“Pro-business” group buys $712,000 in anti-Shuler ads

Rep. Heath Shuler is facing a new challenge, as news emerged in the Washington Examiner that Americans for Job Security, a conservative, “pro-business” non-profit, is putting $712,000 into advertising opposing the two-term Democratic congressman.

The Examiner report, on three Democratic representatives the group is targeting with ad buys, notes that they’re spending “$712,000 against Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., a two-term Democrat in Asheville (NC-11) whom most people do not believe is terribly vulnerable this year. But with that kind of money-tide flowing against him, who knows? Just a few cycles ago, that was enough to fund a winning House campaign. In some districts—including his—it still is.”

Americans for Job Security, based in Alexandria, Va., declares on its website that it “is the only independent, bi-partisan, pro-business issue advocacy organization in America.” However, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics dubs it a “pro-Republican, pro-business organization… established to directly counter labor’s influence” in a 2004 report.

Polls in the race between Shuler and the Republican nominee, Hendersonville businessman Jeff Miller, have mostly been conducted by partisan groups, and given varying results. The political forecasting site FiveThirtyEight currently predicts that Shuler will win a fairly close race by about 51 to 47 percent. It rates the race as “takeover possible” for the GOP, estimating about a 32 percent chance of the 11th district changing hands.

— David Forbes, senior news reporter

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12 thoughts on ““Pro-business” group buys $712,000 in anti-Shuler ads

  1. spoutinghorn

    Of course, Democrats will hoot and howl over the “outsiders” trying to influence the election, but will remain silent when the Union Bosses authorize spending on behalf of the Empty Suit.

  2. Dan the independant

    Jeff Miller and the Republicans must think we’re not smart enough to pick our own representative without outsider help from them. Or they think we are dumb enough to be manipulated into forgetting all the good things Heath Shuler has done for the district. Let’s show them that money doesn’t buy everything-and not our votes!

  3. The Sunlight Foundation’s co-founder and Executive Director is Ellen S. Miller, who previously served as Deputy Director of the Campaign for America’s Future, where she directed its Project for an Accountable Congress. She also established the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics (which is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, the Joyce Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts) and Public Campaign (funded by the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Columbia Foundation, the Compton Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, the Ford Foundation, the JEHT Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy). Miller is the former publisher of TomPaine.com, a former fellow at The American Prospect, and an occasional contributor to The Nation.

    http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/funderprofile.asp?fndid=5377&category=79
    …………………..

  4. Lamont Cranston

    Time to hold my nose and once again vote for a candidate who voted against the Health Care Bill, is gainst Net Neutrality, D.A.D.T., Employee Free Choice Act, etc. and a whole host of our President’s legislation.

    P-ewe!

    It’s better to stay with the Devil you know, than go with the Devil you don’t know. Just say “No” to the sociopath, Tea Bagging/Republicans who only represent the top 2%, and not you and me.

    Are you listening, Heath?? This is the last call for……

  5. ironhead

    Golly. Does this mean Shuler isn’t sufficiently “pro-business” already? Hard to believe. I think they’re wasting their money–he may have (D) after his name, but he’s one of theirs.

  6. Bert

    As conservative as Heath Shuler has been, they are still so afraid of him that they are willing to spend this kind of money to get him out. I think that reveals quite a bit about the craziness of today’s Republican Party.

    Guess I’m going to get that clothespin on my liberal nose and vote for Heath this election day. Might as well go with someone who will throw a vote our way every now and then, then go with Miller who will just pick up destroying our mountains where Chainsaw Charles Taylor left off.

  7. Dionysis

    There may be less substance to the prospect of the Republicans re-taking the House than is warranted:

    “Tom Donohue, the powerful president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who has vowed to spend more than $75 million on key House and Senate races, has privately told colleagues in recent weeks he believes Democrats will just barely hold on to the House majority.

    Two sources familiar with the conversations said Donohue has privately said he’s gone over every single key race in the House, and he believes Republicans will lose a few seats — losses he believes they don’t see coming — because it is more of an anti-establishment election than an anti-Democratic election.”

    http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/22/chamber.president.gop.takeover/index.html

  8. Clyde Hunnicutt

    Seen the slick DC Beltway political attacks ads against Jeff Miller? It is obvious they were paid for by DNC money, or other national outsider sources. yet the MX ignores this. Hum, suppose MX is pulling for the democrats?

  9. Piffy!

    [b]There may be less substance to the prospect of the Republicans re-taking the House than is warranted:[/b]

    NOT winning actually serves them far better, Dio. With power, they have responsibility. As a minority party, they can pretend to not be complicit in the problems created years ago.

  10. Dionysis

    “NOT winning actually serves them far better, Dio. With power, they have responsibility. As a minority party, they can pretend to not be complicit in the problems created years ago”

    Excellent point!

  11. UnaffiliatedVoter

    Out of state democrats are sending $5-6 MILLION for Shuler to waste…

    Thank goodness it looks like Marxshall aint winning for the Senate either!

    WHERE is the NC Rep Susan Fisher campaign finance story in this publication???

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