Big names put Western N.C. race on the map

If political contests can be judged by the attention they attract, the steep, winding roads of North Carolina's mountains are the Tar Heel equivalent of Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue.

First lady Laura Bush is planning a trip to the mountains this week to pump up U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, a Republican veteran who is fighting a challenge from a former NFL quarterback, Heath Shuler. The parade of Democrats who have campaigned with Shuler includes former Gov. Jim Hunt and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards.

Big names and big money are all at work in the 11th Congressional District, which has emerged as important terrain in the two parties' fight for control of Congress. With the national mood working against Republicans who control Congress and the White House, Democrats see a chance to take over the U.S. House for the first time in a dozen years, while Republicans are working to hang on to their majority.

Democrats have gone after Taylor for years, only to be disappointed on election night. The district's registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, but the district tends to go more for GOP candidates. President Bush won the district two years ago with nearly 59 percent of vote.

But Shuler is an atypical Democrat. He espouses what he calls "mountain values" and talks about his religious faith and his pro-gun and anti-abortion views. When he lived in Tennessee, Republicans tried to recruit him to run for office on their side.

Shuler, who built a successful real estate development company in Tennessee, benefits from his status as a former college football star who grew up in the district.

From a meeting with an informal breakfast club to an auto shop visit with a former NASCAR champion and his friends, admirers encircled Shuler to hear him talk football, bird dogs and NASCAR. He threw in a little political talk about veterans' health care, and some back and forth about early voting.

Shuler has won over voters who shun other Democrats.

Independent polls in September and October showed Shuler leading in the district, which includes the counties where the state trails off to a point at the Tennessee and Georgia borders, by 8 points and 11 points.

"Heath is a breath of fresh air," said John Powers, pastor of a church in Jackson County. Powers said he has voted for Republican candidates over the years, including Taylor.

"I didn't always feel the Democratic candidates represented my core beliefs," Powers said. But he is strongly in favor of Shuler this year, the candidate Powers sees reflecting "issues of morality."

Taylor, 65, spent a few days last week posing with giant, fake checks, symbols of federal grants and loans coming to the district. The trip highlighted Taylor's advantage as a powerful incumbent who can send federal money home.

Taylor and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr talked about the importance of federal money for affordable housing, small business loans and emergency rescue trucks.

Taylor, a banker and timber producer, is chairman of a House budget subcommittee on the interior, environment and related agencies.

"He's a powerful guy," Burr told a crowd of about 50 in Asheville. Taylor's subcommittee chairmanship, Burr said, "means that North Carolina is better off."

Taylor is in a tough fight to keep his seat in part because of ethical questions that have dogged him for years. The former president of a savings and loan Taylor controlled pleaded guilty in 2001 to bank fraud and money laundering over a series of fraudulent loans made to a prominent Taylor supporter. That supporter, Charles E. Cagle of Sylva, pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Both men said Taylor knew the loans might be illegal, which the congressman denied.