The election and the voter revolt that ended a 12-year Republican reign in Congress dominated government and political news in 2006. For Western North Carolina, the electorate’s unhappiness manifested itself in the election of a political newcomer to the 11th District seat in Congress. Democrat Heath Shuler, a former NFL quarterback and owner of a real estate business, defeated eight-term incumbent Charles Taylor, a Brevard Republican who chaired the powerful House Appropriations Interior Sub-committee. Despite Taylor’s ability to bring federal money into our long-deprived district, voters saw him as part of an ineffective Congress mired in scandals. The GOP’s failure to exercise oversight of the war in Iraq and to establish tax, trade and health care policies supportive of a healthy middle-class cost them dearly. In state government, ethics scandals failed to unseat House Speaker Jim Black but would likely have cost him his job as speaker if he hadn’t decided not to seek the post again. A number of other important transitions occurred in 2006. (more…)