Heath Shuler Post for September 6th

There are only 62 days left until the 2006 midterm elections.

Below are a couple of snippets found on the internet:

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Driven by their faith and committed to the common good, the candidates below exemplify what FaithfulDemocrats.com is all about. They are now in close and critical races for the most important offices in the nation—Congress, Senate, and Governor. And they need your help.

Please make a contribution to one or more of these candidates in order to help make America a more just and compassionate place.

FaithfulDemocrats.com is a division of Faithful Media, Inc., a nonprofit corporation.

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Below that introduction, there are 6 faithful democratic candidates listed, the last of which is our very own Heath Shuler. His introduction below:

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Heath Shuler “I have never shied away from openly discussing my faith. Throughout my high school, college, and professional career, I have been an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a spokesman for Character Counts. I have spoken to thousands of students across the country, sharing my testimony and trying to be a positive role model for them. Nikol and I are now raising our two children in the mountains of North Carolina with the same values that we were raised with.”

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Source for the two above snippets.

I can't help but wonder if Heath Shuler will be treated any better than Joe Lieberman, another faithful democrat, albeit of the Jewish faith; and considered a conservative democrat.

If we are to believe Heath' claim to be conservative, will the dems relgate him to a corner until they can find a more progressive candidate to take his place, should he win in November?

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Asheville is as blue as blue gets, but the rest of the district is conservative and rural.

Patsy Keever was a good candidate in 2004, but Taylor was able to tar her with the "Lib-ruull woman from Asheville" brush which was quite effective. Even worse was that DCCC was running the almost the same commercials for her as the DSCC was running for Inez Tennenbaum in SC, giving credibility to Taylor's "she's not one of us" frame.

Heath Shuler doesn't have any of these liablities, and is probably the strongest candidate the Democrats can get. Taylor is hardly loved in this district and if Keever could come within 10 points, Shuler should beat him handily.

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Source.

That is how they see our district at DailyKos, "rural and conservative" only they mean it as a perjorative, I take it as a badge of honor, as I would hope that Heath would.

The main question I have for you today is this:

If elected, would Heath Shuler remain true to his heritage as a rural southerner, or would he be like so many of our children who have left our mountains to leave a friend, and return a stranger?

Right now, I can't answer that question.