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Burr-Ross Race May Determine U.S. Senate Control
Publisher's note: The author of this post is Sarah Okeson, who is a contributor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a distant relative of 19th century Vice President Aaron Burr, trounced Democrat Elaine Marshall in 2010 with the largest percentage of the vote in North Carolina's U.S. Senate races since the Watergate era.
This year Burr faces what he has called "the race of my life" against former state representative Deborah Ross, in a contest that could determine the partisan control of the Senate. Most polls show Burr narrowly leading, with Libertarian Sean Haugh trailing far behind.
"That has surprised not only the Burr campaign but also national Republicans," said Andy Taylor, a political science professor at N.C. State University who also writes a column for Carolina Journal. "It may well be that who controls the Senate hinges on who wins the race in North Carolina."
There's a distinctive ideological contrast between the major party candidates. Burr has a 100 percent rating from the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Right to Life Committee, a 91 percent lifetime score from Americans for Prosperity, and an 8 percent lifetime rating from the environmentalist League of Conservation Voters. However, Burr also received a Conservation Leadership Award in 2015 from the Nature Conservancy for voting to extend a conservation fund that uses revenues from oil and natural gas production to purchase private property for public use.
Ross' endorsements include NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Sierra Club, Environment North Carolina, the N.C. State AFL-CIO, and the National Education Association.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win control of the Senate, or five if Donald Trump wins the White House; his vice president gets to vote in the Senate to break a tie.
Eric Heberlig, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, said the key to the election might be voter turnout and how many voters split their tickets.
"I think Burr is likely to run several points ahead of Trump in North Carolina," Heberlig said.
Burr, 60, a former sales manager for a lawncare equipment company who served five terms in the U.S. House, said more than a decade ago he represented the values of most North Carolina residents.
"I think what they'll find is I'll show the consistency that Jesse Helms used to show, that Sam Ervin used to show," he said.
Ross, 53, told The News & Observer the election is "the battle for the heart and soul of North Carolina."
"It's the same battle we saw in 1960," she told the newspaper. "Is North Carolina going forward or going to go backward?"
Burr's campaign has raised about $11 million so far, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. The Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee connected to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is spending $8.1 million on TV ads to help Burr.
Ross is getting help from EMILY's List, a political action committee that supports Democratic women candidates who back abortion rights. Ross has raised about $8.4 million, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Burr is anti-abortion and opposes taxpayer funding for the procedures. Ross supports abortion on demand and taxpayer-funded abortions. The Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion organization, worked to get out the vote in 2014 to help Thom Tillis defeat pro-abortion incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan. The group is going door-to-door in North Carolina.
The Charlotte Observer endorsed Ross over Burr, calling him "a go-along-to-get-along politician who routinely puts party before country." The News-Record of Greensboro also endorsed Ross, saying she would "bring a new voice to Washington.
Burr has received endorsements from groups such as the American Conservative Union, which said he "has been a leader in standing up to the Obama Administration's hapless approach to defeating radical Islamic terrorists."
Ross criticized Burr for his support of Trump in a recent TV ad that includes comments Trump made to former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about women.
In their only scheduled debate Oct. 13, Ross said Burr's support of Trump showed a "lack of judgment" and that Trump is "singularly not qualified."
Burr said he has forgiven Trump.
"As a son of a Presbyterian minister, my dad always taught me that when people ask for forgiveness, you should give it to them," Burr told the N&O.
Burr's supporters have criticized Ross for her record as the state director of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. A recent TV ad paid for by Burr supporters says the ACLU under Ross refused to represent a veteran threatened with a lawsuit for flying the U.S. flag, while she supported the right to burn the flag.
Another TV ad claims Ross opposed creating North Carolina's sex offender registry. The ad featured a Marine sergeant who was raped. Ross, the Marine says in the ad, "wants to protect sexual predators over victims."
Burr spokesman Jesse Hunt said Burr understands the values North Carolinians hold dear.
"Deborah Ross spent her entire career with the ACLU fighting against common-sense legislative measures like the creation of the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry," Hunt said. "Ross' dangerous record is deeply out of step with the views of mainstream North Carolinians."
The former North Carolina state senator who wrote the law creating the sex offender registry, Fountain Odom, said the ad "is a total misrepresentation of the facts."
"Deborah Ross showed leadership, asked tough questions and worked with me to make my bill and our state's sex offender registry better," Odom wrote The Charlotte Observer.
Ross did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Her campaign website is deborahross.com.
Burr chairs the Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the CIA. He opposed disclosing a Senate report on CIA interrogation, including waterboarding, calling the report "partisan."
Many of the bills Burr sponsors involve the military and national security. He has criticized Ross for calling the country's national intelligence agencies dangerous and for her support of the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal.
Burr has supported placing Veterans Affairs health-care centers and clinics in communities where veterans live, according to his campaign. He also supported a law tying student loan rates to the market.
In 2012, Burr was one of just three senators to vote against a bill that prohibited members of Congress from using insider information to profit in the stock market. Burr said laws to stop insider trading existed already, and another law wasn't needed.
Burr reported assets of $1.95 million to $3.52 million on financial disclosure documents. Ross is similarly wealthy, with reported assets of $1.9 million to $4.56 million. Burr has challenged Ross to disclose her tax records. His campaign said she has paid little or no state or federal taxes, made possible in part from tax credit deductions for historic preservation she championed while in the General Assembly.
Ross has said that she would have voted for Obamacare. Burr has helped to draft an alternative plan to replace it.
North Carolina voters have changed since Burr referred to Helms, his mentor and the longest-serving popularly elected senator in North Carolina's history, and Ervin, who won acclaim for chairing the Senate Watergate committee.
"I'm not sure that the old Jesse Helms approach to portraying Democrats as extreme liberals is necessarily still a good strategy," said Michael Bitzer, provost and professor of political science at Catawba College in Salisbury.
About 45 percent of registered voters in the state in 2012 and before were born in North Carolina, according to Bitzer's analysis of state election numbers. The percentage of North Carolina natives had dropped to 34 percent for voters registered in 2013 and later.
Between 2010 and 2015, about 557,000 of the state's 7.1 million eligible voters moved to North Carolina, according to federal estimates. Most were from Florida. Others were from Arizona, New York, California, and outside the United States.
About 2.7 million, or 40 percent, of the state's 6.7 million registered voters are Democrats. Republicans and unaffiliated voters each account for about 30 percent of registered voters. Libertarians account for about 0.4 percent.
Burr has said this Senate race is his last.
"The next generation has a lot to contribute, and I need to get out of the way and let them do that," he told North Carolina Republican delegates this summer at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Go Back
Incumbent Republican Burr having tough battle with former state Rep. Ross for key Senate seat
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a distant relative of 19th century Vice President Aaron Burr, trounced Democrat Elaine Marshall in 2010 with the largest percentage of the vote in North Carolina's U.S. Senate races since the Watergate era.
This year Burr faces what he has called "the race of my life" against former state representative Deborah Ross, in a contest that could determine the partisan control of the Senate. Most polls show Burr narrowly leading, with Libertarian Sean Haugh trailing far behind.
"That has surprised not only the Burr campaign but also national Republicans," said Andy Taylor, a political science professor at N.C. State University who also writes a column for Carolina Journal. "It may well be that who controls the Senate hinges on who wins the race in North Carolina."
There's a distinctive ideological contrast between the major party candidates. Burr has a 100 percent rating from the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Right to Life Committee, a 91 percent lifetime score from Americans for Prosperity, and an 8 percent lifetime rating from the environmentalist League of Conservation Voters. However, Burr also received a Conservation Leadership Award in 2015 from the Nature Conservancy for voting to extend a conservation fund that uses revenues from oil and natural gas production to purchase private property for public use.
Ross' endorsements include NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Sierra Club, Environment North Carolina, the N.C. State AFL-CIO, and the National Education Association.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win control of the Senate, or five if Donald Trump wins the White House; his vice president gets to vote in the Senate to break a tie.
Eric Heberlig, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, said the key to the election might be voter turnout and how many voters split their tickets.
"I think Burr is likely to run several points ahead of Trump in North Carolina," Heberlig said.
Burr, 60, a former sales manager for a lawncare equipment company who served five terms in the U.S. House, said more than a decade ago he represented the values of most North Carolina residents.
"I think what they'll find is I'll show the consistency that Jesse Helms used to show, that Sam Ervin used to show," he said.
Ross, 53, told The News & Observer the election is "the battle for the heart and soul of North Carolina."
"It's the same battle we saw in 1960," she told the newspaper. "Is North Carolina going forward or going to go backward?"
Burr's campaign has raised about $11 million so far, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. The Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee connected to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is spending $8.1 million on TV ads to help Burr.
Ross is getting help from EMILY's List, a political action committee that supports Democratic women candidates who back abortion rights. Ross has raised about $8.4 million, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Burr is anti-abortion and opposes taxpayer funding for the procedures. Ross supports abortion on demand and taxpayer-funded abortions. The Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion organization, worked to get out the vote in 2014 to help Thom Tillis defeat pro-abortion incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan. The group is going door-to-door in North Carolina.
The Charlotte Observer endorsed Ross over Burr, calling him "a go-along-to-get-along politician who routinely puts party before country." The News-Record of Greensboro also endorsed Ross, saying she would "bring a new voice to Washington.
Burr has received endorsements from groups such as the American Conservative Union, which said he "has been a leader in standing up to the Obama Administration's hapless approach to defeating radical Islamic terrorists."
Ross criticized Burr for his support of Trump in a recent TV ad that includes comments Trump made to former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about women.
In their only scheduled debate Oct. 13, Ross said Burr's support of Trump showed a "lack of judgment" and that Trump is "singularly not qualified."
Burr said he has forgiven Trump.
"As a son of a Presbyterian minister, my dad always taught me that when people ask for forgiveness, you should give it to them," Burr told the N&O.
Burr's supporters have criticized Ross for her record as the state director of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. A recent TV ad paid for by Burr supporters says the ACLU under Ross refused to represent a veteran threatened with a lawsuit for flying the U.S. flag, while she supported the right to burn the flag.
Another TV ad claims Ross opposed creating North Carolina's sex offender registry. The ad featured a Marine sergeant who was raped. Ross, the Marine says in the ad, "wants to protect sexual predators over victims."
Burr spokesman Jesse Hunt said Burr understands the values North Carolinians hold dear.
"Deborah Ross spent her entire career with the ACLU fighting against common-sense legislative measures like the creation of the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry," Hunt said. "Ross' dangerous record is deeply out of step with the views of mainstream North Carolinians."
The former North Carolina state senator who wrote the law creating the sex offender registry, Fountain Odom, said the ad "is a total misrepresentation of the facts."
"Deborah Ross showed leadership, asked tough questions and worked with me to make my bill and our state's sex offender registry better," Odom wrote The Charlotte Observer.
Ross did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Her campaign website is deborahross.com.
Burr chairs the Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the CIA. He opposed disclosing a Senate report on CIA interrogation, including waterboarding, calling the report "partisan."
Many of the bills Burr sponsors involve the military and national security. He has criticized Ross for calling the country's national intelligence agencies dangerous and for her support of the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal.
Burr has supported placing Veterans Affairs health-care centers and clinics in communities where veterans live, according to his campaign. He also supported a law tying student loan rates to the market.
In 2012, Burr was one of just three senators to vote against a bill that prohibited members of Congress from using insider information to profit in the stock market. Burr said laws to stop insider trading existed already, and another law wasn't needed.
Burr reported assets of $1.95 million to $3.52 million on financial disclosure documents. Ross is similarly wealthy, with reported assets of $1.9 million to $4.56 million. Burr has challenged Ross to disclose her tax records. His campaign said she has paid little or no state or federal taxes, made possible in part from tax credit deductions for historic preservation she championed while in the General Assembly.
Ross has said that she would have voted for Obamacare. Burr has helped to draft an alternative plan to replace it.
North Carolina voters have changed since Burr referred to Helms, his mentor and the longest-serving popularly elected senator in North Carolina's history, and Ervin, who won acclaim for chairing the Senate Watergate committee.
"I'm not sure that the old Jesse Helms approach to portraying Democrats as extreme liberals is necessarily still a good strategy," said Michael Bitzer, provost and professor of political science at Catawba College in Salisbury.
About 45 percent of registered voters in the state in 2012 and before were born in North Carolina, according to Bitzer's analysis of state election numbers. The percentage of North Carolina natives had dropped to 34 percent for voters registered in 2013 and later.
Between 2010 and 2015, about 557,000 of the state's 7.1 million eligible voters moved to North Carolina, according to federal estimates. Most were from Florida. Others were from Arizona, New York, California, and outside the United States.
About 2.7 million, or 40 percent, of the state's 6.7 million registered voters are Democrats. Republicans and unaffiliated voters each account for about 30 percent of registered voters. Libertarians account for about 0.4 percent.
Burr has said this Senate race is his last.
"The next generation has a lot to contribute, and I need to get out of the way and let them do that," he told North Carolina Republican delegates this summer at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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