U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, who represents portions of Kinston and Lenoir County in the newly-redrawn 7th District, visited Kinston Thursday for the Kinston/Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce annual banquet, where the chamber’s Citizen of the Year (Danny Rice) and Ambassador of the Year (Molly Taylor) were announced.
It was the Democrat’s first official visit to Lenoir County since narrowly defeating Republican David Rouzer by fewer than 700 votes in a district that was redrawn after the 2010 Census to favor GOP candidates.
Before attending the chamber banquet, McIntyre sat down with The Free Press for an exclusive interview to talk about important issues to the nine-term representative who first took office in 1997.
“The No. 1 issue is jobs and the economy; that’s true nationally, that’s true statewide but it’s also true locally,” McIntyre said. “I’ve always had very long and strong relationships with local chambers of commerce, so it’s only appropriate I begin the New Year in Kinston and Lenoir County … at the local chamber’s annual banquet because, to me, that’s very symbolic of the commitment to business and economic development.”
While in Kinston this week, McIntyre had a staff member, Tony M. McEwen, with him. McEwen is McIntyre’s economic development director.
“I take jobs, job creation and job retention and business concerns so seriously that I have a full-time person that takes care of it,” McIntyre said of McEwen. “He and our staff work with, on average, 100 businesses a year.”
McIntyre is the No. 2-ranked congressman on the powerful House Agriculture Committee. He also has chaired Congressional subcommittees on rural development, biotechnology and foreign agriculture in his tenure in Washington.
“Every one of those categories fits this area,” said McIntyre, who also co-authored the tobacco buyout bill, which has had $4 billion of economic impact in North Carolina. “In the 7th District, we have been working with biofuels in Sampson County; just last summer, we announced a biofuels facility there that will initially add 200 jobs and more after that in time.”
Rural broadband is also an important issue to McIntyre.
“I have worked with the Golden LEAF Foundation on the state level and I’ve worked with local businesses to make sure our rural areas are not left behind,” he said of the broadband issue.
McIntyre, a UNC classmate of prominent Kinston lawyer and philanthropist Jimbo Perry, was born and raised in Lumberton, a town he said reminds him of Kinston.
“There are a lot of similarities,” said McIntyre, who is also the No. 3 member of the Armed Services Committee. “They were both driven by tobacco and textiles, they both have a river running through it … and both have a lot of history going back to the Civil War and even the Revolutionary War in Colonialtimes.
“Being from a small town similar in size to Kinston, I take it personally on how to help with jobs and economic development.”
McIntyre praised Kinston and Lenoir County, specifically the city’s victory in 2009 when it was named an All-America City for the second time. The congressman is familiar with what it takes to achieve that desired designation; he helped Lumberton acquire the same title in 1995.
“I think the All America designation speaks volumes about Kinston,” McIntyre said. “I know what it means to achieve that. … Kinston has All-American, small-town values that give it cohesiveness.”
McIntyre is recognized nationally as a politician who thinks for himself. He was one of only 16 Democrats, for example, who voted against the so-called “fiscal cliff” legislation that recently passed the U.S. House.
“I felt like it was a Band-Aid on a much worse problem,” he said. “I think people are tired of kicking the can down the road. In less than 50 days, there will be another discussion about ‘what do we do next?’ I felt there needed to be a more comprehensive solution and not these temporary solutions — and in this case, a temporary solution that again adds to our national debt and increases taxes.
“People know that I look at an issue based on its own merit and not on if it’s merely a Republican or Democratic issue. … I feel like that’s the approach our Founding Fathers ultimately envisioned.”
Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at Bryan.Hanks@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at BCHanks and check out his blog at bhanks.encblogs.com.