Patsy Keever: I’ll run for Congress in the 10th District if redistricting maps hold

Statehouse Rep. Patsy Keever confirmed today, Nov. 18, via a message on her Facebook page, that she’s planning to run for Congress in the 10th District if the redistricting maps proposed by the General Assembly become law ahead of the February 2012 filing deadline. Earlier this summer, she had said she would consider a run. If so, she would face Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy in the Democratic primary.

Before being elected to represent Buncombe County in the N.C. Statehouse last year, Keever had previously served three consecutive terms on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. She ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2004, losing in the 11th District to incumbent Republican Charles Taylor. She spent her career working as a Buncombe County public school teacher.

Patsy Keever’s Facebook announcement:

Yes, I am still planning to run for Congress in the 10th District against Patrick McHenry if the redistricting maps hold and I am drawn out of my NC House district. Since Terry Bellamy announced, I’ve had so many questions from people who knew I was planning to run that I figured I better let everyone know. Her announcement doesn’t change my plans.

The redistricting plans, proposed by the first first Republican-controlled General Assembly in 140 years, placed Democratic Reps. Susan Fisher and Keever in the same Statehouse district (the 114th, which now includes most of Asheville), potentially pitting them against each other in a primary next year. However, Keever has said that she supports Fisher and wouldn’t challenge her to represent that district.

The plan also shifts almost all of Asheville’s reliably Democratic voters from the 11th District, currently represented by Democrat Heath Shuler, to the conservative 10th, presently the domain of Republican Patrick McHenry. Although McHenry said the redistricting wasn’t his choice at a recent meeting of conservative Asheville business leaders, Politico reported earlier this year that he was North Carolina’s congressional point person on the plans.

The political goal, according to Roger Hartley, director of Western Carolina University’s Master of Public Affairs Program, is to siphon off enough Democrats from Shuler’s district to make him vulnerable while maintaining McHenry’s solid base in the 10th. “These maps are fantastic for Republicans,” he explained. “They’ve drawn the districts in a way that they’re going to have opportunities to get both seats.”

Consistently rated one of the most conservative members of Congress, powerful four-term incumbent McHenry has been the top recipient in the House of contributions from finance and credit companies since his last relelection, with that sector giving him $63,000 so far for the 2012 election cycle, according the the Carolina Public Press.

 

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About Jake Frankel
Jake Frankel is an award-winning journalist who enjoys covering a wide range of topics, from politics and government to business, education and entertainment.

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3 thoughts on “Patsy Keever: I’ll run for Congress in the 10th District if redistricting maps hold

  1. Viking

    I think Keever and Fisher are good people. But by and large we have the worst politicians in the world in WNC.

    the Federal WNC Judicial district, used for all kinds of criteria, runs north from Charlotte and encompasses Asheville. Thus, WNC really doesn’t begin at Asheville city limits.

    We have next to lowest Federal per capita spending. Shuler hasn’t changed that (no journalists have checked since Taylor) and Foxx, McHenry and Myrick only compound the filth.

    Mel Watt? Who is he? What has he said or done in DC that stands out from the crowd in recent years?

  2. This makes four Dems in the 10th race.

    Democrats Timothy Murphy of Rutherford County and Heath Wynn of Caldwell County have also filed campaign reports with the FEC.

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