The Southern Highland Reader

REGIONAL–Congress has approved $13 million towards a larger settlement with Swain County to resolve the North Shore Road issue.

Here’s an excerpt from Mark Barrett’s story in the Asheville Citizen-Times:

NATIONAL–Eric Fingerhut’s blog CapitalJ blog provides this anecdote about Rahm Emmanuel’s aggressive encouragement of 11th District Rep. Heath Shuler, when Shuler was mulling over a run for congress (this was while Emmanuel was still a congressman himself).

Emmanuel doesn’t easily take no for an answer.

Here’s an excerpt:

The most amusing part of the [documentary about Emmanuel] — the D.C. premiere of which I attended recently — was when Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) describes how he hesitated when Emanuel first recruited him to run, wondering if he would still have enough time to spend with his family. Emanuel tells him it’s really not that bad, and Shuler then starts receiving regular calls from the then-congressman.

“Heath, I’m just calling to say I’m on my way to school to take my kids. Health, I’m on my way now back to school, I think I’m going to eat lunch with the kids today. … Heath, we’re going to soccer practice …”

Incidentally, the film, “Housequake“, is directed by NC Rep. David Price’s daughter Karen.

More on the film, Emmanuel and Shuler here, from the New York Times.

ASHEVILLE–11th District Rep. Heath Shuler said mildly nice things about Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a speech yesterday in Asheville, and the result was a comical fit of pique by a Republican National Committee spokesman.

In general, Shuler suggested that the criticism of Pelosi might be, oh, shall we say, exaggerated.

In response, RNC spokesman Andy Seré said:

“Heath Shuler is the one who’s ‘misunderstood’. He may call himself a Blue Dog, but Shuler’s lavish Pelosi-praise has revealed him to be little more than a lap dog for the most liberal speaker in U.S. history. She may have let him off the leash this weekend in a vain attempt to salvage his re-election bid, but his political affair with Nancy Pelosi is destined to land him in the doghouse with Western North Carolinians.”

Story from the Asheville Citizen-Times
Story from the Raleigh News and Observer

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.

NATIONAL–11th District congressman Heath Shuler has been cleared by the House ethics committee of any wrongdoing in a Tennessee land deal, according to the Washington Post.

An excerpt from the Post:

According to a letter sent to Shuler Wednesday by the ethics committee, that IG investigation “could not find any evidence that you violated any ethics rules.” And after its own “thorough review,” the committee said it “has determined that your actions in these matters were not improper in any way and did not violate House rules.”

Read the piece here.

NATIONAL–11th District congressman Heath Shuler is the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation over a land-swap controversy in Tennessee, according to the Washington Post, which acquired a leaked memo that discloses the investigation.

Here’s the Post’s lead:

House ethics investigators are reviewing an allegation of “preferential treatment” in a land deal involving Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), a former Washington Redskins quarterback, according to a July committee document obtained by The Washington Post.

Read the Post story here.

The Hendersonville Times News and the Mountain Xpress were the first to report the story in our area.

Our series of posts shown to the left outline the details of the controversy.

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.

REGIONAL-The smidgen of Tennessee lakefront property at the heart of a controversy involving 11th District congressman Heath Shuler was listed as a Shuler asset in 2007, but not 2008, reports the Hendersonville Times News.

An excerpt:

Shuler, who went into real estate development in East Tennessee after his career as a quarterback at the University of Tennessee and the NFL, claimed ownership of between $9 million and $42 million in real estate assets in his 2007 financial disclosure statement. The largest asset was the Cove at Blackberry Ridge near Knoxville, which became the subject of a TVA inspector general’s report into whether the agency was showing favoritism in granting water access development permits.

The entire story.

SYLVA–Daniel Allison’s Chevrolet dealership in Sylva is to be closed by General Motors, Allison told a congressional hearing in Washington, DC, this week. And Allison says it doesn’t make any sense.

Allison, whose family has operated the dealership since 1935, was in Washington to express his frustration with GM at a hearing called by 11th District Rep. Heath Shuler.

The story, from Gannett’s Washington bureau reporter Bill Theobald, includes this passage:

[Allison's] business continues to be successful, he doesn’t cost the company anything, his closing would require GM car owners to travel many miles to get service, and his demise would leave the Ford outlet as the only remaining dealership in the area.

Allison testified that he employs 16 people in an area with high unemployment. His payroll in 2008 was $670,269, and the company paid or generated more than $400,000 in tax revenues through payroll, sales, property and state highway-use taxes, he said. He said he has appealed GM’s decision to close his dealership in October 2010. If that fails, he said, he may consider selling another brand of vehicles.

And this one:

Professor Ernest Goss, an economist at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., testified that since the American taxpayers now own most of both companies, any assessment of dealership closures needs to look more broadly at how communities would be affected, not just at the impact on GM and Chrysler.

Plus, he said, the companies have provided no clear justification for how they decided which dealerships would close.

“Where’s the analysis?” Goss said. “Where is the transparency?”

Read the whole piece 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.

REGIONAL–NC Policy Watch’s Adam Linker on the impact of proposed health care reform on the 11th District:

In Rep. Heath Shuler’s district approximately 12,000 seniors would avoid hitting the “donut hole” for prescription drug coverage and 134,000 uninsured residents would gain access to health insurance.

Shuler’s resistance to pass meaningful reform is especially egregious considering that nearly 1 in 4 residents of his district do not have health coverage.

REGIONAL-Roll Call has been “the newspaper of capitol hill” for over a half-century. Its “Heard on the Hill” column (subscription required) is bemused by our Congressman Heath Shuler’s dedication to fitness guru Tony Horton:

Congress Gets Ripped. Fiscal hawk Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Blue Dog Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) have reputations as budget-cutters. But it turns out federal spending isn’t the only thing the two want to see get cut: Both plan to work out in the House gym with fitness guru Tony Horton, whose super-tough “P90X” regime (“get absolutely ripped in 90 days!” the exercise DVD promises) they follow.

Shuler

Horton

Heard on the Hill hears Horton will be putting Ryan, Shuler and a few other lawmakers through their paces during an early morning sweat session on Friday.

Ryan tells HOH he’s excited to meet Horton, whose DVDs he’s been following since December. “I feel like I know him,” says Ryan, who laughed when HOH asked if he was “ripped,” but admitting he’s kept his body fat from 6 percent to 8 percent thanks to the program. “Some people have financial gurus. Some people have spiritual gurus. I have a fitness guru and his name is Tony Horton.”

Shuler and Ryan do the workouts together; Ryan says Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is also a fan, and that he’s gotten Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) into it, too.

And Horton’s program is intense enough to impress even a pro. “I have worked out personally and professionally for many years,” says Shuler, who as a former NFL player is no stranger to grueling workouts. “P90X is the one of my most challenging and extreme exercise experiences yet.”

HOH is content to take their word for it.

CHEROKEE-North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan voiced support this week for N.C. State Rep. Mike McIntyre’s Lumbee Recognition Act, which would give certain federal rights that accompany recognition to the Lumbee Indian tribe, which is generally focused in southeastern North Carolina.

Sen. Hagan, Rep. Shuler

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have long opposed recognition of the Lumbee — sometimes vociferously — but Cherokee opposition seems mostly economic. The Lumbee have some 50,000 enrolled members, compared to 14,000 for the Cherokee, and federal aid specific to tribes but disbursed at the state level could be watered down in North Carolina if the Lumbee are recognized.

In addition, the Lumbee could choose, if recognized, to become a competitor in the casino market by building along the I-95 corridor.

Economic considerations aside, some Native Americans see McIntyre’s bill as an attempt to sidestep the longstanding Bureau of Indian Affairs method of recognizing tribal identity. This method takes many things into consideration, not the least of which is the existence of a traditional language.

11th District Rep. Heath Shuler has voted against McIntyre’s act, and has instead argued that the Lumbee should make their case through the BIA.

More reading

Fayetteville Observer
Fayetteville Observer
Washington Watch
Asheville Citizen-Times
Indian Country Today

REGIONAL/STATEWIDE–11th District congressman Heath Shuler announced Monday night that he will not seek Senator Richard Burr’s seat in next year’s mid-term elections.

If he’s sticking with congress for a while, it makes you wonder why he’s stirring up trouble with the Speaker.

Heath Shuler

STATEWIDE/NATIONAL–According to Politico.com, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, like her father, is a famous personal list-maker.

She keeps track of favors, of people who are on her good side, and of people on her bad side.

And apparently 11th District congressman Heath Shuler has worked his way to the top of the “bad” list, surpassing even Rush Limbaugh, who Pelosi considers beneath contempt.

Here’s part of what Politico.com wrote:

No Democrat has done quite so much in so short a time to arouse Pelosi’s disdain as the failed-Redskins-quarterback-turned-ambitious-North-Carolina-congressman.

The conservative, anti-abortion Shuler would have made the list for voting against both bank bailout bills and the stimulus package, but the way he went about it didn’t help; Shuler told an audience back home that “House leadership and Senate leadership have really failed” on the $787 billion package.

The thing that riles Pelosi most, according to several House aides, is that she believes Shuler’s motives are as much political as they are ideological — and that he’s picking a fight with her to position himself for a run against Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) next year.

Unless Shuler is planning a long House career, picking a fight with Pelosi may indeed have its advantages: His 2006 opponent, incumbent GOP Rep. Charles Taylor, scored points by portraying Shuler as a Pelosi acolyte.

“I don’t know if Shuler is talking without thinking or if he’s just making the calculation that distancing himself from Pelosi is never a bad thing to do,” said a senior House leadership aide.

Read the whole piece here.

NATIONAL–This one goes back a few days, but Andrea Verykoukis at the Progressive Pulse blog had choice words for 11th District Congressman Heath Shuler after Shuler voted against the current administration’s stimulus package. Verykoukis went heavy on the football terminology, so why shouldn’t we follow her lead (block)?

She argued that Shuler’s point that he voted with the wishes of his “conservative district” was a little watery, and she went on to quote the Asheville Citizen-Times when it begged to differ — although the paper somehow avoided criticizing Shuler by name.

Here’s a quote from Verykoukis:

Is this guy for real? He’s a Democrat, for God’s sake, and he’s been in Washington for the past two years, and he’s really going to try to pretend the GOP hasn’t been spending like drunken sailors? He’s going to get fiscally responsible with the party that has spent $3 trillion on unnecessary wars and tax breaks for the wealthy that, I might add, most assuredly did not help anyone? Seriously?

Read the whole piece here.

Meanwhile … Shuler’s vote is a hot topic of discussion at MountainXpress.

RALEIGH–When former football star Heath Shuler displaced longtime congressman Charles Taylor as the 11th district’s representative in Washington, folks worried that the mountains would lose a seat on the big stage by sending a neophyte to replace the entrenched Taylor.

Fret no more.

Former Preseident Bill Clinton will host a $1,000 to $5,000-a-plate fundraiser for 11th District Rep. Heath Shuler later this month in Raleigh, reports the Raleigh News and Observer.

While the effort can be seen as a thank you for Shuler’s support of Hilary Clinton presidential run, it will also serve to ramp up talk about Shuler’s possible run for Richard Burr’s senate seat in the mid-term elections. He’s considered to be on the short list, along with Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Here’s the piece from the N&O.

STATEWIDE–In December we mentioned Sen. Richard Burr’s much-more-likely challenge in the 2010 mid-term elections, after Libby Dole’s defeat at the hands of Kay Hagan.

11th District congressman Heath Shuler was mentioned as a likely challenger, and that possibility seems to have solidified.

Shuler and Attorney General Roy Cooper are mentioned as leading contenders in this post at the Raleigh News and Observer’s “Under the Dome” blog. On the face of it, Cooper vs. Shuler is an interesting matchup; Cooper has been aggressive in protecting the interests of North Carolinians with regards to air pollution and other progressive issues. Shuler, on the other hand, has positioned himself as a blue-dog Democrat, relatively right-of-center, as Democrats go.

STATEWIDE–Moments after Libby Dole’s surprisingly sound loss to Kay Hagan in this year’s senate race, conjecture cropped up about the security of North Carolina’s other senate set, which belongs to first-termer Richard Burr.

A number of possible challengers have been floated, including 11th District congressman Health Shuler.

One, U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a three-term Democrat from Raleigh, has pulled his name out of the hat.

He told the Raleigh News and Observer: “I don’t want to spend the next 18 months of my life having people from Washington tell me how to be southern.”

Shuler is mum on the prospect, as are other early possibilities Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Treasurer Richard Moore.

STATEWIDE/NATIONAL–While the house approved a $14 billion bailout program for automakers Wednesday night by a 237-170 vote and sent it on for senate consideration, NC lawmakers weren’t feeling so charitable. The state delegation was 14-9 against.

11th District congressman Heath Shuler voted against.

Senator Libby Dole voted for the bailout, Senator Richard Burr against.

Here’s how the NC congressional delegation voted.

How about the impact of the industry’s struggles on mountain dealers and mechanics? Here’s a story from the Smoky Mountain News.

And another from the Hendersonville Times News.