Asheville News

Politicalticker.com: The question for Heath Shuler in WNC – can he energize his base?

Jason Sandford August 20, 2010

Jason Sandford

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

From politicalticker.com, sizing up the 11th Congressional District race this year between U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, a Haywood County Democrat, and challenger Jeff Miller, a Republican from Henderson County:

The biggest question mark for Shuler is the same unknown facing the national party: can he count on the base to turn out this year, in numbers high enough to counter motivated Republicans and sagging approval numbers? That mystery is magnified for Shuler, who holds one of the lowest party unity voting scores among congressional Democrats, ranking in the bottom 10, and voted against the health care bill earlier this year.

After years of courting independents and Republicans, the need to turn special attention to the base was driven home in May, when an unknown and underfunded primary challenger took more than a third of the vote.

Thanks to loyal reader Ben for the heads-up.

Jason Sandford

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

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2 Comments

jason August 27, 2010

I'm a Blue Dog and I voted for Heath twice but will most likely not this time around. I can't stand Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama. If Heath declares that he will NOT vote for Pelosi as Majority/Minority Speaker come January, then I'll vote for him. If not, Miller gets my vote. Overall, Heath has done a good job representing WNC but Pelosi is an extremist lunatic who is running us Blue Dogs out of the Dem party!!!

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Jeff August 21, 2010

Shuler has a base? I voted for him for the reason I suspect many did: He WASN'T Chainsaw Charlie. If we can get another boogie-man to run against him, I suspect he can scrape up a little energy resembling a base.

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