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Keadle aims for Congress

By Jim McNally | Statesville R&L

Published: October 14, 2009

Iredell County Commissioner Scott Keadle is running for the U.S. Congress.

In an interview with the R&L, Keadle, a Republican, said he will run for the 10th District seat.

To do that, however, he will likely have to get past three-term incumbent Rep. Patrick McHenry in a GOP primary next spring.

"I'm running because I feel like our country is on the wrong track," Keadle said. "And I've got the capability and the will to help put it back on the right track."

Keadle is no stranger to tough primaries.

In 1998, he beat out some heavy hitters — including Mecklenburg County Commission Chairman Tom Bush and former Rowan County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jim Cohen — in a Republican primary for the 12th Congressional District seat.

Keadle — a dentist with a practice in Salisbury — would later lose that general election race to Rep. Mel Watt, a Democrat who has held the 12th District seat since it was re-established in 1992.

In 2000, Keadle won a GOP primary in a run he made for a seat in the North Carolina Senate.

And Keadle emerged from a Republican primary last year before winning his at-large seat on the Iredell County Board of Commissioners.

"Everybody has counted me out of these primaries right until the day I won them," he said. "People still say, 'Keadle can't win.' Well, I'm used to that. And I intend to win this race."

Keadle said he is passionate about his forthcoming House seat run.

"I think the folks who have been in Congress have not gotten the job done," he said. "And I think it's time we have citizen legislators representing us. I mean people who have lived real lives and worked in real jobs."

To that end, Keadle said that he has signed a pledge to run for only two subsequent terms, if he is elected, and to eschew the congressional pension.

"I believe all career politicians should be returned to what is left of the economy and the job market in their district," Keadle in an e-mail statement about his candidacy. "So they understand firsthand what the words unemployment, short-time, furlough, and COBRA payments mean."

Keadle made his announcement to the R&L in advance of filing his campaign contributions with the Federal Election Commission, which has a deadline of 12 a.m. Friday morning.