The Wall Street Journal picks up on Mumpower campaign

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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From a Wall Street Journal blog:

The GOP challenger to Rep. Heath Shuler suspended his campaign — in protest of his own party.

Carl Mumpower dropped all campaign activity against first-term Democrat Shuler in North Carolina’s 11th district until Republican Party committees in at least half of the district’s 15 counties sign on to his “core principles” and agree to work against elected Republicans who stray from them. “I had to find some way to get their attention,” Mumpower said. “To tell them, ‘I’ve got the wheel guys. We’re on my watch now.’”

Even though the district tends to vote Republican — President Bush collected 57% of the vote in 2004 — the National Republican Congressional Committee had trouble recruiting a candidate to oppose Shuler. Mumpower, a city council member from Asheville, won the three-way primary race in May with 48% of the vote.

Mumpower has garnered the most publicity for his shoestring campaign by accusing Republican officeholders of betraying GOP values. He continues to support the impeachment of President Bush for failing to control illegal immigration, and North Carolina’s Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr – both Republican — have drawn his ire for their support of this year’s farm bill, which he calls typical of the growing budget and bureaucracy under recent Republican rule.