Burr backed by deceptive ads on Ross’ record

Richard Burr served 10 years in the U.S. House and is at the end of his second term in the U.S. Senate. Incumbency ought to give him a huge advantage, considering 22 years on Capitol Hill. In that time, a sitting senator presumably has done a lot of favors for constituents and can take the high road in a campaign for a third term.

Alas, the senator, and his special interest supporters, are chugging along on the low road. And hitting plenty of potholes when it comes to the facts.

Consider one ad against challenger Deborah Ross, a former state representative from Raleigh. Burr’s ad attacks Ross for opposing a sex-offender registry established in North Carolina in the mid 1990s. Ross, then the head of the state American Civil Liberties Union, raised questions about the registry in the context of protecting privacy rights, and for good reason. As she noted in an interview last week at The News & Observer, many victims of sex offenders come from within families of offenders. She wanted, Ross said, to ensure the privacy of victims and to guard against offenders being targeted by vigilantes. Both are legitimate concerns.

The bill was passed, and its sponsors have credited Ross with helping to make the legislation better, not for trying to defeat it.

Yet to hear Burr’s people tell it, Ross wanted to protect sex offenders. Ridiculous.

Then there’s Burr’s ad reaching out to African-Americans, a voting group that generally supports Democrats. The ad features an African-American pastor praising Burr and footage of children in a school. The only problem is, the school is in Africa.

And to no one’s surprise, Burr has been the beneficiary of support from the NRA, which has rewarded him with a top rating for opposing responsible gun control legislation. The NRA has an ad against Ross, part of a $3 million campaign against her, claiming she “voted against personal liberty.” It also says, “Ross opposed your right to self-defense.” Ross has indeed called for stronger background checks on gun buyers, and she’s criticized Burr for voting against legislation to prevent those on the terrorism watch list from buying guns.

Those stances hardly qualify Ross as anti-gun or opposed to the Second Amendment.

Burr uses the old, worn-out excuse of politicians scared to death of the NRA and happy to have its financial support: He’s supported preventing terrorists from buying guns so long as those laws wouldn’t infringe on the rights of U.S. citizens. That’s code for: I’m not going to do anything that might make the NRA mad and cause it to tighten its purse.

When the ads get nasty, it is a sure sign that the incumbent doesn’t have much of a record to run on.

This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Burr backed by deceptive ads on Ross’ record."