By Lisa Zagaroli, McClatchy Newspapers

Some N.C. members of Congress have more than a typical stake in the health of the financial services industry.

Chairman Chris Van Hollen announced today that the DCCC is launching the “Independence from Big Oil” campaign and will run radio ads against Representatives Robin Hayes (NC-08) and Patrick McHenry (NC-10), who both have stood with George Bush and Big Oil while North Carolina’s middle class families are being squeezed by the highest gas prices in history. The radio ads were recorded by a comedian impersonating President Bush.

“We will be going district-by-district to hold House Republicans accountable for helping President Bush give tax breaks to profitable Big Oil companies and doing nothing to help hardworking middle class Americans who are paying more than $4.00 per gallon at the pump,” said Chairman Chris Van Hollen. “This Independence Day, the American people deserve to be liberated from the Big Oil policies of President Bush and the rubber stamp House Republicans.”

With up to $23 Million in Big Oil Stock, Robin Hayes Profits from North Carolinians Paying Record Prices at the Pump

Hardworking North Carolinians may question why Congressman Robin Hayes sides with Big Oil and against them as they struggling to pay record-high gas prices.

Financial reports released this week could explain why -- Robin Hayes owns up to $23 million in Big Oil stock, meaning that Hayes actually profits off of North Carolinians struggling with record prices at the pump.

While Hayes makes money on his millions in investments when Big Oil makes record profits, he also voted to give Big Oil $85 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies. Big Oil has thanked him with nearly $175,000 in campaign contributions.

That's what Robin Hayes said. Doesn't it make you see red? He told the Montgomery County Superintendent of Schools"You need me more than I need you."

Really, it is documented in two Montgomery Herald articles.

Hayes challenging " You need me more than I need you!" to a Montgomery County Superintendent , was a Robin Hayes most of us had never seen. It exposed him as the politician, much like when he switched his vote, not once but twice to help President Bush pass a bill that hurt workers in the 8th district by just one vote. This was the Robin Hayes who inspired high school teacher Larry Kissell to run for Congress in the first place.

Why bring this up? Yesterday Hayes visited Montgomery County to discuss education (before heading to a country club to raise money for his campaign) . Apparently, he found out that maybe he does need the people of Montgomery County now that he is down in the polls. For too long he has played politics rather than help prevent the problems the community faces.

Remember, it goes far beyond his hypocrisy on education issues. Only two other Members out of the entire House and Senate have more stock in companies making money off the war in Iraq than Robin Hayes. We all know he is consistently listed as one of the wealthiest Members of either the House or Senate, but his investment in the war is really shocking.

Kissell Committed to Sound Energy Policy, Creation of Green-Collar Jobs

The League of Conservation Voters, which works to turn environmental values into public policy, announced the endorsement of Larry Kissell for election to North Carolina's 8th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

By Marie Horrigan, CQ Weekly

National Democratic strategists earned plaudits for their 2006 gains, but there were flubs. Will earlier party support put their defeated challenger to GOP Rep. Robin Hayes over the top?

Voters in the mostly working-class precincts of south-central North Carolina that connect Charlotte and Fayetteville were faced with a study in opposites in their candidates for Congress last year. The Democratic challenger was Larry Kissell, a social-studies teacher who also spent 27 years in midlevel jobs in a hosiery mill. The Republican incumbent was Robin Hayes, a millionaire hosiery mill owner and descendent of one of the region's founding families. Despite being outspent 3-to-1 and being cut off from support from party headquarters in Washington, Kissell managed to come within 329 votes of one of the year's biggest upsets — and created the second-closest House race in the country.

A shrewd campaigner, Kissell leveraged a significant amount of free publicity through events such as his summertime gasoline sale, in which he offered to make up the difference between the pump price in North Carolina in August 2006 ($2.89 a gallon) and the price when Hayes took office in 1999 ($1.22). The event drew some 500 motorists to Benjy Dunn's Filling Station in Biscoe and won Kissell media coverage that his underfunded campaign could not yet purchase.

Hayes, meanwhile, was weakened by his pro-war sentiments — and by some politically risky votes he took out of loyalty to the Republican Party. Hayes was a deciding vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2005 despite having earlier declared himself "flat-out, completely, horizontally opposed" to it, a treacherous vote given the major textile interests in the district.