Smoky Mountain News story takes a look:
He was endorsed by the Family Research Council for his pro-life stance and by the NRA for his support of the Ssecond Amendment. He championed an act for more border security, chaired the national prayer breakfast, and voted against the auto bailout, the Wall Street bailout, and the stimulus bill.
Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, isn’t a Republican, though these recent votes and endorsements might cause one to assume otherwise. In his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Swain County native Heath Shuler has earned the accolade of fourth least likely to vote in line with his party, according to the Washington Post.
Shuler has never kept his conservative leanings a secret. But the extent to which he votes against his party has taken some off guard.
“I expected him to be more of a Democrat than he seems to be,” said Jane Allison, a Swain County Democrat who called Shuler’s office to voice her disagreement with his stimulus vote.
Others say the Democratically-controlled Congress has allowed Shuler the freedom to vote against his party with more frequency than ever. Since Shuler is in a conservative leaning district, he’s able to score points for his stance with consituents back home without jeapordizing the Democratic Party’s agenda.
“My take is that it’s a Democratically controlled House right now, and he seems himself as basically having the leeway to vote against his party in order to tag himself with our more conservative voters,” said Mary Alice Lamb, a Haywood County Democrat. “You can fight your own party — that’s fine — as long as it’s in line with what your constituents tell you to believe.”
Jeff Israel, a Canton Democrat, is willing to cut Shuler a little more slack on his votes. Given the demographics of the mountain region, it’s fairly remarkable that a Democrat like Shuler won a Congressional seat at all — particularly one held by a Republican incumbent for 16 years.
“We had other candidates that I felt like were really qualified, but none of them could quite make it across the finish line like Heath could,” Israel said.
According to Israel, Shuler is able to walk a “political tight wire” between democratic populism and the conservative beliefs of rural voters.
9 Comments
I stand corrected about Shuler and the EFCA. I could have sworn that I saw him listed as a cosponsor not too terribly long ago.
But I stand by my previous comments that Shuler is simply representing his overall district. Progressive can grouse all they want about him, but a "mixed bag Democrat" is about as progressive as this Congressional district is going to elect. Better to have 50% of something than 100% of nothing.
Heath Shuler is for all intent and purpose a Republican. Having to run against Charles Taylor to get into Congress is the only reason he is listed as a Democrat.
If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck!
For the record.
Shuler is not a co-sponsor of EFCA: http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/cosponsors_110.cfm
As someone who spent a lot of time and effort helping Shuler defeat the execrable Charles Taylor, I know exactly what it took for him to win that seat.
Our democracy, however, gives us the latitude to dream big and work towards a future representative who will be more progressive.
Shuler’s done a lot of things right, IMHO, and he’s done a lot of things wrong. His stances against stem-cell science, against civil rights for his gay constituents, against the stimulus package, etc are some examples of the ‘wrong’ while his stances on environment, education, and small business have done quite a lot of good.
He’s a Mixed-Bag Democrat rather than a Republican.
In 2008 Shuler was the first Democrat to carry Cherokee County since Jamie Clarke eekked out a narrow, upset victory there against Bill Hendon in 1982. Clarke went on to lose it in his rematches against Hendon in 1984 and 1986, and lost it in both of his races against Charles Taylor in 1988 and 1990.
Even with his massive name recognition and being from that end of the district, Shuler was unable to win the country in 2006. In 2008 Elizabeth Dole won the county over Kay Hagan by nearly 2-1 and it voted for John McCain over President Obama by more than 2-1. If people in Murphy are voting for health care reform and workers rights they are being more than canceled out by the rest of Cherokee County.
Patsy Keever, an exceptional public servant who I hope to see back in public office one day, lost Cherokee County by neatly 2-1 in her race against Charles Taylor in 2004. The 11th Congressional district continued to elect Taylor despite his well known ethical lapses because he was deemed to be more in tune with the stances of its conservative voters. Shuler was finally able to defeat Taylor in part due to growing dissatisfaction with Bush, but largely because he was deemed more conservative, particularly on social and cultural issues than any of the Democrats who had run against Taylor in the past.
I’d love it if Shuler were more progressive on some things and I am not wild about his vote against the stimulus, but I also recognize that western North Carolina is not Vermont and that it will never send Bernie Sanders to Washington.
The people who voted for Shuler in Murphy voted for health care reform, worker’s rights (been to a union rally) and stronger veteran benefits. These issues are democratic. Those votes shouldnt budge much.
What he might lose is his volunteer base in Asheville. It was the strong force of the Moveon.org volunteers that won him his seat from Taylor… it was Obama who made sure he kept it (ohhh.. and Mumpower helped too).
Moveon.org wont push hard liked they did in 2006 because they are furious with his stimulus vote. Pissed me off too. God help him if he doesnt vote yes on the budget.
The world is so so grey.
I agree with Andrew. Shuler is mainly voting his district. Unfortunately too many in Asheville seem to think that the rest of the district thinks just like Malaprops and Montford. I would respectfully suggest that these people take a day off from those stomping grounds and head out to Flat Rock, Hayesville, Murphy, etc. and get a better sense of how much different the district is from the 10% of it that lives in Asheville.
Shuler’s conservative streak is more on social and cultural issues. His strong support for unions (he is a cosponsor of the Employee Freedom of Choice Act which is strongly opposed by Republican mainstays like the Chamber of Commerce) hardly puts him with the elephants but these days it is those cultural and social issues that are a litmus test for one to prove one’s "progressive" credentials.
Correction: 84.3%. Still, out of 2,124 bills…
Typical Jock…
No, Ash. He’s not a republican. He’s caucused with the Democrats 88% of the time. 93% if you don’t count the "not present" votes. That’s pretty solid.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/s001171/votes/
The paranoia that’s been running rampant through Asheville blogs pertaining to Shuler’s voting record is far over-reaching IMO.