WataugaWatch

Foxx's Epic Fail as Economist

2010-03-17T08:29:00.003-05:00

PolitiFact, a project of the St. Petersburg Times "to help you find the truth in American politics," has done a detailed and point-by-point fact-check on a statement by Congresswoman Virginia Foxx which she made on the floor of the U.S. House on March 9, 2010:

"The economy began its nose dive when Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007."

Among the many factual problems with such a partisan and self-serving statement (which you can read for yourself at the link above), PolitiFact included a comment from an economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation that "the economy did not technically begin a nose dive when the Democrats took over" and that Madam Foxx had established "no statistical causation between political party in power and economic growth."

She should stick to what she knows, or to what Republican spin-meister Frank Luntz tells her to say, or to those reliable stand-bys of blaming poor people for getting hungry and Matthew Shepherd for having money enough to get robbed and murdered.

Foxx's Secret Plan to Privatize Social Security

2010-03-16T10:29:00.007-05:00

Among the several small nuggets embedded in Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's performance yesterday at the Statesville town hall event was her sweeping endorsement of privatization: "I don't know anything the government can do better than the private sector."

"I don't know anything" covers a lot of real estate. Blackwater-style mercenaries are to be preferred to U.S. soldiers? Certainly, we now realize her preference that poor school children should eat chalk dust rather than government-sponsored free lunches. Poor sick people, heal yourselves! And then there's the biggest prize of all for Foxx and her fellow travelers ... Social Security.

Foxx's main squeeze, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, published his "Roadmap for America" recently, which called for the phasing out of Social Security and the further shift of wealth upward. We note that Ryan and the rest of the Republican Caucus have dropped the word "privatization" from their vocabulary, preferring now the word "choice" in its place, but Foxx yesterday in Statesville was pretty naked in her advocacy for throwing all Americans onto the tender mercies of the corporations.

Why would Foxx go through the motions of pretending to "listen" to her constituents when she's already signed on to the most radical of political philosophies? Oh, right. She's running for reelection against three different competitors and needs to pretend that she actually cares what voters think. And that she's not a radical extremist with political views that would seem perfectly at home in the court of King Louis XIV.

Paul Krugman's column today details the dishonest motives behind Ryan's attempt to hide "privatization" from public view. Yesterday in Statesville, Foxx let that door swing open a crack.

Billy Kennedy Responds to Virginia Foxx's Town Hall Event in Statesville

2010-03-15T20:06:00.004-05:00

Guest blogging: Billy Kennedy, candidate for Congress:

After Rep. Foxx's health care town hall today, I searched the Constitution to see where it says we taxpayers are supposed to be subsidizing her personal health care insurance. I couldn't find it.

You see, Rep. Foxx says unless something is expressly written in the Constitution, then we the people have no right to want or expect it. In fact, that was the exact question I had for her today (had I been called on). I wanted to know, since she's been a politician for the last 27 years, when was the last time the taxpayers weren't paying for her insurance?

It's fine for Ms. Foxx to stand up there today and tell folks that the people need to handle their own health care costs, that the government can't do anything right (so why even try?) and that our current system is the best in the world, when she lets the government handle her health needs and expects us to hand over our hard-earned dollars not just for our health needs, but for hers too.

Our health system is indeed the greatest in the world. For her. For those of us who aren't on government programs like Medicare or Medicaid, or Tri-Care or the Federal Health Care plan, not so great.

The saddest moment of the day came when a gentleman stood up to talk about how his son had tried for seven years to get government disability due to his cystic fibrosis. This nice man choked up when he recounted how his son had died shortly after he received disability benefits he'd fought so hard for. Ms. Foxx's reply was, "Government shouldn't have been handling this."

Now I thought to myself: if government shouldn't have been handling it, just who does Rep. Foxx thinks should have? Does she honestly believe private insurance was an option? But then, I checked. Indeed, there is nothing in the Constitution about helping out people who have a disability from the coughing, fatigue, pneumonia and pain of cystic fibrosis. In fact, I couldn't find a single one of those words, so I guess, by her view, she's right.

Ms. Foxx says she is all about health care reform. She says we need to do something, and that her idea is to lower health costs by expanding Health Savings Accounts, limiting the ability of people to sue if they have been physically injured through the actions of a hospital or their doctor, and allowing insurance to be purchased across state lines.

Of course all of us know that Health Savings Accounts are mostly just an option for healthy and wealthy families, since a lot of us just don't have the money to pay into one in the first place and, even if we did, we could never be able to save enough to pay for cancer treatments out of pocket.

When someone asked how it would work if we let health care companies sell their policies across state lines since the states regulated the companies, Rep. Foxx replied that working people might not really want "all those restrictions on the health care corporations" anyhow. Of course, as a wealthy politician who's covered by a taxpayer-subsidized insurance plan regulated by the federal government, she has nothing to lose from letting the rest of us fend for ourselves in an unregulated insurance free-for-all.

As for tort reform, the Congressional Budget Office says that wouldn't reduce total U.S. health care spending by more than about 0.5 percent.

...But I'd be willing to talk that one out with Rep. Foxx -- if she'd agree to give up her government health care in return for it.

Does Madam Foxx Have Listening Ears?

2010-03-14T10:57:00.003-05:00

All of our shaming of Virginia Foxx for being afraid to face the people in an open setting has finally paid off: The representative is holding a "Health Care Solutions Town Hall" in Statesville tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m. (Statesville Civic Center, Room B, 300 South Center Street).

11:30 a.m.?

Doesn't seem like a time that might optimize attendance by working people. Just sayin'.

It's also physically about as far away from Watauga County as you can get in the 5th District, but the roads are paved from here to there, so distance can be overcome.

What probably can't be overcome is the Madam's inability to actually hear any opinions that differ materially from her own. So we'll see.

Virginia Foxx & Paul Ryan: A Love Story

2010-03-11T10:34:00.003-05:00

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx has made a spectacle of herself slobbering all over certain men in Washington. There was the famous lip assault on George W. Bush, the fawning failure to detect any illegal drug use from a perusal of Roger Clemens' blown-up photographs, and now it's Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan that Foxx has fixated on with unhealthy affection.

Why?

Because Ryan has written a Republican "budget plan," "A Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010," that aims to zero out Social Security and Medicare. The Madam, like most of her fellow conservatives, hates Social Security and Medicare and itches with an itch she can't quite scratch to get rid of all such safety nets.

Congressman Ryan allows her and her fellow Republicans in Congress to scratch that itch.

The non-partisan Tax Policy Center, in a detailed analysis of Mr. Ryan's numbers, sez that Congressman Ryan's budget numbers would actually continue and accelerate the disastrous economic policies that got us into this current mess ... policies that ensure that the rich get richer. According to the Tax Policy Center, "The Roadmap's tax provisions would be highly regressive compared with the current tax system," benefiting the people who don't need social safety nets and resent like all holy hell having to pay any taxes whatsoever for the "undeserving poor."

Talk like that just makes Madam Foxx feel sexy all over.

The Jack Hawke Legacy Tour

2010-03-10T10:07:00.003-05:00

Jack Hawke, the infamous NC Republican operative, has bragged that he's the one who "recruited" Virginia Foxx to run for the NC Senate in 1994. He apparently has, in other words, a fatal attraction for the extreme and the unstable, because he also signed on for the Tim D'Annunzio primary campaign down in the NC-8. D'Annunzio went from zero to 60 on the nut-job scale in just under three seconds, being outed by Laura Leslie as the author of the I-heart-Armageddon blog and then holding a well publicized "machine-gun social" fundraiser.

Anyhoo, Hawke, by his own words, told D'Annunzio that his blog was a very bad idea. No candidate "should get up at 3 or 4 in the morning, sit down in front of a computer and pour your heart out. It's just not a smart thing to do." Like, never let the voters see your true self, eh, Mr. Hawke? Supposedly, D'Annunzio promised Hawke that he had sworn off blogging, but just couldn't quite do it. So Hawke has resigned from the D'Annunzio campaign, and in a very public way.

Okay okay, bloggers are like alcoholics, only without the charming party tricks. We get that.

But, now, about this Jack-Hawke-recruited-the-Foxx-gnome factoid ... don't we need to chew on that for ... oh, spit that out! It tastes like gun metal and old hairnets.

"The Sow Is Mine"

2010-03-09T10:53:00.004-05:00

National Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele was in Greensboro yesterday and announced that North Carolina will be his come fall -- "Mine, MINE, I tell you!" -- and forever after. Apparently, come November 3, we North Carolinians will awake from our frightful nightmare to find ourselves wrapped in the sweet embrace of reactionary right-wingism, breathing in the miasma of obstructionism that has so far served the working class so well in this state and elsewhere.

Oh, goody.

And the Acting Award Goes to...

2010-03-07T10:14:00.002-05:00

...Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, who for years has made "choking up" in public a regular feature of her political persona.

Another bravura performance on Saturday at the Watauga County Republican Convention. You'll have to read all the way to the end to get it.

"She's a Professional Politician"

2010-03-07T09:31:00.004-05:00

Keith Gardner, the hapless Republican primary challenger to Virginia Foxx, is a walking example of cognitive dissonance. He said on GoBlueRidge about Foxx, "She's well known, she's well liked in most of the district. In fact, I like her. However, she's a professional politician. I do not like the idea of a professional politician."

I like her, but I do not like what she is.

Well, it's a start.

Let Them Eat Chalk!

2010-03-05T09:55:00.004-05:00

Mr. Bumble's philosophy in "Oliver Twist" is to keep the boys and girls in the workhouse hungry. He thinks they work more efficiently on empty stomachs.

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's philosophy is that the School Lunch Program is a shocking expenditure and has no place in America. Yesterday Foxx was one of only 13 Republican members of the U.S. Congress to vote against H Res 362. Foxx was alone even among the North Carolina Republican delegation. Patrick McHenry voted for the resolution. Sue Myrick voted for the resolution. Every Republican voted for it except Foxx and her dozen fellow Mr. Bumbles.

Foxx's ideology has no heart, just as corporations have no birth certificate.

McHenry's McGuffin

2010-03-04T10:21:00.005-05:00

We got an e-mailed press release last night from one of Congressman Patrick McHenry's three primary challengers that apparently agreed with our characterization of the congressman's tone-deafness for introducing a bill to put Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill. Here 'tis in its entirety:

Morganton, NC -- Vance Patterson, 10th District Republican candidate for Congress, says incumbent Patrick McHenry is up to the old tricks "professional politicians" play in election years. McHenry has recently proposed legislation to put Ronald Reagan's picture on the $50 bill.

"To use a great American like Ronald Reagan to get votes in an economically devastated district is nothing short of shameful," Patterson said. "13.6% of our neighbors don't have a $50 bill to look at because they are unemployed."

Patterson prides himself for running a grassroots campaign focused on jobs and term limits. "This proves my point about professional politicians and imposing term limits," Patterson said. "At election time, they suddenly descend on the voters with emotional appeals and irrational actions. Well, 10th district voters know when a politician is grandstanding rather than leading to improve the district and the country."

A successful businessman, Patterson insists that he is running on a platform of "Real World Leadership" and can make a difference.

"It's time to restore core principles to America, and our district voters know that," he said. "I've been busy meeting fellow citizens and they are ready for real leadership in developing a better economy, outstanding education, and affordable health care."

Other than the I-worship-the-false-god-Reagan meme, this could have been written by the Democratic candidate in the NC-10 ... the emphasis on working-class struggles, education, and "affordable health care," none of which Ronald Reagan would ever have moved as policy. (Incidentally, medical science has proven there is no antidote to doting on Reagan in his dotage. Massive injections of fish oil won't do it. Hot Coke enemas have proven ineffective too. Once visited by the Reagan incubus, the victim is rendered incapable of critical thinking.)

We also note in Mr. Patterson's attack on McHenry the use (twice) of the term "professional politicians." Anti-incumbent fever, anyone?

How many years has Virginia Foxx been in elected office? (Answer: 27)

Babe in the Woods

2010-03-03T11:30:00.003-05:00

Congressman Heath Shuler's Democratic primary opponent, Aixa Woods, is hobbled by more than a first name nobody wants to take a stab at pronouncing out loud and in public: he's a total political neophyte who confesses, "I don't know much about the Democratic Party. I'm sure I will find out. I don't know what resistance I will get from the powers that be."

Allow me to enlighten you: Familiar with the term "nuclear winter"?

Perhaps it's a good thing that Aixa "does not plan to raise any money," yet "he expects to win the race and believes his message will resonate with Western North Carolina voters."

There was a time -- say, 1802 -- when such charming American innocence might have swayed your average voter. But I'm afraid it ain't 1802 any longer. Or even 1952.

Sigh.

In These Economic Times, What a Helpful Suggestion!

2010-03-03T09:45:00.002-05:00

Congressman Patty McHenry (R), from nearby Tiny Town, has finally noticed the economic collapse happening all around him -- actually, the economic collapse has been happening in his Congressional district for several years now -- and has found the magic bullet: put Ronald Reagan's mug on the $50 bill.

That will involve, of course, booting Ulysses S. Grant off the $50 bill, but we're down with that. Grant was a ruthless and successful military general, an accomplished autobiographer, and a wholly incompetent president.

In other words, an even trade. McHenry wants the Father of Banking Deregulation on the $50, the Father of Trickle-Down, the Dim Tool of the Kleptocrats.

Git 'er done, so Little Patty will have something to brag about to the home folks, especially those who worship at the altar of St. Ronny without wondering why their economic prospects have so contracted since 1981 and why Wall Street is running everything.

The Democratic Candidates in the NC-10

2010-03-02T11:15:00.004-05:00

We've had some coverage here (a tad) about Congressman Patty McHenry in the NC-10 and about his two (D'OH! now three) primary challengers, but perhaps we should do a little catching up with the two Democrats in the May 4 primary, vying to take on McHenry come November.

One is Anne N. Fischer of Morganton. She has an active website up and running, is described as a social worker and community activist, and actually ran against McHenry in 2004 in his first campaign.

Her primary opponent is Jeff Gregory, a former Shelby postmaster, who does not yet appear to have a website. But he's speaking out in this a.m.'s Hickory Daily Record about how the 10th Congressional District has suffered under McHenry, who doesn't believe in government and who therefore gets nothing much for his district. "It's time for the people of the 10th District to be heard and seriously represented," he said. "I think that we need to take a 'Big Dog' approach for our district. I'm not afraid of getting on the front porch of Congress and barking loud for our people."

The Patty McHenry/Virginia Foxx philosophy of "service" = "We don't get anything for anybody because of our ideology," and perhaps these hard economic times might actually begin to spotlight the hard, dried fruits of such a philosophy. Having been laughed at over the Sparta Teapot Museum, Foxx has now retreated into a do-nothing crouch and actually brags on her Twitter account about her constipated economic policy: "NO RELIEF for my district, NO NEVER!"

Kentucky Sen. Bunning is also helping at this moment to throw The Wages of Obstructionism into some stark human context.

South Dakota Legislature, Go to the Corner and Stay There!

2010-03-01T11:02:00.002-05:00

The South Dakota legislature, dominated by a lot of elected people with an "R" after their names, want to stick a finger in science's eye, so they pass a joint resolution calling for "balanced teaching of global warming," which in their particular language includes a warning that "the significance and interrelativity" of "astrological" (and other) data can be interpreted in a number of ways. We are NOT making this up. (Hat tip: the ineffable Ed Cone)

Lord knows, I had my doubts about my horoscope for today: "You don't have to worry about getting every little fact right today -- but your competition does! That gives you a serious advantage, as long as you are willing to move forward quickly into the darkness."

The South Dakota legislature has actually given me hope that they are the "darkness" I'm supposed to move forward quickly into.

This Virginia Foxx Condo Can Be Yours for $189,900

2010-02-28T10:34:00.003-05:00

This MLS property listing from Davie County is currently owned by Thomas and Virginia Foxx, and if you're into celebrity dwellings, this 3-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath, 2-car attached garage condo in the exclusive gated Bermuda Run subdivision near Advance, N.C., could certainly be yours!

Your new neighbors, we hear, will be ecstatic to meet you.

Billy Kennedy Live-Blogging at Crooks & Liars

2010-02-27T15:20:00.003-05:00

Billy Kennedy just finished a live-blog at Crooks & Liars. Worth reading through the whole thread. Lots of tough questions, and lots of substance in the answers ... along with flashes of wit.

Elections Filing Update

2010-02-26T17:44:00.002-05:00

Filing to run on the ballots of 2010 ended today at noon. Billy Kennedy does not have a Democratic primary, but Virginia Foxx has one on the Republican side.

Someone else filed to run in the Republican primary against Little Patty McHenry in the NC-10 ... David Michael Boldon. Two will be vying on the Democratic side to oppose the eventual winner of the Republican contest (who will be McHenry, we've said all along). We'll be trying to find out about these Democrats: Jeff Gregory and Anne Fischer.

Heath Shuler in the NC-11 has a Democratic primary opponent -- Aixa Wilson. Whole bunch of panic-stricken extras running in the 11th Dist. in the Republican primary.

Previously noted: Larry Kissell has a primary in the NC-8.

What's going on among Republicans in the NC-6? Poor old thousand-year-old Howard Coble has five primary opponents, which, as in the 10th, means he wins.

Another Reason for Right-Wing Extremists To Hate Evolution

2010-02-26T10:14:00.003-05:00

A new study published in the March 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Social Psychology Quarterly advances a new theory that more intelligent people are more likely than less intelligent people to adopt "evolutionarily novel preferences and values." It's summarized on the front page of ScienceDaily.

"Evolutionarily novel preferences and values"?

Apparently, humans are not biologically designed to stay up late, for example, for the obvious reason that our earliest ancestors had no artificial lighting. So ... "Being nocturnal is evolutionarily novel" (which makes my 19-year-old nephew, and many other college students, about as novel as they come).

Innocent enough, perhaps. But here's where the study gets political: "...humans are evolutionarily designed to be conservative, caring mostly about their family and friends, and being liberal, caring about an indefinite number of genetically unrelated strangers they never meet or interact with, is evolutionarily novel. So more intelligent children may be more likely to grow up to be liberals."

Ouch.

There is measurable data to support this hypothesis: "Young adults who subjectively identify themselves as 'very liberal' have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as 'very conservative' have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence."

Double ouch.

But here's the money shot: "Similarly, religion is a byproduct of humans' tendency to perceive agency and intention as causes of events, to see 'the hands of God' at work behind otherwise natural phenomena. 'Humans are evolutionarily designed to be paranoid, and they believe in God because they are paranoid,' says [the study]. This innate bias toward paranoia served humans well when self-preservation and protection of their families and clans depended on extreme vigilance to all potential dangers. 'So, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to go against their natural evolutionary tendency to believe in God, and they become atheists.' "

Let the head-exploding commence.

Hand It To Sue Myrick

2010-02-26T08:36:00.002-05:00

She had the courage to stand up in front of a mainly hostile crowd last night in Charlotte and take questions for two hours. Never mind the bottomline about whether that hostility was deserved or not. She at least wasn't afraid to take the heat in public.

Lesson for Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, who doesn't show up anywhere unless checks are being written. Or where the guests are pre-screened to be slavish butt-kissers. Or where she doesn't know the questions in advance. Oh, she'll do one of those phony telephone "town-halls," come on the line with a guest congressman who takes up half the allotted time, and then she whips up her marshmallow fudge for the last 30 minutes, hoping no one notices how far her placating words are from her iron-hearted actions.

Foxx is a coward. Tee-total coward.

Billy Kennedy on Health-Insurance Reform

2010-02-25T12:52:00.003-05:00

Follow-up on the last post immediately below: DownWithTyranny has a blow-by-blow of the Republican obstructionism yesterday, followed by their complete capitulation on the anti-trust exemption for the insurance industry.

It happens that the DownWithTyranny blogger got in touch with candidate Billy Kennedy here in Watauga to get his take on the insurance industry (comments which we are reproducing at length here):

The insurance companies spend most of their waking hours trying to figure out how to avoid paying for people's medical expenses so they can boost their profit margins. They get away with massive premium price increases and benefits cutting because they have virtually no competition. This is because they enjoy an anti-trust exemption which allows them to engage in price fixing and collusive activity.

The result? By 2008, according to the American Medical Association, a single health insurer controlled 30% or more of the health insurance market in 90% of the metropolitan markets in the country. And, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, health premiums have gone up by 131% for family coverage from 1999 to 2009.

If we are serious about promoting competition among insurance companies to hold down costs, the repeal of the anti-trust exemption is a no-brainer.

Apparently, judging by her vote on the final bill, Virginia Foxx actually agrees with Billy Kennedy. Not.

Turns out this is not the first time Billy Kennedy has appeared recently on DownWithTyranny with a statement on health-insurance reform. In a posting on Tuesday of this week, "How Worthwhile Is Obama's Healthcare Bill?" (the answer: not very, since it contains no public-option competition for profit-gouging private insurance corps), the DownWithTyranny blogger got in touch with a number of Democratic candidates for Congress for their opinions. Among them was Billy Kennedy, and his response (again reproduced here at length) is very instructive:

I am an independent person and will be an independent candidate and office holder as well. I am not beholden to, and will not put myself in the position of becoming beholden to, the corporate interests of the insurance and the pharmaceutical industries over the interests of working Americans. I, like the majority of Americans, am a strong supporter of a public option in any health care reform proposal, but would consider an optional Medicare buy-in in its place. I believe such a buy-in, if well constructed, would get us started on the path of providing competition and cost controls for a greater number of Americans. While there are some good beginning reforms outlined in the President's proposed bill, there is little to nothing in the bill to control costs or drive them down, and there is no proposed Public option or Medicare buy-in. There is no anti-trust exemption repeal, and there is no national exchange. Furthermore, Americans will be mandated to purchase insurance policies they can't afford from for-profit companies subsidized with tax-payer dollars to for-profit companies without some competitive agent (like a public option and/or a Medicare buy-in). In other words, we're a long way from true reform. The good news, however, is it appears the President and the Senate Democrats appear ready to pass health care reform through reconciliation (and it's about time). The unfortunate reality is that the President is not going to push for a public option or Medicare buy in, so that means those of us who believe so strongly that this is essential to any reform must find another means to deliver to Americans what they have strongly supported from the get go: strong non-profit competition to insurance companies. At the time I'm writing this, 20 Senators have signed onto a pledge to vote for a public option through Senate reconciliation. It seems to clear to me at this time, this is where we must apply pressure and demand accountability.

Those words clearly set Kennedy apart from Madam Foxx, who has spent the past year attacking all Democratic ideas for insurance reform and believes, anyway, that "There are no Americans who don't have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare" (July 24, 2009, in a Capitol Hill press conference).

Foxx: So Much for Those Free-Market Principles

2010-02-25T10:41:00.002-05:00

Turns out that Virginia Foxx is a gutless wonder. Yesterday she voted twice to obstruct a provision that would remove the anti-trust exemption for the insurance industry, and when those efforts to derail the legislation failed, she voted for the actual bill. In other words, in this election year she turns out to be a typical politician, watching her backside and apparently not wanting to be on record as favoring the anti-trust exemption for insurance (the ONLY industry in America that benefits from that exemption, and look where that's gotten us), though perfectly willing to do what she can to prevent the reform from coming up for a vote.

The first procedural vote yesterday was to even consider the bill (H.R. 4626) "to restore the application of the Federal antitrust laws to the business of health insurance to protect competition and consumers." Every single Republican in the House (and eight blue dog Democrats including the inestimable Heath Shuler) voted to obstruct consideration of this important reform.

Then the Republicans tried to kill the bill by a motion to recommit, which also failed (Foxx voting with all the Republicans save three).

Having failed to derail the reform, on final passage Foxx and most other Republicans voted for the bill, 406-19.

So what was that all about? That was about the obstructionism the Republicans have been practicing for the last year PLUS their pressing need now in this election year to keep their obstructionism and their toadying for the corporations more or less below the radar of what most voters even notice.

Shuler the Mule

2010-02-25T09:40:00.002-05:00

There's playing politics and then there's sticking one's finger in your best friend's eye.

Mystery Man

2010-02-24T19:35:00.003-05:00

The "Keith Gardner" who filed to run against Virginia Foxx in the Republican primary on May 4 listed his address on the filing forms at the State Board of Election as 2425 N. Center St. Suite 204, which is the mailing address for the business (Admin on Call, Inc.) for which "V.K. Gardner" is listed as agent on the Secretary of State's listing.

The Watauga Democrat says he is a resident of Alexander County. "Van Keith Gardner" is indeed registered in Alexander Co. (which IS in the 5th District) at a Hickory address -- 185 Sienna Drive -- which also happens to be the registered office address for Admin on Call, Inc.

He registered to vote in Alexander County just last November 18.

Admin on Call, Inc. does not appear to have a website. It is listed on the national citysearch for Hickory as offering "legal services." The Watauga Democrat says it's a "medical practice management firm," which maybe involves "legal services." We searched several variations of the Gardner name on both the North Carolina Bar site and the NC medical registry and could not find him listed as either an attorney or a medical professional.

He has no web presence that we can locate, and other than mailing a letter to one of the addresses listed on the Secretary of State's site, we don't know how to wish him well in his quest to unseat Virginia Foxx.