NC11: FEC filings and the DCCC's Response to Taylor's Dirty Ad

4/13/06 - 6/30/06
Charles Taylor:
Total Contributions (other than loans) 172,819.85
Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period 237924.47

Heath Shuler for Congress:
Total Contributions (other than loans) 313,563.84
Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period 668,745.43

Each candidate has now raised over a million dollars. Charles Taylor spent most of his trying to pay himself back for all the personal money he spent to smear Patsy Keever on television and radio in 2004. Heath Shuler has spent his building a ground game.

Charles Taylor released his first weird attack ad a week and a half ago (just after the FEC filing deadline closed, so subtract the cost of the ad buy from Taylor's Cash On Hand number). You can listen to it here. Taylor tries to tie the conservative Shuler to liberal House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, and then lies about Shuler's immigration stance while warning the people that illegal immigrants are somehow plotting to steal the election for Democrats.

Helping Shuler to keep his powder dry and his money in the bank, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is releasing an ad tomorrow, "The ads are part of Democrats' strategy to make that issue [the minimum wage] a centerpiece of this year's congressional campaigns. Democrats have focused on areas hard hit economically, contrasting nine years of inaction on the minimum wage with $31,000 in congressional pay raises over the same period."

Rather than respond directly to Taylor's disingenuous radio attacks, the DCCC is touting Republicans' inaction and hostility towards raising the federal minimum wage. Here in NC, the state government decided not to wait on federal changes and increased the state's minimum to $6.15/hour. Congressman Charles Taylor steadfastly refuses to support any rise in the minimum wage while Shuler is for the $7.25/hour minimum proposed by Congressional Democrats.

The Shuler/Taylor race is one of the DCCC's "Red to Blue" districts, and we can expect to see and hear a number of their ads throughout the campaign season. Taylor's only getting warmed up with his slime machine, and it appears he's going to be all immigration all the time in regards to his campaign issues. He certainly can't run on his support of President Bush, Tom Delay, or Jack Abramoff. Polls show that NC-11 is strongly in support of the draconian immigration legislation that passed the House, so it makes sense that Taylor will run hard at this issue. Shuler hasn't stated a position in any way opposing that House legislation, but that won't stop Taylor from trying to tar Shuler as pro-illegal immigrant.

Because Charles Taylor has a long history of lying about his opponents. It's part of who he is.

To read about the ongoing debate among Progressive, moderate, and conservative Democrats over Shuler's candidacy, visit the Unofficial Heath Shuler forum.

To read BlueNC's The Truth About Charles Taylor, click here.

To see a menu of ScruHoo posts on Taylor, click here.

To donate to the Shuler campaign, click here.

To check out the parody of Charles Taylor's campaign site (which hasn't been updated since 11/04), click here.