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The Power of Mumpower

When I ran for Asheville City Council 7 years ago, one of my opponents was Dr. Carl Mumpower. He won, I lost. "Dr. No", as he's come to be known for his resistance to creeping collectivism on the city council, has secured the Republican nomination for Congress and is using it as a bully-pulpit to demand that Republicans adhere to their stated principles. As the Wall Street Journal reports:

Carl Mumpower dropped all campaign activity against first-term Democrat Shuler in North Carolina’s 11th district until Republican Party committees in at least half of the district’s 15 counties sign on to the GOP’s “core principles” and agree to work against elected Republicans who stray from them. “I had to find some way to get their attention,” Mumpower said. “To tell them, ‘I’ve got the wheel guys. We’re on my watch now.’

In a letter to the 11th District GOP chairman, he explained that the he considers that standing for principles is "Job One" and getting elected only follows after this task has been accomplished.

The New Republic captured the outrage of establishment Republicans:

I would hope that "Mumpower!" becomes a dirty word around the NRCC offices, since it's one thing for a token opponent in an uncompetitive district to pitch this kind of ideological tantrum, but Shuler's conservative district ought to have been a good chance for a GOP turnover.
But the status quo has lost to the power of Mumpower's principles. The campaign is reporting that a majority of the county GOP committees have adopted his "Principles First" program.

While Mumpower has talked about "Principles Not Politics" ever since I first encountered him, campaign insiders tell me that Mumpower has been reading Ron Paul's "Revolution: A Manifesto" and this has even further emboldened him.

The power of Mumpower is that when one person is willing to put himself on the line and buck the status quo, others realize that they too must stand up for what is right. Otherwise, we all die, whimpering for mercy.

It's a revolution, after all.

/KDR

Addendum: 12pm. Leonard Harris passes along an amusing candidate cartoon about how challengers take down incumbents. Mumpower's next move?


Posted by Kevin D. Rollins on July 18, 2008 10:55 AM |

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