Larry Kissell, the 8th Congressional District Democratic incumbent, has a staffing problem.
First it was Nancy Shakir, a campaign volunteer for Kissell’s unsuccessful congressional bid in 2006. She took on her former boss in the Democrats’ primary this year, earning a respectable 37 percent of the vote. The reason for her candidacy: Kissell isn’t liberal enough.
Now, The Washington Post reports that a union has fielded an ex-Kissell staffer to face him as an independent in the General Election:
The Service Employees International Union and its North Carolina affiliate did not gather the 85,000 signatures by Tuesday’s deadline [to establish a third party]. But organizers said they are drafting an independent candidate to challenge Rep. Larry Kissell, a first-term Democrat from a swing district who voted against the [health care] bill.
Organizers have recruited Wendell Fant, a registered Democrat and a former aide in Kissell’s district office who said he was forced to resign over an ethics dispute, to run against his old boss. Democratic officials say the move could effectively hand the seat to a Republican.
As if that weren’t enough to please political pundits, junkies, and reporters, we have Tim “machine gun social” D’Annunzio.
