Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) has been largely absent on the campaign trail back home in North Carolina so far in this election. But he's not been absent in the local headlines, and boy, has it been brutal for him.
Here's the capper, the front page of the Raleigh News & Observer with the blaring headline: “NC senator who champions fossil fuels happened to get industry money for 20 years.” Because everybody sure does love the fossil fuel industry!
The coal, oil and natural gas industries, along with executives and lobbyists for electric utilities and nuclear power companies that Burr also has supported, have rewarded him with nearly $1.7 million in campaign donations since he first won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1994, according to a McClatchy analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics and the watchdog group Oil Change International. […]
In the past, he has said that financial support from business interests hasn’t compromised his independence – not while he raised $8.3 million through June 30 toward this year’s race against Democrat Deborah Ross, nor as his campaigns amassed more than $34 million over his congressional career.
“Sen. Burr evaluates all legislation and policy positions on their merits,” said his spokeswoman, Becca Glover Watkins. “Of course, outside groups never dictate his votes or positions.”
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And the fact that he was sent on two expense-paid "fact-finding" trips to France and Spain when we was in the House for the nuclear industry’s lobbying operation, the Nuclear Energy Institute doesn't mean he's cozy with them. No not at all. The $18,400 for Burr and his wife to spend 8 days in Paris and Marseille, and the $17,000 for the couple to spend 5 days in Barcelona and Seville was all about Burr making good decisions about energy regulation for the country.
That front page story wasn't the only bad one for Burr this week, though. The Winston-Salem Journal wrote about how Burr "has supported a sustained Republican effort to control the purse strings of the federal consumer watchdog agency that recently fined Wells Fargo $100 million, an effort that law experts say would allow Congress to weaken the agency." So why is Burr so committed to weakening an agency that has done so much good for American consumers?
Then there's the McClatchy story about an attack from Democrat Deborah Ross about Burr's support for "trade deals and tax breaks that contributed to the out-sourcing of jobs." It's a well-detailed list of how he "voted five times to protect tax breaks for corporations that moved plants and jobs overseas, “and accepted significant campaign contributions from the very companies that shipped jobs away"; "supported nine different trade agreements that hurt North Carolina workers"; and opposed trade assistance that would help provide retraining for workers whose jobs have been lost to out-sourcing. They're solid hits, but this is the killer line for Burr: "Burr’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment." That’s not good.
Meanwhile, here's this week's headline from the AP for Ross: "Unheralded NC Democrat's surge threatens GOP's Burr." That's some pretty darned good press.