Carolina Politics Online

Well, with taxpayers’ help, he drives an energy-saving hybrid vehicle when he travels around his lightning-bolt shaped district, which stretches from Mecklenburg to Guilford counties.

More than a dozen years ago he was leasing a “great big” sport utility vehicle, and then he went to a van. These days, he’s leasing a Toyota Prius.

“It gets 50 miles per gallon – people find that hard to believe,” he says.

Charlotte Observer

From the first sound of it, Mel Watt appears to be setting a shining example for his district.  He is not just preaching conservation to people, he is practicing it.  It would seem admirable of him, but are things exactly what they seem?

Of course, it does come at a price. According to House spending records, the taxpayers are spending $742.80 a month for him to lease that 2007 Prius from Wilmar Inc., a vehicle leasing company in Charlotte.

Aha!  That’s an awful lot of money for a car lease.  You can lease a BMW for a lot less than that and I guarantee you that this Wilmar Inc. is grossly overcharging on the lease of this vehicle because they know it’s being paid for by all of us.  So when you dig into the details it kind of sours on Watt’s intentions.  I don’t think his vehicle switch was a very economical decision.

Voting 268 for and 155 against, the House on Thursday approved an amendment to HR 2642 that would appropriate $162.5 billion to pay for Iraq-Afghanistan war costs well into 2009.

Why did these Democrats vote against funding the troops? Their earlier attempts at passing a law to force a removal of troops from those two countries failed. I guess we know who supports the military and who doesn’t in North Carolina.

Rep. Mel Watt said Wednesday he would push forward with legislation curbing insurers’ ability to weigh whether people pay their credit card bills on time in determining if they get good car insurance rates.

The Charlotte Democrat, who chairs an oversight panel of the House Financial Services Committee, said he remains convinced that the use of credit scores amounts to allowing racial discrimination as a factor in setting premiums.

The Charlotte Observer

I agree with Watt on this. No, not the racial part. That’s just absurd. He can very easily make his point without trotting out victimhood. He is right on eliminating the credit scores as a factor. I have excellent credit so it isn’t a problem for me per say, but how is somebody’s credit score even remotely related to how they drive? Sure, you could draw a conclusion that people with bad credit are irresponsible and hence are a driving risk, but that’s stretching it. I have always had a problem with how insurance companies rate people. They do openly discriminate in some cases. Men, for instance, generally have to pay higher rates than women when they are younger even if they have had a perfectly clean record. Your premium should be based solely on you, not others like you.

Sen. Barack Obama has two more North Carolina superdelegates in his camp.

U.S. Reps. David Price of Chapel Hill and Mel Watt of Charlotte announced this afternoon that they are endorsing Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.

Read more from The News & Observer…..

A Rowan County man filed in Raleigh Wednesday as a Republican candidate for the 12th Congressional District seat currently held by Mel Watt.

Tyrus “Ty” Raymond Cobb Jr., 67, of 1025 Faye Lane is the only Republican to file for the seat so far. Watt, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County, filed Feb. 13 for a ninth term.

In his first bid for political office, Cobb says he’s fed up with Congress and wants to do something about it. His campaign slogan is short, but to the point: “Send ‘Yourself’ to Congress.”

“That seat belongs to the people,” he says. “If the people want change, I’m their guy … I would like to see the people give me a chance to change the way things are done and get the United States back on the right track.”

Salisbury Post

The problem Cobb faces is gerrymandering. The 12th Congressional District was drawn precisely for the purpose of electing a black Democrat. Watt can’t be beaten except by a primary challenger from within his own party.

A group of Republican voters in North Carolina allege in a federal lawsuit that state House and Senate districts are unconstitutional and should be redrawn in time for the 2008 primaries.The suit alleges that several House and Senate districts do not meet the standard of the federal Voting Rights Act because they dilute minority voting power. The suit names about 20 counties where the districts they contend are unconstitutional are located.The suit comes on the heels of a state Supreme Court ruling in August that said the General Assembly improperly carved up Pender County in southeastern North Carolina between two House districts. The lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Raleigh, cites the Pender County ruling throughout.

The News & Observer

This is not a problem in just North Carolina, but pretty much all the states. The power to draw legislative districts at the state and Federal level needs to be taken away from the political parties and put in the hands of independent commissions. Our democratic electoral process has been heavily damaged by political gerrymandering. Mel Watt’s Congressional District is a perfect example of this absurdity.

Rep. Mel Watt did something this summer he hadn’t done in three years. The Charlotte Democrat hosted a big fundraiser.

About $300,000 poured in from about 600 folks who dined on steak, seafood and Mediterranean fare at four of Charlotte’s nicest uptown restaurants before they settled in at Spirit Square to hear singer Roberta Flack and indulge in dessert.

“They tell me I should do it every two years,” Watt said of the $500 per person fundraiser at Capital Grille, LaVecchia’s, Blue and Luce. “I’m not sure I’ll ever have another one, though I can’t say for sure I won’t.”

Charlotte Observer

I don’t know that Watt really needs to do any fund raising unless he were to get a primary challenge. His Congressional district is one of the most gerrymandered in the country. I can’t believe that it’s legal.

Democratic Reps. Brad Miller and Mel Watt, who represent parts of Greensboro, have pushed a bill that would curb high-fee, high-interest home loans for the past several years. Earlier measures failed in what was a Republican-controlled Congress.

This latest measure faces better prospects at the hands of Democratic leaders and now that predatory lending practices have been in the news for much of this year.

“We now have the highest foreclosure rate in 25 years and next year it is probably going to be as high as it has been since the Great Depression,” Miller said during a phone interview Monday. “It’s going to get very bad.”

News-Record

All this hemming and hawing from D.C. is rather amusement. It was the Federal Government that created this problem in the first place by pressuring lending agencies to loan to people who wouldn’t normally be qualify so that more lower income people and minorities could have home ownership. Naturally, they defaulted all across the board.

The government created the problem and now they want to rush in with a government solution to fix it. Typical Washington.