HARRISBURG, N.C. -- Republican Lou Huddleston marched briskly through a Harrisburg subdivision this week, executing his campaign plan with accustomed military precision.
Trailed by an aide with names and addresses, he knocked on doors of likely voters. If no one answered after one minute, he would leave a brochure with a handwritten note, one of 200 he writes every night.
Such attention to detail doesn't surprise people who worked with Huddleston during his 31-year Army career.
"He is a ferociously hard worker and focused person," says retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served with then-Col. Huddleston in Panama. "He is relentless. He's a not a backslapper. ... He puts his eye on a target and works very diligently to get there."
Huddleston, 59, is one of six Republicans running for the 8th Congressional District seat held by Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell.
He describes himself as a lifelong conservative. His platform calls for less government spending, stronger national security and upholding "traditional North Carolina values." He emphasizes his six-year business record as much as his Army career.
"I am not," he insists, "the military candidate."
But the buzz-cut Huddleston is a self-described Army brat. Born at Fort Bragg, his life has revolved around the Army. His military career, he says, has given him the tools and insider familiarity to be effective in Washington.
After retiring in 2003, Huddleston went to work in the national security division for an Ohio-based nonprofit and later returned to his native Fayetteville as an executive with a communications company.
"He seems to have a real ability to think strategically ... and plan well ahead," says Andrew Ziegler, chairman of the political science department at Fayetteville's Methodist University and a former Army colleague. "He makes decisions very deliberately."
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