Rep. Heath Shuler (D)

The congressman from the 11th District is Heath Shuler, a Democrat elected in 2006. The son of a mailman, Shuler grew up on Toot Hollow Road in tiny Bryson City, closer to the Tennessee line than to Asheville. He led Swain County High School to three state football championships and starred as quarterback at the University of Tennessee, where he was the 1993 runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. The Washington Redskins picked Shuler, then a college junior, third in the 1994 draft and first among quarterbacks. He played three disappointing seasons before being traded to the New Orleans Saints, where he injured his left foot when a 334-pound defensive tackle fell on him. He attempted a comeback, but was reinjured while playing for the Oakland Raiders. Despite the disappointments in his pro football career, Shuler remained a hero in Swain County and western North Carolina. He founded a successful real estate business in Knoxville, Tenn., with his brother and returned to North Carolina with his family in 2003. Shuler still cuts the figure of a professional athlete, wears his NFL alumni ring, and as in his playing days, does not smoke or drink alcohol or soda. Republicans in 2002 tried to get Shuler to run for public office, but he declined. Democrats aggressively recruited him in 2006 to run for Congress. Then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, allayed Shuler’s fears about missing time with his children by calling Shuler on his cellphone each time he dropped his own children off at school or attended their events.

Shuler challenged eight-term incumbent Charles Taylor, a Republican who had faced competitive races the past three elections. Taylor was weakened by his business dealings after two associates at a bank Taylor controlled pleaded guilty to bank-fraud charges. He was vulnerable on other fronts. Though he later blamed a glitch in the House electronic voting machine, Taylor did not show a recorded vote for the 2005 Central American Free Trade Agreement, which passed only narrowly. This was no small matter in the district, where trade pacts are blamed for the loss of textile jobs. Taylor sought to tie Shuler to national Democrats. “Rookie Heath Shuler is following the playbook of San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi,” claimed one radio ad. Shuler was not an easy target. He had no legislative record to mine for controversial votes, and his politics were in line with the socially conservative district. He campaigned on “mountain values,” opposing abortion rights, gay marriage, and gun control. Taylor, who was an Appropriations subcommittee “cardinal,” campaigned on his ability to bring home federal money. Then, in October, with polls showing Taylor trailing, The Wall Street Journal ran a story about spending earmarks sought by Taylor that had the effect of benefiting many of his own business interests. The incumbent poured $2.5 million of his own money into his race, and spent $4.4 million overall, compared with Shuler’s $1.8 million. But Shuler won 54%-46%, an impressive showing for a novice candidate against an incumbent.

In the House, Shuler joined the “Blue Dog” coalition of conservative Democrats, where he was outspoken for “pay-as-you-go” budgeting. He voted for the Democrats’ initial “100-hour” legislative agenda, except for lifting the ban on federal funding for embryonic-stem cell research. He dove into the immigration debate with a bill that emphasized toughening controls at the borders and requiring employers to use an Internet-based verification system to weed out illegal workers. Republicans supported Shuler’s bill, but it was extremely unpopular in his own party. The Hispanic Caucus condemned it, and Democratic leaders ignored his pleas to bring it to a vote. He had more success with small-business legislation. Although he was just a freshman, Shuler got the chairmanship of the Small Business Subcommittee on Rural and Urban Entrepreneurship, where he was able to pass a bill increasing the number of federal contracts awarded to small businesses. Congress also enacted his bill to increase investment in small producers of biofuels and other new, clean energy sources. But Shuler also attracted some negative publicity in his first term when The Knoxville News-Sentinel published a story in August 2008 saying that the Tennessee Valley Authority had approved lake access for a development group whose investors included Shuler, who also sits on the committee that oversees the TVA.

Expectations that he would face strong Republican opposition in 2008 evaporated. Taylor waited a long time before eventually deciding not to seek a rematch, and other potentially strong candidates took a pass as well. The Republican nominee, Asheville City Councilor Carl Mumpower, was poorly funded, got little national party support, and temporarily suspended his campaign. Shuler won easily, 62%-36%, taking all 15 counties.