The Southern Highland Reader

UPDATE: The post below details a schedule for a decision on whether to seek criminal charges against former NC Governor Mike Easley. Since it was written the prosecutor has changed his tune, saying he is consulting with federal investigators and his decision could take many additional months. Story here.

STATEWIDE–The lead from Associated Press writer Gary Robertson:

REGIONAL–The Hendersonville Times News, along with the Knoxville News Sentinel, have followed closely 11th District Congressman Heath Shuler’s real estate misadventure involving the TVA in east Tennessee.

The Times News warned early on that even the appearance of influence-peddling in real estate matters would recall memories of Shuler’s predecessor, Republican Charles Taylor.

In a Friday editorial, the Times News “wraps the thing up neatly, and says Shuler’s damage in this case is self-inflicted.

Here’s the lead:

REGIONAL–Widely-read Asheville political blog Scrutiny Hooligans has a look at the territory west of Balsam Gap — considered oh-so-mysterious by many Ashevillians – in this post.

Tom Sullivan is the author.

An excerpt:

There are Democrats out there. Not hemp-wearing Asheville Democrats, maybe, but Democrats, and more left-of-center than some here believe. At 10 a.m. on a weekday ahead of the 2006 election, it was a delight to find twenty people gathered at a Murphy campaign headquarters to discuss get-out-the-vote efforts. At a meeting this year after one of the votes on the stimulus bill, Democratic county chairs from across the district gave Shuler’s staff a tongue lashing over his no vote.

NC-11 is, on the whole, a moderately conservative one, with about 35 percent Republican registration and some leftover Reagan Democrats on the rolls. In 2008, Obama won only Buncombe county and Jackson county, home of Western Carolina University. He narrowly lost Madison and Swain. Shuler is a good fit for the district, whether Buncombe progressives like it or not. But it might be strategic for the congressman to show them a little more love whether or not they understand how things are done west of the Balsams. His vote on Saturday night did him damage that only a vote for final passage of the health bill might repair. Might.

Read the post here.

REGIONAL–Hendersonville, NC, mayor Greg Newman will challenge incumbent Democrat Heath Shuler for the 11th District’s seat in congress.

Shuler, who unseated long-time Republican incumbent Charles Taylor in 2006 and won handily in 2008, is a relatively conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat in a conservative district.

An excerpt of a story in the Hendersonville Times News:

If elected, Newman said he would not hesitate to hold town hall meetings to hear what the people want. One of the biggest reasons he has decided to run is what he has been hearing from residents.

“We have young people who want to know if they will have a good job when they get out of school,” he said. “There are elderly residents who are hearing about possible cuts in Medicare. National security is a major issue that needs to be addressed. Are we meeting the needs of avoiding a terrorist threat?”

He said his major focus would be to bring industry to Western North Carolina.

Read the whole piece here.

STATEWIDE–Jack Betts at the Charlotte Observer writes that Governor Bev Perdue and Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton endanger their legacies as leaders in education by wavering on the matter of undocumented immigrants in North Carolina colleges.

Writes Betts:

Democrats such as Perdue and Dalton generally hold in high regard the views of a former education governor such as Jim Hunt or a lion of American higher education such as Bill Friday. But on the issue of illegal immigrants in public colleges, their view is more in line with Republicans in the legislature who hope to push legislation next year to prohibit the admission of undocumented students.

Read his entire blog post here.

NATIONAL–An article in the Raleigh News and Observer touches on North Carolina blue dog congressmen Heath Shuler and Mike McIntyre today, two right-leaning Dems who have made things difficult for President Obama and his health plan.

Shuler represents the southern mountains in Washington.

An excerpt from the piece:

“Some of the commentary coming out of the White House has ratcheted up the pressure on the Blue Dogs in this sense: They’re being told the whole party will be hurt if the Democrats don’t succeed,” said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“There’s a pull for them to be party loyalists,” he said.

Read the whole article here.

STATEWIDE–There’s right much being made of this passage from Congressional Quarterly:

NORTH CAROLINA: Democrats stand a chance of picking up the state’s other Senate seat if they can find a solid challenger to Richard M. Burr , who in 2004 succeeded Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards. Obama narrowly won the state last year, and Democrat Kay Hagan unseated Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole. Burr might have gained running room when popular state Attorney General Roy Cooper announced in May that he would not run for the seat; Democratic recruiters are still looking for a top-tier candidate.

And while it stands to reason in the current NC climate that Burr could be challenged, the suggestion — as one publication made — that he “faces a tough test” might be a little premature. After all, the same paragraph above notes that he has no actual competition.

STATEWIDE–Where do North Carolina’s senators stand on confirmation of the president’s supreme court nominee?

Predictably, Sen. Burr, a Republican, is dragging his feet.

From the Raleigh News and Observer:

Burr spokesman David Ward said Monday that the Republican senator wants to ask Sotomayor a few more questions about her record. Burr is scheduled to meet with the Supreme Court nominee next week.

“Senator Burr is continuing to review Judge Sotomayor’s judicial record as well as her remarks at last week’s Judiciary Committee hearing,” Ward said in a prepared statement.  “He will be able to make a more thorough assessment of her qualifications after meeting with her next week and asking specific, substantive questions to ensure that she is committed to upholding the Constitution and the rights and freedoms it protects.”

Sen. Hagan, a Democrat, is supporting confirmation, and reached back to 1998 for the vote count in which the iconic Jesse Helms supported Sotomayor’s nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which is based in New York.