Oh it’s on:
The Koch network is unleashing its grassroots army in North Carolina to boost Sen. Richard Burr, following recent polls showing his re-election race tightening and concerns about lack of field organization from the Trump campaign hurting down-ballot candidates.
Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which has a heavy presence in the state, will target Burr’s Democratic opponent, Deborah Ross, for her votes in favor of certain tax hikes during her time in the state legislature. AFP will start knocking on doors, making calls and sending out 500,000 mailers on the issue — the first in a series of mailers directed at Ross — this week.
The mailer, first shared with BuzzFeed News, reads: “When we needed her the most, Deborah Ross made life harder.”
“In the depths of the recession when North Carolina suffered 10.7% unemployment… Deborah Ross raised your taxes and made life more expensive for everyone.”
A spokesman for the group declined to give specifics on spending but called the effort “substantial.” Other than the mailers, AFP will have more than a dozen full-time staff plus part time staff and volunteers knocking doors and making phone calls in the state.
The group does not have plans to air ads yet. However, an outside group linked to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is taking the lead on that front.
Meanwhile, Burr is trying to dupe voters into believing he’s not a do-nothing Senator:
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr’s latest campaign TV ad in North Carolina touts his work on taxpayer-friendly legislation aimed at helping people with disabilities and their families save money for long-term healthcare costs, education and housing.
The campaign for the two-term Republican senator released the ad Tuesday morning. The spot will run statewide as part of a nearly $6 million TV ad-buy strategy.
The opening of the ad features a family with two children with autism from Charlotte, N.C. The parents say Burr’s backing of the ABLE Act, which was signed into law in 2014 by President Barack Obama, has helped them save for their future.
Ross said her campaign has focused on economic security from the beginning, meaning protecting and stabilizing Medicare and Social Security.
She said Burr has voted to allow cuts to Social Security and wants to turn Medicare into a voucher program.
“You know what that means — less money that goes to the individual recipient and more money that goes to insurance companies,” Ross said.
She said she has been all over the state and has not talked to anybody who thinks that turning Medicare into a voucher program is a good idea.
Ross also said that Congress has not voted to raise the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in nine years and that Burr is opposed to raising it.
“Too many people are working more than one minimum-wage job just to make ends meet,” she said.
She said that Burr has raised his salary four times but has voted six times against enforcing equal pay for equal work for women, saying he voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.
“Two-thirds of families in North Carolina rely on a woman’s paycheck to make ends meet,” she said.
Ross mentioned Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s plans to expand the Headstart program.
“This is particularly important for low-income families and in our rural areas where there are fewer opportunities to get what we call five-star day care centers,” Ross said.
She also spoke of the need for high-school graduates to be able to get the skills and education they need in today’s world, as well as the need to address rising student-loan debt in the country.
“What’s Richard’s response to it? He voted to cut the Pell grant program, and he voted against allowing students to refinance their student loan debt at lower levels. He’s for floating interest rates. That’s fine when interest rates are low, but when interest rates go up that is not a good thing for our students.”
She believes students should be able to refinance their student debt.
Lets not let the Kochs dupe the voters.
Click here to donate and get involved with Ross’ campaign.