Stanly News & Press
Sunday, October 15, 2006
www.thesnaponline.com

Kissell's shoestring campaign pulls close
from David & Goliath race in the 8th

By Joel Barrett, Managing Editor

The way Larry Kissell sees it, Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes has to run against two opponents - the lanky textile mill worker-turned-school teacher and the Republican's own record in Congress.

Democrat Kissell faces Hayes, the fourth richest man in Congress, in the race for the North Carolina's 8h District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kissell, 55, of Biscoe, faces tough odds in the campaign, particularly in fundraising. Hayes, as of this week, had $1.2 million in his campaign war chest, with an estimated $250,000 already spent on "media buys."

Kissell's campaign has taken off recently, witness former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards — possible 2008 presidential candidate — stumping for him before Friday night's football game in Hayes' hometown of Concord.

Last week, when Kissell campaign fund had a mere $88 in the bank, he put out a call to local supporters and took in thousands of dollars in a matter of hours. Not from big corporations or industry PACs, but from regular folks working paycheck-to-paycheck. In all, it's estimated that Kissell will spend about $100,000 in the campaign, a mere 15th of what the incumbent has available.

"We're just hitting them with a healthy dose of Robin Hayes' record - when you get that, it wakes you up," he said.

"It's going to take a lot of money to explain away his record to the voters," he said.

Kissell isn't the stereotypic radical. He believes in the death penalty, is personally opposed to abortion and supports the right to bear arms. He's a working-class candidate.

Kissell, a lifelong Democrat, worked in sales and various other jobs for 27 years in the textile industry before the Star plant owned by Renfro Corp., which ultimately closed for good in 2003.

Kissell saw that the deck was stacked against American textile workers in 2001 the effects of free trade on the domestic textile industry were becoming evident. Textile plants were shutting down operations all over the area and many production jobs were being sent overseas. He embraced a new career - teaching - and got his teaching certificate so that the day after he left the textile plant, he was in front of students, teaching social studies.

Part of the Civics curriculum was teaching the workings of government. Kissell said the more he taught about our founding principles and Constitution to students, the more he realized how far off-course the country had strayed from the Founders' intentions.

"When the Founders developed the concept of the United States Congress it was meant to be a branch of government that would be filled by everyday people. These people would come and go, being replaced by other everyday people. Congress was not meant to be a profession. It was meant to be what it was called: The U.S. House of Representatives," Kissell said.

With his only elected offices being in high school, Kissell decided in October 2005 it was time for regular working Americans to take back "their" House "instead of sitting around and complaining about it."

Although he calls Hayes "a good man," he said the 8th District's representative has broken his promises to the people.

At the top of the list is Hayes' flip-flop and last-minute vote making Central American Free Trade Agreement a reality.

"For the 8th District, all free-trade deals are bad. Mr. Hayes made a promise and broke it. No amount of justification can make up for the loss of trust. He has become part of the Washington-insider culture."

National security, less government, less taxes and real family values are the hallmarks of Kissell's grassroots campaign.

Iraq

"We staged our way into Iraq in one year, there is no reason we can't stage our way out in one year."

Kissell said the three-pronged mission of going to war with Iraq - searching for WMDs, toppling Saddam Hussein and bringing democracy to the people of Iraq - has been accomplished. Now, it's time to begin phasing out the U.S. involvement and bring the troops home to ready for the next threat.

Energy

One big root cause of terrorism the U.S.'s "self-defeating addiction to oil."

"It's virtually impossible to consider an administration so beholden to the interests of big oil and not to regular working Americans could ever be effective in preparing us for a future without oil, especially given its insistence on taking us places we neither belong nor are welcome," he said.

Survival as a nation is contingent on how we plan and prepare for the inevitable exhaustion of oil supplies.

"Yet concerns for oil profits over people have not yielded the kind of alternative energy progress one would expect from an administration so willing to go to the last resort of war in the name of national security," he said.

Oil imports only increase the U.S.'s record trade deficit "while taking us to some of the least stable places on earth and covertly funding our enemies in the war on terrorism in the process," he said. The U.S. must implement a dedicated mentality to secure the future with homegrown, alternative and renewable energy sources. By doing so, the U.S. will become both secure and sever as a world leader in energy production.

Economics

"There is no rationale for a fiscally irresponsible $8.2 trillion debt making us safer as it's largely funded by growing sources of economic instability and threats to our solvency like China. Proponents of globalization and 'free' trade may point to record corporate profit and expansion, but that's little comfort to those having lost their livelihoods as we outsource our domestic manufacturing readiness and capability in a cynical race to the bottom," he said.

Kissell said if Hayes was a true conservative, he'd spend less time handing out checks this campaign season while running up a tab for with the People's Republic of China, and more time balancing the deficit he helped create in our Republican-led 'borrow and spend' Congress.

Veterans

"Supporting Our Troops" is more than a bumper sticker to be trotted out by an administration that neither plans for their success nor provides for the troops' needs on the ground.

America's armed forces are without question the best in the world, he said. U.S. troops deserve all credit "for maintaining stability in the mess this administration has spread globally," Kissell said.

"As the very life blood of our National Security then, it's our moral obligation to provide the best possible care for those having made the sacrifice. How we treat our veterans is both indicative of our nation's moral fiber and what we can expect from future generations when the call for sacrifice is made again. My late father, a decorated World War II veteran and member of that "greatest generation" we now recall so fondly, instilled the values of community responsibility, public service and sacrifice in me that we must all adhere to when it comes to taking care of our veterans. We can do better, and will with your help."

Government Growth

The government's record deficit and an administration yet to veto a single spending measure demonstrates, Kissell said, proof that President Bush and his Republican majority has not delivered on promises to decrease bureaucracy.

"It's simply bogus to state that there has effectively been any meaningful decrease in the size of government except for the reduction in some programs that actually help the working people, children, students, and veterans of this nation. Even then, those modest cuts were simply passed along as more massive tax breaks targeting the wealthy like our own incumbent representative, increasing our deficit further," he said.

Massive new programs, even those with laudable intentions, such as federal intrusion into the traditional area of state interest with "No Child Left Behind," the creation of the Homeland Security Department and Medicare Prescription Drug Plan all show the contradiction of what was promised versus delivered, Kissell said.

"As to the efficiency of our newly bloated government, FEMA is not doing a "heck of a job," we still can't get flu vaccines for the second year in a row and our seniors are more confused and scared than ever, with a government that raids our Social Security coffers to pay for its expansion, then threatens to "fix" Social Security in the manner it "fixed" Medicare. Not on my watch," he said.

Kissell said Congressional "pork" spending, cronyism, lobbying and rubber stamping are at an all -time high in Washington, while ethics, integrity and accountability are at an all-time low.

"It's truly going to take one of us to return our values to Congress. I will be the change honest people seek."

Privacy

Kissell said a hallmark of "less government" includes a commitment to protecting personal freedoms and civil liberties. It's not the dangerous consolidation of executive power, abusive efforts to spy on American citizens, and intrusive legislation from a federal government treading in unchartered areas it has no business.

"'Less government' means that our privacy as autonomous individuals must be respected as per the Constitution. We must follow the rule of law as our Founders intended, applying to both the government and governed. I am a pro-privacy candidate for Congress. The concept of "privacy" means that neither our government, nor any others, can make our most personal decisions for us," he said.

Family Values

Real family values means expecting far more from our Congress than being told how to be a family, he said.

"It means having representatives actually demonstrating values such as honesty and integrity. We deserve a representative that keeps his word on important votes like CAFTA, a representative that rejects corrupting influences from lobbyists rather than embraces them, and a humble representative accountable to the people, rather than one with the stated attitude 'You need me more than I need you'," Kissell said.

He said a commitment to family values means helping working families rise above the poverty line, instead of pushing millions more working families down the economic ladder while giving targeted tax breaks to idle wealth.

"Our families deserve more than empty moral posturing from an incumbent that votes to reduce efforts to collect child support for struggling families, makes it more difficult to obtain student loans and goes out of his way to vote for torture. The hard working families of the 8th District and our nation deserve a commitment to education, economic opportunity, civil rights, personal freedoms and the safe, clean environment that we all want for our families," Kissell said.

"We've had enough of the nonsense from the incumbent aristocracy in DC that has proven they'd rather wedge us apart than bring us together. It's time for an honest debate on real family values."

Going into the race, few would have said a newcomer to politics with a tiny bankroll would have a shot at upending an rich incumbent, but Kissell's independent polling shows he has a real shot at beating Hayes. Polls two weeks ago put him a single point behind Hayes while one set for release this weekend indicates he's now ahead by seven points.

He points to Concord as an example of his appeal. That's Hayes' hometown but with the closing of Pillowtex, thousands of faithful, long-time workers were thrown into the unemployment lines.

"Those people have lost 3,000 to 4,000 jobs. They're hurting - there's a lot of people who have discontent."

Kissell has a B.A. in Economics from Wake Forest University, a deacon at First Baptist Church, Biscoe, and he and his wife, Tina, have two children.