U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler may already have a 2010 challenger.

An unsigned editorial in the Burlington Times-News repeats — a little skeptically — the recent talk about Shuler potentially facing off against U.S. Sen. Richard Burr in two years.

To be sure, Shuler has had star power and attractiveness as a candidate for bigger things ever since his stunning upset of Taylor. A teetotaling pro-life Democrat, Shuler hews to the middle in his votes and his public life. He recently was honored by the National Federation of Small Business for his pro-business voting record. The NRA likes him.

But Burr is no pushover. He's reliably conservative and has seldom strayed from the Bush position but he is no ideologue. He has made his mark working across party lines on several issues, among them reform of the National Institutes of Health spending and creation of an agency to fight bioterrorism.

The paper adds that Henderson County Sheriff George Erwin, the Western North Carolina campaign coordinator for former GOP gubernatorial candidate Fred Smith, is "seriously looking" at running for Shuler's Congressional seat.

Fred Smith lost a straw poll at Blue Ridge Community College following a debate there Wednesday, the Times-News reports.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory received the most votes with 44 percent, while Smith received 33 percent.

The outcome of the poll was surprising, considering Smith won the straw poll at the college earlier that day, before the debate.

Smith has won convincingly in straw polls in Buncombe and Henderson counties before last night.

George Erwin, former Henderson County sheriff and Smith's campaign coordinator for the western part of the state, contests the poll.

Erwin said he participated in the first straw poll before the debate, but afterwards wasn't aware of another poll.