The Southern Highland Reader

STATEWIDE–Secretary of State Elaine Marshall tells Rob Christensen of the Charlotte Observer that she is committed to her race for the Democratic slot in next year’s race for Sen. Richard Burr’s seat.

This despite the recent death of her husband, and by Cal Cunningham’s entry into the race (and the fact that he was recruited by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee).

Christensen’s story is here.

STATEWIDE–Former NC state senator Cal Cunningham, a Democrat, has rejoined the race to unseat current senator Richard Burr in next year’s election.

From Congressional Quarterly:

In what appears to be a case of right news, wrong timing for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, word began to leak out Tuesday that Democratic former North Carolina state Sen. Cal Cunningham has decided to reverse an earlier decision and will challenge incumbent Republican Richard M. Burr in 2010.

The decision is a victory for the DSCC, which has been working to get Cunningham to reconsider the contest after he passed on the race in mid-November. The only problem is that the news leaked out on the same day that North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, who is also competing in the Democratic primary, was holding a funeral for her husband, who died last week at age 77.

Read the piece here.

STATEWIDE–North Carolina’s senators jointly introduced legislation last Thursday that, if approved, would provide federal recognition to the state’s Lumbee Indian tribe.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr and Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan sponsored the bill.

From the Greensboro News Record:

The tribe began its quest for recognition in 1888, three years after North Carolina formally recognized it. Congress partially recognized the tribe in 1956 but denied the Lumbees federal benefits given to other American Indians.

The House approved federal recognition for the Lumbees in June. President Barack Obama has pledged to support recognition of the Lumbee Tribe. Other tribes have opposed congressional recognition of the Lumbees, questioning their ability to trace members to a historic tribe.

There are 55,000 Lumbee Indians in Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland counties.

The Cherokee have consistently opposed recognition of the Lumbee. More about that here.

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.

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.

STATEWIDE–Facing a state budget shortfall of as much as $3 billion, as well as the need to make “draconian” cuts to state programs if no federal help materializes, Governor Beverly Perdue Thursday asked all state agencies to immediately tighten their budgets by 7% – 2% more than has already been requested by former Governor Mike Easley.

“As Governor, I have a constitutional requirement to balance North Carolina’s budget,” she said earlier this week, “and I intend to do so responsibly.”

In addition to the additional 2% budget cuts, Perdue asked state agencies to cut funds using the following methods:

• Stop any purchases of goods or services unless specifically approved by a department head. This does not apply to equipment or materials needed for classrooms.
• Suspend travel and training except for public safety, public health, job requirements, economic development  or emergency situations. Exceptions must be approved by department heads.
• Put on hold any pay-as-you-go appropriations for capital improvement and repair and renovation projects.
• Do not fill any vacant positions unless a prior commitment has been made. Department heads can approve filling vacancies as an “extraordinary exception.”

Meanwhile, Perdue traveled to Washington Wednesday to lobby North Carolina’s for emergency funding. Wrote Barbara Barrett in the Raleigh News and Observer:

Perdue asked Congress for two separate pots of money: One, at about $18 billion, would pay for new infrastructure. The projects include work on airports, highways, schools, clean water systems and public and private colleges. The projects on this list were presented as “shovel-ready.”

The second pot of money, an unspecified amount, would be used to fill North Carolina’s budget shortfall for next fiscal year.

Perdue has said the state is about $2 billion in the hole, and that while she can find some savings, she can’t find enough. And a day after declaring a budget emergency in Raleigh, Perdue also disputed the idea that any shortfall is the fault of the state.

“It is a crisis caused not by bad stewardship on the part of North Carolinians, but because of a global meltdown,” she said.

“I don’t believe it’s a handout,” Perdue said of her request. “It’s not just coming up here and saying, ‘Bail me out.’ “

Perdue’s request received mixed reviews, with N.C. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, the sharpest critic.

“Only if they’re in the form of a loan,” Burr told Barrett. “But I’m not interested in substituting the usual appropriations process and fulfilling states’ shortfalls with emergency money just because the states aren’t making tough decisions they need to make.”

“They didn’t wake up six days ago and realize they have a … deficit,” he said.

Perdue otherwise hopes for relief through the federal stimulus bill now before congress, and hopes that the federal government will take on a higher percentage of medicaid costs.

More from the News and Observer here.

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.

HENDERSONVILLE-With the GOP having suffered a setback, and particularly after Elizabeth Dole’s loss, many have wondered whether Rep. Heath Shuler will challenge Sen. Richard Burr in 2010.

The Hendersonville Times-News had the chance to ask him.