The editor of a conservative Asheville weekly says former U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor won't run again.
The Asheville Tribune wrote a two-part series about the longtime Republican Congressman, asking several times in several ways whether he would challenge Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler in a rematch.
Taylor didn't answer, according to a summary of the piece in the liberal Mountain Xpress. (The original piece is not online.) But editor Bill Fishburne added this comment to the end of the piece:
After hours of interviews, some laughter and some sad moments, and after multiple attempts to get an up or down, yes or no answer to our question about his candidacy, we are left to make up our own minds. ... Based on the sum of these insights, it is The Tribune's belief that Taylor will not be a candidate in the 2008 election.
In the meantime, the GOP primary just got more crowded.
Comments
Re: Asheville Tribune: Taylor won't run
October 31, 2007 - 1:32pm — ProsperoPerhaps John Armor, or "Congressman Billy Bob" as he's known in the national circle of those who read his well-written columns now and then, can actually surpass this geograhically large field.
He challenged Taylor in the 2006 primary, and as I recall, has a substantial private and political resume.
He certainly would make a strong challenger to Congressman Shuler should he show such results to the RNC's national "money people."
The DNC's "money people" are going to go all out to protect Shuler, regardless, as one of the many pieces they's successful taken behind the opposition's lines. by and large a geographically huge conservative territory, largely Republican since the Loyalist period during the Civil War.
Armor's non-traditional, or claims to be in a sort of "aw, shucks" Fred Thompson manner, but he's very intellegent.