George E. B. Holding, the former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, is out raising his chief rival for the Republican nomination in the race to represent the state’s 13th Congressional District.
Holding has raised $465,000 for his campaign, nearly four times as much as Paul Goble, a Wake County commissioner and former mayor of Raleigh, according to a report in The News & Observer of North Carolina. They are vying for the seat now held by Rep. Brad Miller, a Democrat who is not seeking re-election.
Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C), the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has accused Holding of prosecuting him to advance his own political career. Holding was associated with the late Sen. Jesse Helms, a combative conservative whose North Carolina political network often battled Edwards. Indeed, the man Edwards beat in 1998 to win his Senate seat, Lauch Faircloth, is among the recent donors to Holding, giving $2000 to Holding’s congressional bid, the newspaper reported.
Edwards is accused of using about $1 million in undisclosed payments from his campaign finance chairman and a wealthy 98-year-old widow to cover up an affair during his 2008 run for the White House, as Main Justice has reported. Holding has touted the criminal case he built against Edwards in his campaign.
Edwards has pleaded not guilty. His trial has been delayed as he receives treatment for a heart ailment.
