Poll says war in Iraq dims Dole's prospects

Several anti-war groups released a poll Wednesday that said seven Republican senators up for re-election next year, including North Carolina's Elizabeth Dole, may be politically vulnerable because of their support for the war in Iraq.

The survey found that the GOP senators in New Mexico, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Kentucky, Minnesota, Maine and Virginia would lose to generic Democratic candidates. And the main reason was that the public is upset over the war in Iraq.

"This is a fairly bleak picture for Republican incumbents across these states," said Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster. "If the election were held today, the Democrats would pick up seats in those states."

Greenberg said support for the war was waning even among Republican-leaning groups such as rural voters, Deep South voters, white married men, evangelicals and conservatives.

The poll of 1,000 likely voters was commissioned by Americans Against Iraq Escalation.

Mark Stephens, a Dole political strategist, dismissed the poll results, saying that the results of more liberal states were clumped together with those of more conservative North Carolina voters in painting a misleading picture.

"No doubt that the war has an impact on the electorate," Stephens said. "But to come out and state that Senator Dole is vulnerable based on that kind of polling is sort of silly on the face of it."

The other Beason

Don Beason may be retiring, but his son will continue.

The once-top lobbyist announced that he was quitting Wednesday after losing several major clients when news surfaced that he had once loaned disgraced former House Speaker Jim Black $500,000.

But his son, Mark, is expected to continue lobbying.

The two Beasons worked closely together in recent years.

According to filings with the Secretary of State's Office, Mark Beason made $61,130 in the first half of 2007 from 10 clients he shared with his father, including BB&T, Cingular Wireless and the N.C. Railroad Co.

The single largest contracts were with Sigma Corp., a New Jersey pipe fitting company, for $27,000, and Colonial Life Insurance, for $12,000. Both paid Don Beason the same amounts.

In addition, Mark Beason made $31,750 from three other clients. The N.C. Railway Association paid him $15,000, the N.C. Community Health Center Association paid $13,000, and the N.C. Pawn Brokers Association paid $3,750.

That puts his total earnings for the first half of the year at almost $93,000 -- not far from his father's $107,000 earnings for the same time period.

Other Beason news

One of Don Beason's top clients was not on the secretary of state's listings.

But a staffer said that the fault was the office's.

The filings for AT&T North Carolina, formerly BellSouth, were done properly, but they did not show up on the Web site because of a mistake in computer programming, spokesman George Jeter said.

After being informed of the problem, the Secretary of State's Office fixed the problem Wednesday.