Not the Headline Deborah Ross Wanted on Debate Day | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Raleigh, NC     According to a front-page story in today's News & Observer, Deborah Ross frequently touts the votes she took in support of historical preservation tax credits during her career in the legislature. But what Ross doesn't tell voters is that she has personally benefited from those same tax credits she worked to protect. Here are a few highlights from the story:

    News & Observer: Ross Opposed Ending Tax Credit That Had Benefited Her Family

• "Democratic senatorial candidate Deborah Ross has widely touted her promotion of generous tax incentives for renovation projects that preserve the character of North Carolina's historic neighborhoods and the state's abandoned mills and warehouses - ghosts of industries gone offshore. What she's less vocal about is that she and her husband, Stephen Wrinn, also have benefited substantially from the historic tax credits she helped champion."
• "Ross did not respond to questions about the impact her bill might have had on her husband's project."
• "I think certainly for some voters this will smack of personal interests, combined with the public good," said Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College."
• "Ross was asked by McClatchy whether she had paid zero state or federal taxes in some years due to all the credits. She said she would have to check. [Ross' spokeswoman Helen] Hare said only that Ross 'always paid her taxes.'"

    There's also an op-ed running in today's Fayetteville Observer penned by State Rep. John Szoka that highlights how unprepared Deborah Ross is when it comes to national security.

    Fayetteville Observer: John Szoka: Deborah Ross, Woefully Unprepared On Foreign Policy

• "United States senators play a vital role in matters of national security and keeping our country safe. As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, no one understands the threats facing our nation better than Sen. Richard Burr.
• "Senator Burr's national security record stands in stark contrast to that of his opponent, Deborah Ross. Ross, the former top lobbyist and executive director of the N.C. American Civil Liberties Union, is not only unprepared for these important discussions, but she is dangerously out of touch when she is forced to weigh in.
• "In 2001, in the wake of the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that rocked the nation, Ross' ACLU called American intelligence agencies "dangerous." We saw those very same "dangerous" intelligence agencies working round-the-clock last month to help capture the suspect in the bombings in New York and New Jersey. It is because of American intelligence networks, not in spite of them, that we enjoy the freedoms we do. ...

• Contact: Jesse Hunt
•     jhunt@burrforsenate.com