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CONCORD All the clamor over health care reform doesn't seem to bother freshman U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell.
“I remind people I taught high school,” he told a group last week. “Loud and unruly people, we call the fourth period.”
But in the raucous health care debate, the Montgomery County Democrat is balancing his own caution against the interests of his party and district, just as he has on other issues in his first eight months in office.
“He's been able to walk a fine line,” says Eric Heberlig, a UNC Charlotte political scientist. “He has a swing district. He has to show that he supports basic Democratic Party policies but … put the interests of his constituents ahead of the party.”
Kissell, 58, voted for higher cigarette taxes but against federal tobacco regulation. He supported consumer credit card protections but not a bill to let homeowners lower mortgage payments through bankruptcy courts. He voted for $787 billion in stimulus spending but insists any health reform be “deficit neutral.”
Health care will be his biggest test. He has yet to commit to any plan, including the one backed by Democratic leaders.
“There were a lot of people like myself who said we need to wait,” he told the Cabarrus Regional Chamber. “We all want good solid reform. Ultimately the point is, what can we afford?”
Kissell hosted a town hall meeting in Wadesboro on Friday night that drew about 100 people. He faces pressure from his party's liberal leaders and his more conservative constituents.
“Democrats desperately need his vote if they want to get to 218 votes for any health care bill,” says David Wasserman, who follows the House for the Washington-based Cook Political Report.
Party politics
In November, Kissell unseated five-term Republican incumbent Robin Hayes in the 8th District, which stretches from Charlotte to Fayetteville. Though Hayes has ruled out a rematch, the district remains North Carolina's most competitive. Its voters, particularly the 30 percent in rural areas, are generally conservative.
Kissell, who came within 329 votes of winning in 2006, was helped in 2008 by President Bush's unpopularity and unprecedented turnout for Barack Obama. One Republican, a retired Army officer from Fayetteville, already has announced a challenge.
Critics find ammunition in Kissell's record. The former textile worker-turned teacher has voted with the majority of his party 96 percent of the time. That's higher than most Democrats, who average about 93 percent.
“I don't see how you could grade Kissell's first seven months in office as anything but a failure,” says Andy Sere, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “He's failed to demonstrate any independence from his liberal party leadership whatsoever.”
But Kissell has split from his party more than all but two of the state's eight House Democrats – Heath Shuler of Waynesville and Mike McIntyre of Lumberton. Both belong to the Blue Dog coalition of moderate-conservative Democrats, seen by many as a pivotal group in the health care debate.
Kissell has broken from his leadership on issues such as the cap-and-trade bill designed to reduce global warming by imposing mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. In June he was one of 18 Democrats – of 255 – to vote against aid to Pakistan because the bill also allowed duty-free import of Pakistani textile products.
Last month, he wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying he was “gravely concerned” about a provision in the health bill that would cut reimbursements for home care.
That, he said, would “devastate home health care and hospice programs…especially in rural communities.”
Congress is set to resume the health debate next month.
Style and substance
Kissell's style is low-key and earnest. A Washington pundit once said he “has the charisma of a high school social studies teacher.”
But he pays attention to his district.
One of his few floor speeches was a tribute to the late owner of the textile plant where he worked for 27 years. His signature accomplishment is the Kissell Amendment to the stimulus bill. It would require uniforms worn by Homeland Security officers to be made in America, though a bureaucratic glitch has put much of the amendment on hold.
“There's a perception he's been very attentive to the issues and needs of the local community,” says Fletcher Hartsell, a Republican state senator who attended the Cabarrus Chamber meeting.
Chamber CEO John Cox says “anything we have asked of him he has been exceptionally responsive.”
“One of our big issues was cap-and-trade and he supported us,” says Cox, who applauds Kissell for “asking the federal government to take its time before it just jumps to health care policy.”
John Robich, who teaches sociology at Richmond Community College, praised Kissell for organizing a town hall meeting with GOP Sen. Richard Burr and two Cabinet secretaries at the Hamlet school and for “actively trying to help this area combat unemployment.”
If not winning over critics, Kissell appears to be at least mollifying some.
At the Cabarrus chamber meeting, retired Marine Col. Ernie Bell of Concord told Kissell he's a conservative Republican who voted against him.
“But you sound very good here this morning,” he said.
Wasserman of the Cook Report calls Kissell a “self-made candidate” whose grass-roots support surprised his party the first time he ran in 2006.
“At the end of the day none of this matters much,” he says. “The big question right now is, how does Larry Kissell vote on health care?'
Jim Morrill: 704-358-5059
