By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost
Rep. Mel Watt easily won a ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday by defeating Ty Cobb of Rockwell.
Unofficial election results showed Watt getting more than 71 percent of the vote in the 12th District that reaches along the Interstate 85 corridor from Charlotte to Greensboro and includes a portion of Rowan County.
According to the N.C. Board of Elections, Watt garnered nearly 214,000 votes across the district to Cobb’s nearly 85,000.
Watt carried all the district’s 27 Rowan precincts, getting 15,054 votes to 12,699 for Cobb.
Cobb said late Tuesday that he was disappointed.
“I thought I had an outside chance,” he said.
The 68-year-old retired career military officer said he’s exhausted and his campaign is broke.
“Please pick up my signs,” he said. “I don’t want to get a fine.”
Watt, a 63-year-old Charlotte lawyer, has represented the 12th District since its creation in 1992.
He has faced nearly half a dozen Rowan candidates in past campaigns and praised Cobb while at the same time taking a jab at Dr. Ada Fisher, of Salisbury, who ran against Watt in 2004 and 2006. On Tuesday, she lost in a bid to unseat Democratic N.C. Rep. Lorene Coates.
“Cobb ran a good race. Unlike Ada Fisher in the past, his campaign was high-level and above board,” Watt said, “It was not an ugly, negative campaign like some in the past.”
Watt said that he has talked to his staff about the possibility of Cobb being part of the interview team for appointments to the military academies.
Watt expressed optimism that victories by Democrats on the state and national levels will help in dealing with the changes proposed at the Hefner VA Medical Center.
He has pushed the Veterans Administration to reverse its decision to eliminate primary and emergency care at the Hefner VA. Cobb agreed with Watt on that issue.
Watt specifically cited the win by Democrat Kay Hagan over U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole as positive for the VA.
“Hagan will help with the VA situation,” Watt said, adding that she will also help with getting federal judicial appointments for the 4th District.
“I haven’t been able to get Burr (U.S. Sen. Richard Burr) or Dole to do any consultation on judges,” he said. “The consequences are that North Carolina has been shortchanged on our representation.”
Watt said he’s looking forward to working with president-elect Barack Obama.
“I hope people’s expectations won’t be too great,” he said. “Over time, we will work our way through the fiscal challenges we have.”
While delighted with Obama’s victory and the rising tide of the Democratic party across the country, Watt credits his string of victories in part to providing good constituent services.
“I don’t try to approach those services on a partisan basis,” he said.
Cobb made his first run for elected office this year.
His top priority, he said during the campaign, was to get Congress to work and solve problems and quit bickering. Cobb said he believed he could use his military leadership skills to improve the process.
Cobb said late Tuesday he is unlikely to run again. But, he added, “never say never.”