Political wonks use phrases like “constant campaign” and “perpetual candidate” to describe the apparent need of office-holders to motivate the masses into pumping money into their war chests.

With members of the 111th Congress seated less than three months ago, some incumbents already are looking ahead to the next election.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, who represents North Caro-lina’s 10th District, is asking the faithful to help bail him out of the $230,000-plus campaign debt he racked up last year.

In a mass e-mail letter sent out by his campaign, McHenry said last year’s election season was “the worst political environment for Republicans in modern history.”

Because of that, the e-mail continues, “our victory came at a high cost.”

Specifically, McHenry raised about $1.35 million and spent nearly $1.6 million during his two campaigns in 2008.

According to the most recent report McHenry filed with the Federal Election Commission, his campaign has $71,501 of cash on hand. But its debt is listed as $265,000.

The solicitation e-mail lists the debt as more than $230,000 and asks contributors to help the campaign pay it off so that McHenry “can continue to stand up to the Liberal Left and fight for conservative values in Congress.”

Dee Stewart, McHenry’s senior political adviser, said fundraising is essentially a nonstop effort under any circumstances but that 2008 took a big bite out the campaign’s coffers.

“We had a serious primary and a serious general election last year,” Stewart explained. “And it was costly.”
McHenry won both elections handily.

He beat Republican primary opponent Lance Sigmon by a margin of better than 67 to 33 percent and then took almost 58 percent of the vote in his race against Democrat Daniel Johnson in November’s general election.

The goal now is to get the numbers on the campaign’s Federal Election Commission report looking a little less red before the end of the 2009 first quarter, which is midnight Tuesday.

“I need to raise $25,000 over the next 24 hours to send a strong message to the Democrats,” McHenry’s e-mail reads.

Stewart said that those in the know keep their eyes on FEC statements and they are sniffing for proverbial blood in the form of red ink.

“The leaders of both parties are always monitoring these reports to gauge the financial strength of the candidates,” he said.

While McHenry may be against the financial ropes right now, Iredell County’s other member of the U.S. House of Representatives is walking tall.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, who represents the 5th District, has more than $925,000 in cash and no debt, according to FEC reports.

She raised almost $1.1 million during the 2008 election cycle and spent more than $852,000 of that in her race against retired school teacher Roy Carter, whom she beat with more than 58 percent of the vote.
Foxx did not have a primary opponent last year.

By SEAN MUSSENDEN
Media General News Service

WASHINGTON-Sen. Richard Burr, R-Winston-Salem, delivered the Republican weekly radio address on Saturday and used the moment in the spotlight to criticize the ballooning federal deficit.

“Washington is in a state of denial. Our spending habits haven’t gotten better, they’ve only gotten worse,” he said.

President Obama said this week that he expected the deficit to hit $1.75 trillion this year and $1.2 trillion next year.

“It’s long past time to show restraint and to make the tough choices that will help put our fiscal house in order,” Burr said.

IRAQ PULLOUT
Members of the North Carolina congressional delegation were on hand to watch President Barack Obama announce his Iraq withdrawal timetable Friday at Camp Lejeune.

But it was the absence of one lawmaker that was particularly noteworthy.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-Farmville, represents a district that includes the storied Marine base Obama visited.

Because of a scheduling conflict, Jones was driving home from Washington while Obama was laying out plans to remove all combat troops from Iraq by August 2010.

Though Jones initially voted to authorize President Bush to invade Iraq, he has come to deeply regret his vote.

He has become perhaps the most vocal Republican critic of the war and is sometimes moved to tears when discussing his vote with reporters and the public.

The walls of his office are covered with pictures of men and women who have died in Iraq since 2003. He blames the Bush administration for manipulating intelligence suggesting Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but he also says he should have done a better job reviewing available intelligence himself.

Jones said this week that he was pleased Obama had set a timetable.

“I wish President Bush had said that about four years ago,” he said.

SHULER SPENDING
Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, solidified his reputation as one of the most fiscally conservative Democrats in the House by twice voting against the $787 billion stimulus package, one of only a handful of Democrats to do so.

He said many of the spending provisions were wasteful and would do nothing to jump start the economy.
But when it came time to vote this week on another multi-billion-dollar expenditure – the $410 billion budget for the rest of 2009 – Shuler backed it.

Republicans had criticized the measure as stuffed with wasteful earmarks and urged Obama to veto it after it passes the Senate. They expressed concern about the overall level of spending at a time of record deficits.
Shuler said he voted for it because it contained “investments…critical to the future of both our nation and our local communities.”

MCHENRY CENSUS
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Cherryville, kept up pressure on the Obama administration over the 2010 Census this week after the president nominated former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as Commerce Secretary.

Obama had chosen Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., for the post. But Gregg decided to step aside after the White House indicated it – not the Commerce Department – would directly oversee the 2010 census.

Before Gregg dropped out, McHenry, the top Republican on a subcommittee that oversees the census, helped flame the dispute by publicly questioning the White House’s decision.

And last week, he sent a letter to Locke asking questions McHenry hopes will come up at Locke’s confirmation hearing in the Senate.

“Do you intend to comply with the partisan ambitions of the President or to fulfill your constitutional obligation as Secretary of Commerce and oversee a fair and accurate 2010 Decennial Census?” McHenry wrote.

Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668.

By SEAN MUSSENDEN
Media General News Service

WASHINGTON-It’s almost guaranteed that when Rep. Health Shuler’s opponents criticize him, they’ll knock his football career.

So it was no surprise to see a football-related slam from a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after Shuler said House and Senate leaders had failed to craft a truly bipartisan stimulus package.

“Let me get this straight — this is coming from a guy who threw more than twice as many interceptions than touchdowns?” Reid spokesman Jim Manley asked a reporter for Politico.

As everyone in his district surely knows, Shuler was a great quarterback in college at the University of Tennessee and a high NFL draft pick. But he was terrible during his four years in the pros, throwing 32 interceptions and 15 touchdowns.

Shuler’s been out of football for more than a decade. Perhaps it’s time to come up with some new attacks.

COFFIN FLAGS
Rep. Walter Jones, R-Farmville, got a boost last week for his push to allow the news media to photograph the flag-draped coffins of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Pentagon under President George Bush expanded a ban on the practice, which critics said was intended to shield the true cost of war from Americans.

A bill sponsored by Jones would force the military to reverse the policy and allow photographs of coffins when they return to the United States. This week, Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates both said they were reviewing the ban.

“If the needs of the families can be met, and the privacy concerns can be addressed, the more honor we can accord these fallen heroes, the better,” Gates said.

Jones also sponsored legislation last week to ban the importation of American flags made in other countries, especially China.

“Especially at a time when our nation’s economy is hurting, it is just plain common sense that the American flag…should be manufactured here in the United States,” Jones said.

TEXTILE AMENDMENT
An amendment sponsored by Rep. Larry Kissell, D-Biscoe, that would force the Homeland Security Department to buy uniforms made in the United States survived in the stimulus package that passed the House and Senate last week.

Kissell’s measure was sponsored in previous years by Rep. Robin Hayes, the Republican he defeated in the fall, but it never passed.

Free traders worried that the Homeland Security provision, along with another giving a boost to the domestic steel industry, would cause problems with big trading partners like China.

Kissell’s amendment was in the House bill but not in the Senate’s version. A conference committee that worked out differences included the measure in the final version that passed last week.

STANDING OVATION
When Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., announced this week that he would not serve as President Barack Obama’s Commerce Secretary, he cited irreconcilable differences with the new administration over economic issues and the census.

Minority advocacy groups were concerned that Gregg would undercount blacks and Hispanics, so the White House decided to directly oversee the census.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Cherryville, blasted that move as a partisan power grab, and his vocal criticism helped bring more attention to the issue.

Gregg’s withdrawal was seen as an embarrassment for Obama, who wanted another Republican in his cabinet.

At a party caucus meeting, McHenry’s Republican colleagues gave McHenry a standing ovation for drawing public attention to the census issue.