Asheville City Council member and congressional candidate Cecil Bothwell has written the following statement concerning his Democratic primary opponent's reported interest in the athletic director job at the University of Tennessee. Click the link for more info on this issue.

Bothwell writes:

If true, Heath Shuler's job search is sad news for the Fourth of July weekend. The families of WNC are suffering record unemployment, bankruptcy, foreclosures, illness without health insurance, and hunger. We have every reason to hope that Representative Shuler has been working to create jobs for our region and America. Instead, he appears to be job-hunting himself.

According to news reports from the Washington Post, Politico, and the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Shuler wants to leave Congress and is actively seeking a job as Athletic Director at the University of Tennessee. Multiple news outlets have apparently been unable to reach our Congressman, but his spokesperson has not denied the report, while making much of Shuler's high dollar fundraising events.

One of these high-dollar fundraiser's hosted by Shuler will be a concert featuring Taylor Swift. But the average country music fan in Western North Carolina will have a hard time catching this show—Shuler booked her to play for his rich friends in Washington, D.C., not for his working class neighbors in WNC.

We all know that one of the most important jobs of an Athletic Director is fundraising and courting big-money boosters. Shuler's spokesperson has chosen to address the Tennessee rumor by focusing on his boss' campaign fundraising ability. Perhaps he's campaigning for the AD job in Tennessee.

If you elect me, you'll get a representative who will represent your interests, not mine. You'll get an FDR Democrat who will fight tooth and nail on your behalf. Not mine. I'll fight for jobs and a stronger economy for WNC because the hard working people of the 11th District need good jobs right here at home, not because it will help me land a high paying job in Tennessee.

I've called WNC home for more than 30 years, and there isn't enough gold in Fort Knox to pry me loose.