Carolina Politics Online

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr on Saturday urged Charlotte-area Republicans to “mobilize an army” to change the direction of the country from Washington “to the courthouse.”

“We have a tremendous opportunity in 2010 not just at the federal level to have a change in direction but in the state … all the way down to the courthouse,” he told more than 200 people at a GOP rally in east Charlotte.

Charlotte Observer

It’s difficult for me to take Richard Burr seriously when he calls for change in Washington.  Granted the deficits we are now seeing dwarf any of Bush’s deficits, but in Bush’s day the deficits he ran up were historical at the time as well.  Where was the call from Richard Burr to control spending when his own party controlled the purse strings?  It’s funny how politicians suddenly have a change of heart about the issues when the opposition is in control.

Elaine Marshall is out there telling quite a whopper about Senator Richard Burr’s positions on the issues.  You might have noticed that about two weeks ago President Obama suddenly started chiming in about how Democrats need to retain control of Congress to keep Republicans from privatizing Social Security.  You may have also asked yourself, where in the hell did that come from?  Nobody in the GOP has been talking about taking up this issue.  Obama completely invented it and members of his party are now following him in kind.  Enter Elaine Marshall.

Marshall “tweeted” this comment a few days ago:

I will always protect Social Security, and fight against @BurrforSenate’s risky scheme to privatize it: http://cot.ag/a1Hcnv #ncSEN #p2

What risky scheme is Senator Burr conjuring up?  Well, that’s just it.  He isn’t.  Tootsie is quoting a comment recently made to a newspaper by Burr where he said he does not plan on doing anything different if he is reelected.  Because Burr supported President Bush’s partial privatization plan of Social Security in 2005, she makes quite a stretch to connect his comments in the newspaper to some imaginary conspiracy to privatize Social Security.  It’s a flat out lie.  That aside, Bush never tried to privatize Social Security.  He wanted to offer workers under 55 the option of investing 4% of their FICA taxes in a private account.

Richard Burr has been adequate Senator at best, not bad, but certainly not what I would consider to be all that stellar either.  That Elaine Marshall and the President have to resort to the same old Social Security fearmongering to try and scare old people into voting for them again is a sign of their desperation.  The American people are rolling out the guillotine for them on November 2nd and they know it.

It’s been known for a long time now that Social Security is on a crash course with insolvency.  In fact, it’s in the red for the first time this year. The Baby Boomers are starting to retire and there are far more of them and the prior generation who will be collecting from the program than there have been in the past.  There aren’t enough younger workers contributing to this Ponzi Scheme to keep it afloat.  So what does Elaine Marshal propose to do then to protect it?  The answer is absolutely nothing.

In this campaign, I’ve outlined my plan to protect Social Security:

• Fight against cuts – ensure seniors get the full benefits they deserve
• Protect hard working folks by fighting against raising the retirement age
• Tell Washington to stop raiding the Social Security Trust Fund

She doesn’t want any cuts and she doesn’t want to raise the retirement age even though people are living far longer than they were 75 years ago when the program began.  As far as the alleged trust fund, that was raided years ago.  It’s gone.  So what’s left?  Raising the FICA tax?  It’s already 15%.  Why shouldn’t the Baby Boomers get their coming benefits cut?  It was they, after all, who voted for all of these politicians year after year who raided all of their Social Security dollars so it would seem to me they are just realizing the fruits of their very poor voting decisions.

The bottom line is Marshall supports the status quo, which will end in a fiscal boondoggle, and to deflect from that she is dispatching the typical Social Security Bogeyman that her party drums up every election year.  Nothing new to see here.

H/T to High Minded Commentary

RALEIGH, N.C. – A prestigious North Carolina private college cannot have police officers with the power to arrest suspects and enforce state law because the school is a religious institution, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

A three-judge panel agreed that the state Attorney General’s Office shouldn’t have commissioned Davidson College officers as law enforcement with powers similar to city police or county sheriffs. An attorney familiar with the case said it may apply to other private colleges with religious affiliations.

Allowing the school’s security officers to carry out laws on behalf of the state violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against laws establishing religion by creating “an excessive government entanglement with religion,” Judge Jim Wynn wrote in the unanimous opinion.

The police power “is an unconstitutional delegation of ‘an important discretionary governmental power’ to a religious institution in the context of the First Amendment,” Wynn wrote before he left the state bench to join the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week.

Fox News

This has got to be one of the dumbest rulings I’ve seen in a long time and to make matters worse, one of these judges was just appointed and confirmed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Please explain to me how “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” translates into campus security cannot have the same police powers as other schools simply because it is a religious school.  This is the kind of bastardization of the Separation Clause that we’ve been seeing, mainly from far left judges, for almost a century now.  If this is the kind of Constitutional ignorance we can expect from the Dishonorable Judge Wynn on the Circuit Court then, no pun intended, God help us.

Both Senators Kay Hagan (D) and Richard Burr (R) were supportive of Wynn’s nomination to the 4th Circuit Court.

A poll of 600 likely voters commissioned by the Civitas Institute shows that Governor Bev Perdue’s favorability level in North Carolina is still insidiously low.  Only 33% of North Carolina voters hold a favorable view of Madame Governor, while 37% hold an unfavorable view.  Her numbers have improved very little over the past year indicating that voters in the state are in continuous regret or their decision to give her the reins.

Senator Richard Burr didn’t fare much better, with his approval rating at 34%, although still better than this challenger, Elaine Marshall, who stands at only 24%.  President Barack Obama holds a 46% approval rating while 43% disapprove.  Another interesting return was that when asked whether each voter would vote Democratic or Republicans in their state legislative races the answer was tied at 39% for each party.

The sample of voters was comprised of 44% Democrats, 33% Republican, and 23% unaffiliated.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is a taxpayer watchdog group that for years has been tracking and monitoring the wasteful spending being undertaken by our members of Congress. When I say waste I mean real waste, things that most all of us regardless of political ideology and views could likely agree on. Wasted spending like $1,454,000 for mosquito trapping research or $2,573,000 for potato research. Better yet, right here in our own backyard, UNC Charlotte received $762,000 for interactive dance software.

CAGW has a searchable database containing the 9,129 pork-barrel projects in the 2010 Congressional Pig Book. They also do a ranking of every member of Congress with a score of 100 indicating a taxpayer superhero and a score of 0 being a wasteful taxpayer abuser. Unfortunately, here in the Carolinas we have several big fat zeros. That list is below:

By a vote of 63 – 37 the U.S. Senate has confirmed Elena Kagan as the next Supreme Court Justice.  Kay Hagan and Lindsey Graham voted in favor of the nomination.  Richard Burr and Jim DeMint voted against confirmation.

North Carolina Democrat Elaine Marshall released the results of a new internal poll that found the four-term secretary of state leading incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr by 2 points. That’s well within the margin of error, but more to the point was that Burr was held to 35 percent and that nearly a quarter of voters had yet to make up their minds.

The poll was conducted by Lake Research Partners, a firm that conducts polling for Democratic candidates, from July 15-19 among 600 likely voters with a 4-point margin of error. It found Burr to not only have a low job approval rating, but also found a plurality of voters view him unfavorably.

Real Clear Politics

I’ve said many times that Burr is not a lock for reelection, but I’m not buying this.  For one, it’s an internal poll and you simply can’t trust those.  Second, it’s an outlier.  Other polls on this race don’t come close to reflecting the same results.  If we see the same results from a credible pollster like Gallup, SUSA, Rasmussen, etc. then I’ll believe it.

Elaine Marshall can absolutely win this race, though.  I don’t think she will, but she could.  Burr’s approval rating has been well below 50 ever since the election year started.  He is going to be saved by the national mood of the electorate who right now hates the Democratic Party.  If the 2010 environment was like ‘06 or ‘08 Burr would be a dead man walking right now.

Predictably, two amendments of Senator DeMint’s voted on in the U.S. Senate yesterday were rejected.  One would have barred the Obama administration’s ability to sue the State of Arizona over their illegal immigration crackdown law and the other would have permanently repealed the Estate Tax.

The illegal immigration amendment was defeated 55 to 43.  It would have barred funding for the Federal government to prosecute the law.  Democrat Kay Hagan voted against the amendment, while Republicans Lindsey Graham and Richard Burr, along with DeMint, voted for it.  A few Democrats from other states crossed over to support DeMint’s efforts, but not nearly enough and that was expected.  The left has been particularly outspoken against Arizona’s efforts to protect their state from the harm caused by mass illegal immigration.

Permanent repeal of the Estate Tax was nothing but a pipe dream and only 39 Senators voted in favor of it, about what I would expect.

The repeal movement has lost some steam in recent years as former enthusiasts in the business community have sought compromise with the Democratic majority on a plan that would lower the tax, not eliminate it.

But a core of groups representing small businesses and conservatives continue to push repeal, arguing that the tax is an unfair government intrusion and that it serves as a disincentive for individuals to build family businesses.

“What right does a government have to take someone’s property because they die?” DeMint said on the Senate floor.

NASDAQ

Great question, huh?  That is the one that has always rankled me.  Why is the government entitled to anybody’s property simply because they die?  It’s absurd.  The property should stay in the family where it rightfully belongs.  Family business owners and family farms get clobbered by this.  Just because one’s estate is valued at a few million dollars does not mean they are millionaires bathing in golden bathtub of 100 dollar bills.  Pieces of farm equipment can cost a few hundred grand alone and that is all added into the value of the estate.  It’s not uncommon for the children of a family farmer to have to sell off the farm in order to pay the inheritance taxes on the estate.

The Estate Tax is nothing more than another weapon used in the Marxist tactic of class warfare.  It was established by politicians seething with envy, jealousy, and greed.

Naturally, the financial “reform” bill passed the Senate this afternoon.  There was no expectation for it not to once they had enough votes for cloture.  As I wrote earlier today, it’s a bad bill overall and contained many provisions that have absolutely nothing to do with protecting the financial markets, but promoting a leftist social agenda.

Kay Hagan (D) of North Carolina voted for the bill.  The three Republican Senators in the Carolinas:  Richard Burr, Lindsey Graham, and Jim DeMint voted against it.

A coalition of four environmental, labor and veterans groups began airing an ad today showing an oil-covered man – identified as Burr – being pulled out of the ocean like a sea bird. The man in the suit is shown being cleaned in a rescue operation, reports Rob Christensen.

Under the Dome

The irony here is that these groups probably also supported President Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign and he received more donations from BP than any other American politician.

The Burr campaign noted that Burr had just introduced legislation that would encourage the country to become less oil dependent through tax policies to encourage nuclear power, electric vehicles and natural gas vehicles.

“If the groups running this ad would stop long enough to realize that Senator Burr just introduced an energy bill that has the greatest offset on emissions, they might not have wasted so much money,” said Samantha Smith, Burr’s campaign spokeswoman.

Since the primary last week the race for U.S. Senate appears to have tightened up, possibly due to voters having a better idea of who the candidates will be come November. In a Public Policy Polling poll released today, Richard Burr now only leads Elaine Marshall by one point with 43% of the vote to her 42% making this a statistical tie. Burr leads Cal Cunningham by five.

I have been vacationing in Rodanthe this week. As I was driving down Cape Hatteras yesterday I was greeted with these signs as I entered into Buxton. Apparently, the enviro-weenies have really ticked some people off.

Senate Bill 1557, the Preserving Public Access to Cape Hatteras Beaches Act of 2009, was sponsored by Senator Richard Burr last August in order to reinstate off road vehicle use on the Hatteras seashore.  The Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society sued the state in 2007 to prevent such access until a management plan has been devised as required by an Executive Order issued by President Richard Nixon in 1972. A lot of recreational use of the beaches has been prevented since the lawsuit three years ago and it has apparently upset some of the locals.

Senator Richard Burr’s (R) approval rating has dropped three points to 33% according to the latest Public Policy Polling poll, yet despite that he continues to lead all of his potential Democrat opponents in a head to head match up.  Burr holds a 43 – 37 lead over Elaine Marshall and a 43 – 35 lead over both Cal Cunningham and Ken Lewis.

Even though it would appear that the folks of North Carolina feel Richard Burr is an ineffective Senator overall, they still seem to prefer him over any of the Democrats.  In my opinion, this emphasizes the disconnect that exists between the Obama administration and the American people in general.

With a few words Wednesday – “I would have to object” – Sen. Richard Burr joined an angry Republican pushback to the nation’s sweeping health overhaul.

Burr used a parliamentary maneuver to derail an Armed Services Committee hearing for which commanders had traveled from South Korea and Hawaii to discuss the Pentagon’s needs for the next year.

It was one of several hearings on issues ranging from homeless veterans to police trainers in Afghanistan that were upturned by Republican tactics to slow the workings of the Senate.

The N&O

 Y’know… I’m pissed too, and I’m certainly going to do everything I can to defeat or overturn this massive turd the Democrats have shoved into my breakfast cereal and told me is just a big chocolate sprinkle. But I’m a piss-ant little blogger; Richard Burr is a U.S. Senator. There’s a time and place and method to protest, and holding up an Armed Services Committee meeting to which many high-ranking officers have traveled is not the way to do it.

Sen. Burr- stay mad, but stay professional.

Rules prohibit committees from meeting two hours after the Senate convenes unless there is unanimous consent, normally a formality.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, a Democrat who is the Armed Services Committee’s chairman, said that both he and Sen. John McCain, the committee’s top Republican, wanted to go forward.

The hearing was to allow testimony from three military leaders: Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii; Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command; and Army Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. forces in South Korea.

“They’ve been scheduled a long time,” Levin said. “They have come a long, long distance.”

About lunchtime Wednesday, Burr, who was on the Senate floor for the health care debate, came forward.

“I have no personal objection to continuing,” Burr said. “There is objection on our side of the aisle. Therefore, I would have to object.”

That stopped the hearing.

A Veteran Affairs hearing on homelessness was suddenly shut down at 11 a.m.

Richard Burr’s campaign headquarters here in the basement of a bank building may look unassuming, but it neatly illustratesthe problem for his Republican primary challengers.

Burr has space set aside for volunteers, fundraisers and strategists, all of whom are working for a candidate who has already successfully run one statewide campaign and six bids for the U.S. House before that. The campaign expects to raise $15 million by the end of the year.

Designed to fight off the Democrats’ eventual nominee, Burr’s operation is beyond anything GOP challengers Eddie Burks or Brad Jones say they have at their disposal.

“I can’t imagine it,” Burks said of Burr’s fundraising goal. “There’s just no way that I can get the kind of money he has … Everybody who’s sent me anything, I’ve known who they are.”

The News-Record

It’s a shame that running for office has become so difficult for the average American. I think one of the reasons our country is in such a mess is because most of the successful politicians don’t have to be policy experts as long as they’re fundraising experts.

“I can’t imagine it,” Burks said of Burr’s fundraising goal. “There’s just no way that I can get the kind of money he has … Everybody who’s sent me anything, I’ve known who they are.”

Burks’ campaign staff consists of a manager and a treasurer, but he has no plans to hire a fundraising consultant.

That said, Burks has already produced three television spots and hopes to have enough money to put them on in specific spots throughout the state.

Jones said he will use some radio commercials and rely on friends throughout the state to spread the word about his campaign.

“It’s just going to be a grass-roots thing,” he said.

Neither Burks nor Jones think that Burr has been conservative enough or responsive to North Carolina’s needs.

“During the years of the Bush administration, he was a rubber stamp for every spending program,” Jones said. “They tried to outspend the Democrats and he went right along with it. And now that the executive branch is no longer held by a Republican, he’s acting conservative again.”

Jones said if he were elected he would call for an audit of all federal systems “down to the broom closets” and push Congress to adopt a balanced budget. The federal government also needs to make good on promises to those who have been forced to pay into Medicare and Social Security, he said.

When asked why he was running against Burr, Burks said it wasn’t an easy decision for someone who has served one term as a small-town mayor and is in the third year of his first term on the Asheboro City Council.

“It came to me in church one evening,” said Burks, who describes himself as a born-again Christian. Feedback from other businessmen and local government officials helped push him fully into the race.

“I found a surprising number of people who are involved in politics … who knew nothing about Senator Burr,” Burks said.

He said other city officials described Burr as “inaccessible.”

The so-called “jobs” bill passed the Senate by a vote of 70 – 28 and will result in throwing away another $15 billion in money we don’t have and in the end will do absolutely nothing to help our ailing economy.  It is estimated by some that the bill will create 250,000 jobs, a smidgen of the 8 million that have been lost, but what happens when the money runs out?  Well, so do the jobs and that’s the main problem.  These are temporary jobs that are nothing more than band-aids.  In the long run our economy will still be in the crapper.

Part of the incentive that will allegedly create these jobs is an exemption from the payroll tax for businesses that hire new workers and an extra $1,000 credit if they employ them for at least a year.  So let’s think about that.  If I hire a new employee for, say, $40,000 a year, I don’t have to pay the 6.5% payroll tax on their salary and I get a $1,000 credit from the Feds a year from now.  Perhaps my math is fuzzy, but I’m still out $39,000.  In a down economy the demand for my services isn’t picking up, so what good will it do me to bring on this extra employee?  Legislation like this is living proof that anybody off the street can run for office.

Your two North Carolina Senators, Richard Burr (R) and Kay Hagan (D), supported wasting your hard earned money and adding more to our already chronic national debt.

U.S. Senate- Republican Primary
Richard Burr (i)- 55%
Brad Jones- 10%
Eddie Burks- 3%
Undecided- 31%
(moe-3.9%; PPP, 646 Republican voters, Feb. 12 to 15)

U.S. Senate- Democrat Primary
Elaine Marshall- 29%
Cal Cunningham- 12%
Ken Lewis- 5%
Marcus Williams- 2%
Undecided- 51%
(moe-4.9%; PPP, 400 Democrats, Feb. 12-15)

Elaine Marshall- 14%
Cal Cunningham- 4%
Ken Lewis- 5%
Undecided- 77%
(moe-5%; Civitas, 367 Democrats, Feb. 15-18)

h/t- The N&O

Sen. Richard Burr made his re-election campaign official on Monday when he filed for re-election.

But he’s not going to have the Republican primary all to himself. Over the last year, many conservatives have shown displeasure (to put it mildly) with Burr’s support of some budget-busting spending bills.  He voted for the first bailout in the last months of George W. Bush’s administration, for instance. Sure, Burr looks like a piker now that Obama’s in office, but it’s too little too late for some conservatives.

Brad Jones, a 65, who runs an electronics businessman, said he is running to provide a more conservative alternative to Burr, Rob Christensen reports. Jones said the Burr “rubber stamped” all of the spending policies of President George W. Bush and voted for the bank bailout.

“I want to give people an alternative,” Jones said. “I’m more of a Jesse Helms conservative. Now that there is a Democrat in the White House, he (Burr) is acting more conservative.”

Eddie Burks, a 48-year-old Asheboro City Councilman, calls Burr “unresponsive and inaccessible.”

“Have you seen any leadership from Sen. Burr?” Burks asked in an interview. “I haven’t. Most people can’t tell me anything they like about the senator.”

The N&O

Senator Richard Burr (R) so far this election season has been leading all of his potential Democrat opponents by a decent amount, but he has been doing so usually only polling in the low 40s.  His numbers have improved a bit.  According to a new Rasmussen Report, Burr is leading Education Secretary Elaine Marshall 47% to 37% and has a very handy lead over Cal Cunningham 50% to 34%.  Any polling under 50%, however, is still a sign of vulnerability.

In another poll from Public Policy Polling, both Senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan are showing poor approval ratings from the voters of North Carolina.  Burr’s numbers shows a paltry 35% approving of his job in Congress with Hagan having relatively the same lack of popularity at 36%.  Hagan, of course, has another five years before she needs to worry about being reelected; Burr has only 11 months.

Despite Burr’s low approval rating, as every other poll that has been commissioned, he still leads all of his potential Democrat opponents, although the gaps have narrowed.  Burr leads Elaine Marshall by five points, Kenneth Lewis by six, and Cal Cunningham by nine.  This shows that either folks still aren’t sold on their selection of replacements to Burr, of which there is plenty of time to change, or that they feel even less confident in putting a Democrat in his place given the unpopularity of the party in D.C. right now.

It seems people feel like they have a choice between a giant douche or a turd sandwich.