Concord Standard and Mt. Pleasant Times
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
www.standardandtimes.com

Hayes, Kissell race heats up

By Beth Snead Feeback
Standard & Times

The 8th district Congressional race is heating up in a war of words between Republican incumbent U.S. Rep Robin Hayes of Concord and his Democratic challenger Larry Kissell of Biscoe.

Last week Kissell held a gospel singing fund-raiser in Rockingham with former Congressman Bill Hefner, the Democrat who held the 8th district seat before retiring and leaving office in 1998.

Hayes spokeswoman Carolyn Hern said she found it odd that Kissell would campaign with Hefner, since the former Congressman voted for NAFTA- the trade bill Kissell blames Hayes for, saying it cost him his job in the textile industry.

Kissell's camp came back swinging with a press release saying "Whether you agreed with (Hefner) or not, at least you always knew where he stood."

The press release went on to cite quotes from Hayes in three newspapers and in the Associated Press that he was opposed to the CAFTA trade bill- and voted for it anyway.

Hayes told the Charlotte Observer that he was "flat-out, completely, horizontally opposed to CAFTA," before his last-minute switch.

The vote change is what earned Hayes second place on the Washingtonian Magazine's "Best & Worst of Congress" list in the "Spineless" category earlier this month. The Kissell campaign has been eager to share that news.

Hayes dismisses it as fodder from an entertainment magazine.

No one mentions that he was named 67 of the 435-member House of Representatives in terms of influence and effective leadership in the Power Rankings on congress.org, he said.

"I wonder why they don't mention that. It's very interesting."

Besides the CAFTA vote turned out to be a good deal, he said.

"The longer that that thing is out there, the more clear it was that it was the right thing," he said.

Several local employers were pushing him to vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, especially textile mill owners, he said.

"And all the agriculture people were pushing me to vote for CAFTA. I was trying to use every resource that I had to leverage the number of textile votes we have- about 20."

In exchange for his vote, Hayes was promised quotas would be put on Chinese textile imports- and that has since happened.

"Now we're going to take on China which is the larger nemesis for anything going on in the (U.S.) textile industry." Hayes said.

Hayes said CAFTA is a non-issue.

"It's the campaign red herring- that is the long and short of it," he said.

Hayes said the national economy is on the rise.

"The economy around the country is very, very strong. Growth continues. That's nice on the one hand, but there are still areas in the 8th district that have significant challenges before them."

Hayes said Cabarrus County and Mecklenburg County have "extremely low" unemployment.

Kissell disagrees with Hayes' assessment of the economy.

"People throughout this district are hurting. Somewhere throughout this district, every night there are working families worried about jobs, healthcare, gas prices, the future- wondering if their children and grandchildren are going to have the same quality of life they did."

Kissell said four of the six counties that lie completely in the 8th district are in the top nine in the highest unemployment rates in North Carolina. Scotland County is first; Anson is second; he said. Richmond and Montgomery are the two others in the top nine.

"We're not this way because of bad policies in Raleigh. It is because of bad policies in Washington, D.C. And the first thing we have to do to fix it is allow no more free trade deals until we get jobs in the 8th district."

Kissell said he'll be coming out with a jobs plan soon and that voters who elect him to Congress will get a representative who is in touch with the constituency.

"My main plan is to be a Congressman who from Washington to the state level to the county level to the local level- to be a Congressman who is committed to getting jobs back."

Kissell was a 27- year textile employee before the mill he worked for was closed. He is now a school teacher in Biscoe.

Hayes is the scion of the former Cannon Mills dynasty. Both candidates say they are concerned about dependence on foreign oil.

Kissell says Hayes has had eight years to do something about the problem.

Hayes said Democrats keep shooting down efforts to explore for oil and to build domestic refineries.

"We need to bring our industry back domestically to this county." He said.

Hayes is working on legislation that will give incentives to gas station owners who will install the equipment it takes to distribute ethanol.

"This gets us heading in the right direction on reducing our dependence on foreign oil."

Kissell's campaign made national headlines when it offered gas at a station in Biscoe for $1.22 per gallon- the price it was eight years ago when Hayes took office. "He's had eight years to accomplish something and we're still depending on foreign oil," Kissell said.