A mailer targets Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan on taxes.

The Associated Builders and Contractors sent the mailer to North Carolina voters this week. It claims that North Carolina has "the highest tax burden in the Southeast."

"No wonder times have been so tough lately," it says. "And guess who has been in charge of North Carolina's money for the last five years?"

The article notes that the state budget has increased by more than $3 billion during the time that Hagan was a cochairwoman of the Senate Appropriations committee.

The Washington-based group has made two automated calls targeting Hagan over earmarks and the state budget and praising U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole on offshore drilling and sent a mailer criticizing Hagan over earmarks.

A lobbying group for construction contractors, it is concerned about Hagan's support for a bill that would make it easier to unionize.

A new mailer targets Kay Hagan on earmarks.

The Associated Builders and Contractors has sent a mailer to North Carolina voters that argues that the Democratic Senate candidate has spent too much on "pet projects" in the legislature.

"With the state's budget in peril and so many hardworking families struggling, these kinds of earmarks and spending policies must stop," it says.

As a Senate budget writer, Hagan was known for directing state money to projects in her home district, although the legislature does not refer to this kind of spending as "earmarks."

The Washington-based group has made two automated calls targeting Hagan over earmarks and the state budget and praising U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole on offshore drilling.

A lobbying group for construction contractors, it is concerned about Hagan's support for a bill that would make it easier to unionize.

A robocall praises U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole on offshore drilling.

The Associated Builders and Contractors' Free Enterprise Alliance is making automated calls to Norh Carolina voters noting that the Salisbury Republican voted to allow offshore drilling.

"America needs energy independence," a woman says in the recorded call. "That's why Senator Dole cosponsored the Gas Price Reduction Act, opening more offshore areas to harvest domestic energy, lift the moratorium on oil shale exploration in the Western states, and reduces our dependency on foreign sources."

Both Dole and Democratic rival Kay Hagan backed a failed bipartisan compromise bill that would allow offshore drilling and promote alternative energy. The Gas Price Reduction Act was a Republican-backed alternative that would have gone further on oil exploration.

The Washington-based group has made two other calls targeting Hagan over earmarks and the state budget. A lobbyist for construction contractors, it is concerned about Hagan's support for a bill that would make it easier to unionize.

After the jump, the script.

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A robocall attacks Kay Hagan on state spending.

The Associated Builders and Contractors' Free Enterprise Alliance is making the automated calls to North Carolina voters arguing that the Democratic Senate candidate included costly projects in the state budget.

"In the state Senate, Hagan set out securing earmarks, state funding for theater programs," a woman says in the calls. "Her pet projects cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars."

The call makes a link between state spending and earmark reform, an issue being pushed nationally.

As a budget writer from 2003 to 2007, Hagan was known for bringing home the bacon: $1.5 million for an International Civil Rights Museum, $500,000 for Greensboro's Center City Park, $500,000 for the International Furnishings Market in High Point, and $10 million for a joint Millennium campus being developed by the UNC-Greensboro and N.C. A&T State University.

Technically, state legislators do not refer to their spending projects as "earmarks," although the concept is the same.

After the jump, the script.

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