Mumpower Campaign Heads for Self-Destruct Mode [FR's Congressman Billybob]

Mumpower Campaign Heads for Self-Destruct Mode

The Mumpower Campaign put out a News Release, misdated as March 28, which congratulated John Armor for winning the straw poll at the Macon County Convention, held on 29 March in Franklin. What Carl Mumpower failed to do was figure out why this occurred.

"Long ago, at the beginning of my career as a lawyer, I did trial work. I made a point of talking with jurors after the case was over and they were released, to find out what motivated their decisions," said Mr. Armor. "I did the same thing at the Macon County Convention, and I did not win -- taking more votes than Carl Mumpower and Spence Campbell together -- because I was a home-town boy."

Mr. Armor and his fiancee, Michelle Mead, talked personally with about a third of all the Convention delegates who cast 32 votes for Armor, 19 votes for Mumpower, and 11 votes for Spence Campbell. "We found ten people who, before the candidates' debate, were wearing Mumpower buttons and intending to vote for him. During the debate, they changed to Armor." Without those changes, Mumpower would have won with 29 votes, and Armor would have had 22 votes.

Was there a particular issue which drove this change? Yes. Both the Republican leaders and rank and file were adamantly opposed to one Mumpower position. That was his opposition to the renewal of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). In three press releases just before Easter, and in a debate taped at URTV in Asheville, and again at this debate, Carl Mumpower insisted that the Bill of Rights of our Constitution applies outside our borders, and applies to people who are not citizens.

That is the position of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. It is also the position of the ACLU, which Mr. Armor has opposed in court for more than 20 years. As Armor said in this debate, "if Mumpower's FISA position prevails, Americans will be killed as a result. It is only a matter of when and how many." Apparently, this particular issue drove most of the vote switches from Mumpower to Armor.

Based on how strongly Republicans oppose this Mumpower position, the Republican primary may shortly become a two-person race between Armor and Campbell. Reporters are encouraged to ask Republicans, especially leaders, whether they consider the Mumpower FISA position to be the kiss of death to his campaign.

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John Armor
Highlands, NC

What’s the status of the campaign?

Up and running strong!

When will it be determined whether Congressman Billybob will be on the ballot as the Republican candidate (or not, which I pray won’t be the case)?

The North Carolina primary is on Tuesday, May 6.

What are the political demographics of his district...IOW, does getting the Republican nomination almost guarantee a win, or will it likely be a hard-fought contest with the Dem?

(You've opened a can of worms by asking me this, so forgive the long response.)

It won't be a cake walk for the Republican nominee, but it is very winnable. The district is very conservative, and votes for Republicans for president, but as Heath Shuler proved, they can vote for a Democrat when he's a local celebrity, talks like a conservative, has no voting record to hold against him and has a lousy, corrupt, opponent.

Now that Heath has a voting record that is clearly liberal on most issues, he has a major weakness that can be exploited. It will be difficult for him to paint his actions in Washington over the past year as being conservative. And then there's the rumor that he's going to pledge his superdelegate vote to Barack Obama; I'm sure that will hurt him greatly outside of the university kids in Asheville.

As to whether or not Heath will have a lousy opponent, however, I think he has two potential opponents that would fit that description and assure his return to Congress; and then on the other hand there's John.

And I don't say that because John Armor is a Freeper. I reviewed all the candidates before making a decision and my case for John over his primary opponents came to this:

-John Armor has a phenomenal resume, and a much better presentation than his two opponents (watch the debates, two of which are on John's Youtube channel, and you'll see exactly what I mean.
-Carl Mumpower has served a few terms on Asheville city council, the lone conservative there, thus the die-hard following he has in that city among conservatives. His presentation plays well to those die-hards, but to everyone else he looks like he's sleepwalking. He also has one foot in with the Ron Paul camp on national security issues, which also makes him a very likely loser against Shuler, who would be to his right on FISA.
-Spence Campbell's resume consists of military experience and being a county GOP party head. Not at all a good presentation. The only thing he seems to have going for him is his Google ads, if I may be so blunt.

It will be interesting to see how things work out. As you can tell from this post, the ping list and the tag line, I'm rooting hard for John Armor.

I agree with all that MitchellC said, but I add this: The District is about 40% Democrat, 39% Republican, and 21% independent. However, many of the independents and some of the Democrats are staunch conservatives, so this District has voted for Republicans for President, Senate and House for almost 20 years, until Shuler knocked off Taylor in 2006.

A solid Republican conservative SHOULD defeat Shuler in the general. The harder part is for me to win the primary. I have the qualifications. I need men and horses.

John / Billybob

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