Charles Taylor has a motivated challenger in the Republican primary for NC-11. John Armor of Highlands, NC announced his candidacy at the Free Republic under his blogonym, Congressman BillyBob. Taylor's fundraising, while sizable, has been used to pay off the $850,000 of his own money he sank into the '04 race. He's got only $18,000 in his campaign's account, this has raised questions of whether he will even run in this cycle.
Armor, a Yale graduate, wrote in his "Why I'm Not Running, 2004", "I will maintain my Exploratory Committee, only the target will be 2006 rather than 2004. Instead of taking a mere six months to prepare, I will take two years." He's All-But-Dissertation for a doctoral degree in Public Policy and the author of six books including "Why Term Limits? Because They Have It Coming".
Armor isn't alone in his efforts, "Two of my political "teachers" will, I hope, be deeply involved in my campaign -- once I accomplish the preliminary tasks and officially declare. One is Bob Carleson, who served in the Reagan Administrations in Sacramento and in Washington. The other is Dick Kamin, a Republican leader in the New Jersey Assembly, later an official in the Whitman Administration, now co-Chair of the New Jersey GOP."Bob Carleson was a figure in the homophobic culture war over Boy Scouts allowing gay members. Dick Kamin was once at the center of a DMV controversy in New Jersey when he served as Director.
Armor's website has a lot of content, including specific issue and policy statements. Here's another list of his political writings. He's verbose and wide open, running on the environment, transportation, agriculture, and education.
If Taylor is going to run a campaign, he's got to start raising more money. Mr. Armor, flanked as he is by stalwarts from the right may be able to pull together a real campaign. If so, Taylor's campaign fund will dwindle while Democrat Heath Shuler's warchest heads towards the half-million mark.John Armor, Scrutiny Hooligans hope you run a spirited campaign for the betterment of our district. We welcome your voice and plan to beat the pants off of you in November, should you last so long.
8 comments:
Good luck in the primary, John. I think you should consider running as an independent if it doesn't work out.
BTW, what is your position on Cosmic Bowling?
Perhaps we should invite Armor into "our" living room, Screwy?
hi john! glad to see someone throwing their hat in the ring for the gop primary here in the eleventh - we'll have to see if you're going to run opposed, as the filing deadline is the 28th and we haven't heard officially whether or not taylor is actually going to run. i'm pretty sure he will, though - it'd be in his financial best interest to stay in office and maintain some sort of immunity to avoid being arrested for tax evasion.
if i were registered as a republican, you'd have my vote in may... :)
EM,
Our living room is certainly spacious enough to accomodate Mr. Armor. I wonder if his mind is broad enough to accomodate our views?
or if his hook is strong enough to beat the pants off us at cosmic bowling? :)
Hey BlogAsheville, What do you say we invite Mr. Armor for an evening of idea sharing? I've got this great living room we could use, or we could make it a night on the town.
What say you?
im game, screwy!
i'm curious as well... i'll talk to you a little more about this off-line, but i'm curious enough to want to hear more.
maybe he can come down the hill this thursday for dl? :)
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