Football Star Mike Minter Meets The NRCC And Promptly Declines To Run For Congress

You may have noticed that a couple weeks ago I was worried that the GOP had actually managed to recruit a top tier candidate somewhere-- and in a crucial race no less. Well-liked ex-football star, Mike Minter, was making noises about running against Larry Kissell in North Carolina. He went up to DC and met with Pete Sessions and his crew of desperate losers at the NRCC. Kissell doesn't have much money and the NRCC promised Minter that they'd break open the piggy bank if he ran. Friday we reported the rumor that Minter was so unimpressed with the NRCC that he actually changed his mind about running!

Well, today Roll Call confirmed the rumor, although they didn't mention that Minter thought Sessions was the stupidest honky glad-hander he'd ever met in his life.

After coming to Washington, D.C., earlier this month to discuss his possible candidacy with the National Republican Congressional Committee, former Carolina Panthers star safety Mike Minter has decided to pass on the race, a spokeswoman said last week.

Minter had contemplated challenging freshman Rep. Larry Kissell (D) in his Charlotte-based district. While Kissell took 55 percent against then-Rep. Robin Hayes (R) last November, President Barack Obama carried the district with just 52 percent. Some Republicans believed that Minter, who is black, would have performed well and would have been able to cut into Kissell’s base in the district, which has a nearly 27 percent black population.

The NRCC has been trying to recruit viable candidates in Republican-leaning-- and even solidly red-- districts, but they keep getting the doors slammed in their face. Idaho Treasurer Ron Crane backed off running against the weakest Democrat in the House, Blue Dog Walt Minnick, in a district where Obama only won 36% of the vote. McCain also won in the central Florida district represented by Suzanne Kosmas but the head of the Florida Republican Party, Jim Greer, begged off even after the NRCC told him that he's the only Republican with a shot at beating her. State Rep Adam Hasner was sniffing around Ron Klein's district but the second he figured out that Klein wasn't going to run for the Senate, he stopped taking the NRCC's calls. And any hopes the GOP had to take back the huge New Jersey CD that stretches from the Philly suburbs through Burlington and Ocean counties to the Atlantic Ocean, were sunk when prospective self-funding multimillionaire John Culbertson begged off.

Instead the Republicans are going to wind up with a gaggle of KKK and lunatic fringe nutcases as their 2010 candidates which will further weaken the already dim prospects of statewide candidates for the Senate like Richard Burr (ID), Jim Bunning (KY), Charie Crist or Marco Rubio (FL), Rob Portman (OH), Roy Blunt (MO) and the rest of their sad-sack cases.

Larry Kissell Could Be Facing A Serious Challenge From Mike Minter

Last year the candidate who Blue America spent the most money for was Larry Kissell in North Carolina. In a district where Obama beat McCain 53-47%, Larry, a high school civics teacher, ousted long time multimillionaire incumbent Robin Hayes 55-45%, a great turnaround after the closest race in the country in 2006. Immediately approached by the Blue Dogs, because of the nature of his district, Larry politely begged off and declined to align himself with the conservative Democratic caucus which is so powerful in North Carolina. According to Progressive Punch his all-around score so far this year is 90.91, unpredictably better than Connecticut's Jim Himes (87.41) but not as strong as Virginia's Gerry Connolly (95.62), two freshmen who we had very different expectations from.

Anyway, we've been laughing about how the Republicans are falling on their face across the country when it comes to recruiting first tier congressional candidates. Every few days you see more and more tough local political figures telling the NRCC "thanks but no thanks." Unfortunately that hasn't happened in NC-08, at least not yet, and Larry may face one of the strongest challengers of any of the freshmen we backed in 2008.

Mike Minter is a 35 year old African-American Republican who was a star safety for 10 seasons with the North Carolina Panthers. (He wasn't some laughing stock football player like Heath Shuler either; he was a genuine star with huge positive name recognition.) Thursday's Raleigh News & Observer reported that he's seriously considering entering the race, speaking to the press after a trip to visit the NRCC.

The PVI in the district is R+2, not as bad as Shuler's district's R+6 or Mike McIntyre's R+5 but, remember, both Shuler and McIntrye vote with the Republicans as a matter of course. Larry votes like the Democrat he is. The district is about 27% African-American which, because of Obama's presence on the top of the ticket helped Larry win last year, but might not be as big a factor this year because of a lighter turnout and because of Minter's personal popularity in the community.

My biggest worry is that Larry hasn't been an avid fundraiser. He spends a great deal of time on being a conscientious congressman and not very much kissing up to special interests who finance campaigns. Last year he won because of grassroots donations. If you could help again, it would be very much appreciated. You can do it here at Blue America.