WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Howard Coble piles into the members-only subway car in a tunnel of the U.S. Capitol, all grins and how-are-ya's with Republicans and Democrats, chatting up a storm on the way to cast a vote on the House floor.

Coble, North Carolina's longest-serving member of Congress, has all kinds of friends. But Coble has little real power in Washington.

Really, no one in North Carolina's House delegation does. None of the state's 13 members can march into the House and make things happen on a broad, national scale.

By an imprecise and anecdotal gauge, North Carolina is a lightweight in Congress. The Tar Heel delegation boasts no full committee chairmen, no one in top party leadership, no one willing to play the national fundraising game. The state's members haven't been the architects of sweeping national policy changes of late, and, collectively, they aren't funneling tax dollars back home the way other delegations have.

"I think we're sort of out of the loop," said Andrew Taylor, a political scientist at N.C. State University. "And I think it hurts the state a little bit."

On Nov. 7, voters will express their opinion on the effectiveness of their U.S. House members, and whether Democrats or Republicans should run the House. Polls indicate that this year's midterm elections could put the Democrats in power for the first time since 1995.

Six of the state's members are Democrats; seven, Republican. Each is seeking re-election. Their roles in next year's Congress will be defined largely by which party is in control.

For now, North Carolina's one powerhouse is GOP Rep. Charles Taylor, who controls billions as the man in charge of appropriations for the U.S. Department of the Interior. But Taylor, of Brevard, is believed to face more trouble in his re-election bid than anyone in the delegation.

Such lack of heft recently led a Washington consulting firm called Knowlegis to rank North Carolina 44th nationally in a congressional "power rank" survey.

The survey ranked individual members' power based on factors such as seniority, leadership positions, committee assignments and successful legislation, then averaged those scores for a state rank.

By another measure, North Carolina ranks 25th since 2000 in bringing home earmarks, the specific projects tucked inside spending bills, according to Citizens Against Congressional Waste, a Washington interest group.

What is power?

Of nearly two dozen full committees in the House, North Carolina has no GOP chairmen or top-ranked Democrats. Only three members sit on the four most powerful committees -- Appropriations, Ways and Means, Rules, and Energy and Commerce.

That's for a state with the 11th largest population in the country.

What gives?

First off, power is difficult to define. The House is Congress' lower branch, considered by the founding fathers to be the chamber of the common people. Today there are 435 representatives, each carrying a healthy ego and up for re-election every two years.

"People are not powerful in the same way," said Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat. "Everybody thinks they're a leader, but not everybody can be a leader here."

In the House, seniority means nearly everything, and it can take years to acquire power. Even within committees and subcommitteees, members sit according to status. The highest-ranked members get the choicest offices, the best committee assignments, the chance to push their legislation.

There are other paths: Members gain influence by developing reputations as experts, by forging compromises, by taking principled stands, or, in the case of some, by spreading plenty of fundraising help to peers.

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