Paul Shumaker's loyalties, outside of that to his own pocket, are often hard to ascertain.

As it has come out that Shumaker was the one involved in negotiating Burr's climbdown from going along with replacing the US Attorney investigating corruption allegations swirling around former Governor Easley.  A pliable Democrat replacement would have looked for every opportunity to sweep it under the rug.  This strongly suggests that he was in the thick on all policy decisions in Burr's office on the US Attorney replacement issue.  He is currently Burr's chief political consultant.

In 2006, as others have pointed out on TAP, Shumaker together with  disgraced former lobbyist Don Beason (he of the huge no-interest loan to Speaker Black) were the chief spear carriers in now imprisoned former Speaker Black's efforts to thwart use of mounting evidence of Black's corruption by GOP campaigns in the 2006 legislative elections.  If used effectively, the corruption issue could have well overturned Democrat majorities in both house of the legislature.  It was probably the most powerful weapon in the GOP's issues arsenal in recent times.  Beason and Shumaker, it seems, told GOP legislative and party leaders that if the GOP used that issue, then a significant list of major PAC's would cut off all contributions to GOP candidates.  Both Beason and Shumaker, both of whom worked in the Martin admiinistration, are registered Republicans but are major RINO's. It is unknown if they have actually lined up those PAC's to do that or if this was just a bluff.  Because the GOP had weaklings in both major party and major legislative positions, these ''leaders'' caved and the GOP was sandbagged on using this nuclear weapon of a political issue.  Black and the Democrat establishment's chestnuts were pulled out of the fire.  In this episode, Shumaker was clearly working against the interests of Republicans and was a spear carrier for Democrat establishment interests.

Was he doing the very same thing in trying to sandbag the US Attorney investigation of Easley, also to benefit the Democrat establishment? What exactly did he do as a campaign insider in formulating Burr's original policy?  It is the Raleigh Democrat establishment that would have benefitted if Burr had stayed on course, far more than the Obama crowd in DC.

Hooray for Burr for figuring out that he was being used and changing his position.