990s, residents here benefited from investment in fiber-optic factories, which, along with the general economic boom, helped reduce the local unemployment rate to near-record lows. But the Internet bust deflated hurt the fiber optic business and textiles and furniture were also troubled, and the local unemployment rate rose. At the same time, this corner of North Carolina is adapting--as are so many other rural areas in the U.S.--to growing diversity. County seats like Morganton in Burke County are now home not just to Hispanics but to newcomers from Laos; the influx of recent arrivals have occasionally prompted anti-immigrant backlash in this previously insular region, including the occasional rejection of school bond proposals on the grounds that they could help immigrants disproportionately. Ironically, this part of North Carolina desperately needs more education: The region around Hickory, in Catawba County, ranked dead last among the state's 11 metropolitan areas in education rates. According to the most recent Census, almost a third of adults in this district lacked a high-school degree.

The 10th Congressional District stretches from Tennessee, where the mountains are tall enough to support a modest ski industry, all the way south to the South Carolina border. It is a district comprised mostly of small towns; it is still predominantly white, ranges throughout 10 counties, and is bisected by the meandering Interstate 40, which runs the length of North Carolina from Wilmington in the east to Asheville in the west. The largest population center in the 10th is Hickory, which along with the rest of Catawba County accounts for just over 20% of the district's population. This remains a very Republican area--home to a rough-hewn, hill variety of Republicanism that is unsympathetic to government regulators, from factory inspectors to revenuers on the lookout for illegal stills. In 2000 George W. Bush won 65% of the vote here.

The congressman from the 10th District is Cass Ballenger, a Republican elected in 1986. Ballenger grew up in Hickory, enlisted in the Navy at 18, went to Amherst College and headed a paper box company. In 1957 he founded Plastic Packaging Inc. to make plastic wrappings for J.C. Penney underwear, and it grew to a payroll of 250 employees. He served on the Catawba County Board of Commissioners for eight years and in the state legislature for 12. In 1986, after Congressman James Broyhill was appointed to the Senate (he lost in November), Ballenger ran for the House. Promising to be a "Broyhill Republican," he beat a primary opponent backed by Jesse Helms. Ballenger has consistently won reelection by large margins.

Ballenger combines a moderate-to-conservative voting record with a sense of civic responsibility. He and his wife have organized humanitarian trips to Central and South America, delivering donated medical supplies and second-hand fire engines; Plastic Packaging sent a half-million plastic bags to Haiti to be used to grow eucalyptus seedlings to reforest the barren hills. When Democrats were in control of Congress, he opposed the Clinton health care plan, family and medical leave and striker replacement; he amended an OSHA law by exempting employers when violations are caused by employees breaking company work rules. When Republicans gained control, Ballenger became chairman of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee.

On this subcommittee Ballenger saw his job as updating labor laws that were out of line with flexible management and family-conscious employees. One response was the comp-time (or flex-time) bill, which would allow employees who work overtime to choose whether to receive overtime pay or compensatory time within the next year; federal employees have had this option since 1985. Comp-time passed the House in 1996 and again in 1997, but was fiercely opposed by the AFL-CIO, which argued that employers will coerce employees to take leave time, and it died in the Senate. Another major initiative was OSHA reform. Two of his proposals were enacted in 1998, the first free-standing changes in OSHA since it was established in 1970. One codified OSHA's own consultation program operated by the states; businesses could get advice without inviting adversarial proceedings. The second barred enforcement quotas and using enforcement activities as performance measures. In 2000 Ballenger led the battle against OSHA's proposed ergonomic standards, arguably the most burdensome regulations on business ever. The draft regulations, he argued, did not identify the hazards being regulated nor what employers needed to do to control or eliminate the hazards; he urged that the regulations be delayed until publication of a National Academy of Sciences study. The Clinton administration went ahead anyway, putting the standards into effect four days before Clinton left office. But in March 2001 the House voted to repeal them.

Term limits barred Ballenger from that chairmanship in 2001, and he became chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee on International Relations. Forging an unusual partnership with liberal Democrat Bill Delahunt, he had several cordial discussions with Venezuela president Hugo Chavez, who had manipulated the nation's constitution through plebiscites and faced serious domestic unrest. Ballenger contended that Chavez had significant accomplishments and that "his rhetoric is worse than his actions," though others were skeptical; Chavez reinforced the friendship by visiting his home in Hickory, where they ate barbecue. Ballenger wants to extend NAFTA to Central and South America and supported PNTR for China in 2000. But he was a very reluctant supporter of trade promotion authority, and in December 2001 he paced the House floor for a long time after the usual 15 minutes before finally voting aye. Ballenger said that he worried that his vote would generate unhappiness in his district.

Perhaps it did. In 2002 Ballenger was held below 60% of the vote for the first time since 1986. Facing self-financing textile mill owner Ron Daugherty, a former Republican and political newcomer opposed to free trade, Ballenger seemed offended by the challenge. "I don't understand why [Daugherty] wants to beat up an old man," he told a local reporter two weeks before the election. He refused to debate his challenger, though they had some joint appearances. Spending more than $200,000 of his own money, Daugherty ran ads depicting Ballenger as disconnected from his constituents and more interested in foreign junkets. But he received little attention from national Democrats or the news media. Ballenger won 59%-38%.

In December 2002, Ballenger suffered an embarrassing incident when he told a reporter for The Charlotte Observer, "I must admit I had segregationist feelings" after dealing with acerbic Representative Cynthia McKinney, who lost reelection that year. "I mean, she was such a bitch," he added. Ballenger, whose comments came in the midst of the controversy over remarks by Senator Trent Lott and were accompanied by his statement that Lott should resign as the Republican leader, apologized a day later. He said his comments were "pretty stupid on my part." Whatever Ballenger's future, it would take a major partisan shift for the 10th District to elect a Democrat.

Update: May 20, 2004
On December 2, 2003, Ballenger announced he will not seek reelection to a 10th term in 2004.

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DC Office
2182 RHOB 20515, 202-225-2576; Fax: 202-225-0316; Web site: www.house.gov/ballenger

State Offices
Hickory, 828-327-6100.

Committees

• Education & the Workforce (3d of 27 R): Employer-Employee Relations; Workforce Protections.
• International Relations (8th of 26 R): International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights; Western Hemisphere (Chmn.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	0	7	0	0	60	100	55	90	96	80	100
2001	0	--	0	0	--	--	60	95	88	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	20%	--	80%		13%	--	85%
Social	41%	--	60%		32%	--	63%
Foreign	4%	--	87%		0%	--	85%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Cass Ballenger (R)	102,768	59%	$640,420
	Ron Daugherty (D)	65,587	38%	$295,383
	Other	4,937	3%
2002 primary	Cass Ballenger (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Cass Ballenger (R)	164,182	68%	$266,557
	Delmas Parker (D)	70,877	29%
	Other	5,599	2%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (86%); 1996 (70%); 1994 (72%); 1992 (63%); 1990 (62%); 1988 (61%); 1986 (57%); 1986 (58%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	143,124	65%
	Gore (D)	75,592	34%
	Other	1,693	1%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Tenth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +16
• District Size: 3,362 square miles
• Population in 2000: 619,178; 49.9% urban; 50.1% rural
• Median Household Income: $37,649; 10.6% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 41.9% blue collar; 45.4% white collar; 12.6% gray collar; 12.8% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 84.9% White, 9.2% Black, 1.5% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.7% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 3.5% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 16.5% USA, 10.4% German, 6.9% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.