In the wake of candidate Carl Mumpower’s announcement earlier this week that he was suspending his campaign for the 11th Congressional District House seat now help by U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, Congressional Quarterly Politics is calling the district safe for Shuler:
With a broke and inactive nominee, Republican hopes of winning back North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District seat from freshman Democratic Heath Shuler are essentially gone, leading CQ Politics to change its rating of the race to Safe Democrat from Democrat Favored.
The Republican establishment has struggled with Asheville City Council member Carl Mumpower since he won the May 6 primary. And, the relationship significantly deteriorated on Saturday when Mumpower announced that — in defense of his Republican principles — he was suspending his campaign.
“Effective immediately, my campaign is suspended as I appeal to my party to make a firm commitment to our core principles,” he said in a letter to the chair of the 11th District GOP. He outlined criteria for “reigniting his campaign,” which included a demand that the majority of counties in the 11th District “develop a sincere process for challenging local, state and national Republican elected officials on votes that sidestep or otherwise betray our core guiding principles.”
Mumpower’s second quarter campaign finance reports indicated he had less than $1,000 left in his campaign coffers by June 30 to run for the general election, out of $69,000 raised total. Shuler reported he had $965,000 on hand by the same date out of $1.3 million raised.
Mumpower also reported $25,000 in debt.