For the third time in the past four elections, Democrats will not have a name on the ballot to challenge 6th District Congressman Howard Coble.

That’s not to say Democrats don’t have a candidate Nov. 7. The N.C. Board of Elections has certified Gene Gay, a Charlotte accountant, as a write-in candidate. Gay promises to run a full-fledged campaign against Coble, the senior member of the N.C. congressional delegation.

“I do indeed take it seriously,” Coble says of his 2000 re-election bid, in which he also is opposed by Libertarian Jeffrey Bentley of Greensboro. “I don’t ever want to be overly casual about a political race.”

Bentley and Gay seek to unseat an Republican incumbent who has deep roots in both his district and Congress. Coble grew up in Guilford County, attended Guilford College and served the area as a state House member before first winning the seat in 1984.

His closest election call followed in 1986, when he won by just 79 votes. Since then, Coble really hasn’t met a serious challenge, and the latest redistricting — one of many in the past decade — seems to solidify Coble’s position in a GOP-leaning territory.

More than half of Rowan County’s voting precincts return to Coble’s 6th District for the 2000 election. The county now has 30 whole precincts and parts of three others in the 6th District.

“It’s sort of like coming back home,” Coble says.

What shape the future 6th District will take is anybody’s guess, but it will change again when the N.C. General Assembly adjusts the lines based on new Census data. Coble said the continually shifting lines — many, the result of court challenges in Districts 1 and 12 — frustrate both candidates and constituents.

Both Bentley and Gay say they offered themselves as candidates to give voters a choice.

“I did not want Coble to run another year without opposition,” says Gay, who criticizes Coble for supporting everything Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush stands for.

As the lone challenger against Coble in 1998, Bentley received 11 percent of the vote.

“If we don’t have a choice on the ballot, we’re as free a country as China,” Bentley says. “As long as people are given a choice, there’s always the possibility of improving things. When we don’t have a choice, we’re doomed to mediocrity.”

Bentley says the Libertarian message represents nothing new, rather a philosophy that’s been around for a couple hundred years. “We’re largely saying that some of the old ways are better,” he says.

Bentley emphasizes individual freedom and responsibility, limited government and a belief that the center of self government rests in the local community.

“Not everybody is going to see things the same way, but many people understand intrinsically what we’re talking about,” Bentley says. “He (Coble) believes that government has a role in determining how people should live their lives. I absolutely do not.”

Jeffrey Bentley

Educated as a chemist and presently a compliance specialist for a High Point drug manufacturer, Bentley considers himself an active Libertarian since 1988, though he didn’t officially join the party until 1995.

Bentley, 32, suggests a simple formula for cutting the size of the federal government: Return the funding of all programs to 1950 levels. Whatever percentage of the gross domestic product it required in 1950 is the percentage it would receive now.

Any program not in existence in 1950 would be eliminated under Bentley’s proposal. He says this new level of funding would result “in a remarkable reduction of taxes and fees.”

Bentley adds that his turn-back-the-clock approach would not undermine social advancements made in the past 50 years, particularly by women and minorities. The changes in funding are meant only to address the size of government, he says.

Here are some other things Bentley says he would work toward as a congressman:

• Propose a bill to decrease the federal income tax by 20 percent every year for five years.
• Eliminate perks for Congress such as immunity from prosecution, the pension plan, tax-subsidized haircuts, tax-funded campaigns and junkets to foreign countries.
• Bring all U.S. troops back to American soil.
• Eliminate subsidies to people who make poor individual choices.
• Eliminate the U.S. Depart-ment of Education.
• Legalize industrial hemp to give farmers a profitable crop.
• End government harassment of the tobacco industry.

Howard Coble

Coble has been described as a solid conservative, tightfisted and business-minded — impressions supported by his high ratings from such groups as the American Conservative Union, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Tax-Limitation Committee and the Christian Coalition.

For years, Coble has tried to abolish the congressional pension system and has boycotted the plan himself. He often follows the Republican Party line on legislation and credits a Republican-controlled Congress since 1995 for landmark legislation.

Coble boasts of welfare reform, reduced capital gains taxes and removal of the earnings limit on Social Security retirees. Despite presidential vetoes, Coble supported the House measures to repeal estate taxes and eliminate the marriage-tax penalty.

“These are proposals that would not have seen the light of day without a Republican majority,” Coble says.

Coble believes Republicans in Congress deserve more credit than President Clinton for the nation’s good economy, balanced budgets and surpluses because spending bills originate in the GOP-controlled House.

In recent years, under Republican leadership and growing seniority, Coble has gained more national attention as chairman of the Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee. He deals daily with copyright issues, patent law and Internet questions, while also finding himself in meetings with well-known actors, authors, singers and musicians.

Most recently, the House passed Coble’s “works for hire” legislation, an amendment to the Copyright Act that adds sound recordings to the list of copyrighted works eligible to be considered as works made for hire.

If enacted, the legislation will allow the artists and the recording industry to breathe easier, Coble says.

Coble, 69, also was the only North Carolinian on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that put together the huge highway bill in 1998. The Almanac of American Politics credits Coble with helping to shift the highway formula to benefit the state and, particularly, his district.

Gene Gay

Gay faces a formidable challenge in educating voters on the write-in process, besides trying to unseat Coble. To write in, voters have to blacken an oval indicating that intention. Writing Gene Gay or G. Gay on the appropriate spot on the ballot will be acceptable to elections officials, the candidate says.

“Write in for change,” Gay tells voters. “It can be done. Lots of people have won on a write-in ticket.”

Gay promises to run a campaign on radio and television and in newspapers. He became a 6th District candidate after failing to win the 9th District Democrat primary this past spring. He also was a 9th District candidate in 1996 and a U.S. Senate candidate in 1998.

Since Coble faced no Democratic opposition in the 6th, Gay learned he could be certified as an official write-in candidate by obtaining 250 signatures of registered voters in the 6th District. He said all the signatures came from Randolph County.

A candidate does not have to live in the congressional district for which he is running.

“I don’t feel Coble’s done a good enough job or is the kind of visionary we need approaching the 21st century,” Gay says.

Gay would like to debate Coble on matters related to Medicare, Medicaid, HMOs and patients bill of rights. Gay says doctors, not HMOs, should be making critical medical decisions for Americans.

Gay questions whether Coble has a real plan for protecting Social Security or providing a prescription drug benefit for seniors. He challenges Coble’s opposition to increases in the minimum wage and believes Coble stands up too much for special interests and the party line.

Gay describes his key philosophy as trying to protect the three B’s: “I’m concerned about the ballot, the buck and the book,” he says, referring to the election process, the economy and education.

Gay calls for better teacher pay, smaller class sizes and a national oversight committee to follow federal dollars going to private schools. He outlines a prescription drug benefit program and calls on Congress to secure Social Security, strengthen Medicare and make health care affordable for everyone.

An accountant specializing in tax issues, Gay consults for businesses and has been an adjunct professor of accounting at Mitchell Community College. He belongs to the Federal Taxation Committee in Washington and is a member of the National Association of Accountants.

Gay, 40, expects that some people “will make a big deal” out of his not living in the district. But he promises he’ll be looking for a residence in the 6th District in the future.

“I’m committed to winning and running in the district and serving the district,” Gay says.