Throwing the election for sake of party
The Wall Street Journal blogs today about North Carolina congressional candidate Carl Mumpower, a Republican challenger who has stopped campaigning and says he won’t resume until the GOP committees in half his district’s counties sign off on the party’s “core principles.” And, he says, the Republican Party must agree to work against GOP’ers who are not in tune with those principles.
It’s an interesting approach for Mumpower; perhaps even an admirable one. The currently-sour-on-the-GOP Conservatives With Attitude praises Mumpower’s actions, saying he is “Forcing the GOP to buy into” his platform.
The skeptic in me can’t help but wonder whether Mumpower’s really a man of principle bent on preserving the GOP, or whether he’s looking for cheap publicity. He is working on what the WSJ defines a “shoestring budget,” having declined funding from political action committees and the Republican Party, which suggests both that he’s a man of principle . . . and that he may need some cheap publicity. His race isn’t an easy one; the mountainous district of western North Carolina typically leans conservative, but his opponent is freshman Congressman Heath Shuler. Shuler, a former NFL quarterback who finished 2nd in the Heisman Trophy balloting during his playing days at the University of Tennessee, has persuaded constituents to buy into his moderately conservative Blue Dog Democrat agenda.