Taylor hopes debating Shuler gets him back in front

With a month to go before the November elections, there are some bad signs for North Carolina Republicans.

A new poll shows veteran Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor of Brevard is trailing former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler, 51-40.

Things have gotten so bad that Taylor has agreed to a campaign debate for the first time since 1994. Incumbents who are running strong often shy from debates.

The poll of 500 likely voters, with a margin of error of 4.5 percent, was conducted Sept. 25-Oct. 2 by Zogby International. Zogby also found that in 15 Republican-held congressional seats in play nationally, Democrats are leading in polls in 11 of those races.

In North Carolina's 8th District, Democratic challenger Larry Kissell is in a dead heat with Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, according to a survey by OnPoint Polling and Research.

Web guru impressed big 3

Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards has signed on Howard Dean's Internet guru.

Matthew Gross, who now lives in North Carolina, will go to work for Edwards' One America Committee.

Gross made his name as director of Internet Communications for Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, helping him raise more than $25 million online. Gross worked as Internet coordinator for U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles' campaign in 2004.

Leader in capital cases

Durham lawyer Mark Kleinschmidt is the new executive director of the Fair Trial Initiative, a legal group that recruits young lawyers to defend those facing the death penalty.

Kleinschmidt, 36, who also serves on the Chapel Hill Town Council, began Oct. 1. Previously, Kleinschmidt was a staff attorney with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, representing death row defendants on appeal and advising trial attorneys handling death row cases.

"I'm really excited about the opportunity. I'm able to continue being a capital litigator," Kleinschmidt said. "It creates this additional opportunity of teaching and mentoring -- that's what really attracted me to the job."

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BRIEFLY: U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, will be the keynote speaker when Democrats gather at the Grove Park Inn for their annual Vance-Aycock fundraising dinner in Asheville on Saturday. ... Ripley Rand has knocked on a lot of doors for his father, state Sen. Tony Rand. But over the weekend the powerful senator returned the favor, stumping in Raleigh for his son, a Superior Court Judge who is on the November ballot. ... Veteran lobbyist Marc Finlayson has gone to work as executive director of the Highway 17 Transportation Association, which pushes for improvements along the coastal highway.