Re-elect Charlie Norwood to 9th District U.S. Congress

Just in time for Tuesday's election, U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood was released this past week from a Virginia hospital where he had undergone a lung transplant.

He's recuperating at a home near the hospital, and as he puts it, is "looking forward ... to getting back to fighting for the hard-working Georgians of the 9th District."

Those Georgians should do their part to help with his recovery by re-electing Norwood to Congress on Tuesday.

Until the pending transplant forced him to live temporarily near the Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Va., Norwood was an Evans resident. His district sprawls across all or part of 26 Georgia counties, but Norwood has always been partial to his home county.

His community has responded by giving him strong support, with Columbia County vote tallies routinely coming in at better than 80 percent in his favor.

It's not just because Norwood is a nice, down-to-earth man, though he certainly is that. It's because his values and our values are the same.

Norwood has consistently supported our military, including fighting for Fort Gordon not just to survive the base-closing process, but to benefit from it. Norwood has been a strong advocate of strengthening our borders to prevent illegal immigration, and is working to empower law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws. And he has applied his own medical experience, as a retired dentist, to championing commonsense health-care, insurance and legal reforms.

Charlie Norwood is a strong conservative who says what he means, and his constituents know he means what he says -- shooting straight, no double-talk, no waffling. The Republican warhorse in the race of his political life right now, unable to spend a single day campaigning in his district because of his lung transplant that will soon give us back a healthier, stronger congressman.

In the meantime, Charlie Norwood needs an enthusiastic vote for his re-election, so he can focus on healing -- and then get back to work for his constituents.