Sen. Richard Burr will have a new spokesman next week.

Chris Walker, who has served as press secretary since late 2007, is leaving to work as communications director for former Sen. Bill Frist's education initiative, Tennessee SCORE.

A graduation of the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Walker had worked for sen. Fred Thompson, at federal agencies and for the Republican National Committee before joining Burr's office.

Starting next week, David Ward will be Burr's spokesman.

Ward, a native of Raleigh and a fellow Wake Forest University alum, has worked with Walker on Burr's communications team.

In 2008, he was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill" by a local newspaper.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids opposes a bill from North Carolina's senators.

The anti-smoking advocacy group said this afternoon that a proposal from Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan to create a new agency to regulate tobacco falls short.

The two senators proposed the bill as an alternative to legislation currently working its way through Congress that would give the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco.

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that the Burr-Hagan bill would create an unnecessary new agency without experience in tobacco, tie the hands of regulators and create loopholes for tobacco companies.

"Congress should not be distracted by this weak legislation," he said in a statement.

Chris Walker, a spokesman for Burr, said that he hopes lawmakers and other groups will seriously consider the bill, which was introduced today.

"I'm curious if they've even had a chance to read it," he said.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's team works fast.

Earlier this afternoon, Dome briefly mentioned that the design of the Winston-Salem Republican's "Constituent Services" page on his Web site was flawed.

A large blank spot on the page made it look like nothing was on the page, even though Burr had several links for such things as requesting a flag or learning about internships.

(To be clear: This is nothing like the spelling snafu that slammed Pat McCrory. The links were there, but the page was hard to navigate.) 

In typical Washington fashion, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pounced on the rather minor flaw even as Burr's team quickly fixed the problem.

"Based on the number of tour and flag requests the office has received, as well as requests for assistance with federal grants and a surge in applications for summer internships, North Carolinians appear to have had little trouble navigating the Constituent Services sections of the website," said spokesman Chris Walker in an e-mail.

He said they fixed the glitch to help Dome and others better navigate the site in the future. 

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is going to Guantanamo Monday.

The Winston-Salem Republican will visit the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba that currently holds about 245 men on suspicion of terrorism.

He'll be joined on the day-long visit by David Vitter of Louisiana, Pat Roberts of Kansas and Sens. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who is organizing the trip.

President Obama signed an executive order calling for the closure of the prison within a year.

Spokesman Chris Walker said Burr wants to understand the "facts on the ground" before making a final decision on his thoughts on Obama's order.

"So far, he's unconvinced that moving trained terrorists to the U.S. is in the best national security interests," he said.  

Residents with concealed weapons permits can now carry their guns into Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Smoky Mountains National Park.

The U.S. Department of Interior issued new rules today allowing guns into national parks and wildlife refuges if residents also have concealed weapons permits in the state where the parks are located.
Previous regulations prevented firearms in national parks, even when a carrier held a concealed weapon permit, Barb Barrett reports.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican and a hunter, was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushing for change. He had co-sponsored legislation that would have allowed guns in parks.

"This is just to allow law-abiding citizens to continue to carry their weapon while they're in the national park, when the state allows them to carry anyway," said Burr spokesman Chris Walker.

The new rules do not allow target practice or the carrying of weapons into federal buildings.

Sen. Richard Burr's not taking a stand on Obama's appointments yet.

When asked, a spokesman for the Winston-Salem Republican would neither give praise or raise questions about President-elect Barack Obama's choices, especially for his national security and economic teams.

"Senator Burr is looking forward to evaluating the qualifications of all of President-Elect Obama's nominees, and he will weigh his support based on each individual's knowledge, experience and credentials for the specific role for which they were nominated," said Chris Walker in an e-mail to Dome.

"As they come before the various Senate committees, he will be sure to raise appropriate questions so the American people can have faith in those serving in the highest levels of government," he added.

Sen. Richard Burr is not taking any more requests for his 393 tickets.

The Winston-Salem Republican received more than 8,000 requests for tickets to the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama.

Spokesman Chris Walker said they will hand out the tickets out on a first-come, first-served basis to school groups and families that contacted the office as early as December of last year.

With no tickets left, Burr's office said last week that it was closing its request line, though it's still encouraging people to drop in that week or watch the inauguration from the National Mall.

A Dome item last week jokingly suggested Burr's support for Republican John McCain had something to do with closing his request line, but Walker said that was not the case.

He said Burr will give out tickets to any North Carolinian who asked, and they were not tracking whether recipients were Democrats or Republicans.

"It's not something we'd ask," he said.

What would U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's do as policy chairman?

Chris Walker, his new press secretary, describes the job as something like the Senate Republican's chief marketing guru.

The position does not come with any authority to control what bills come to the floor, and it's not a high profile leadership role. But Burr would help craft the message to sell GOP positions.

"It's a lot of workhorse, behind-the-scenes action," he told Dome. "That's why we think it's perfect for Senator Burr."

In other words, the job is not likely to land Burr on the Sunday morning talk shows more often. But when you see a senator on those talk shows, they may be using an argument honed by him.

A vote for the position is set for Dec. 6.

A former communications and research guru from the Republican National Committee and Sen. Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign has joined Sen. Richard Burr’s staff as its top press officer.

Chris Walker, 30, began work Monday as press secretary for the Winston-Salem Republican, reports Barb Barrett. He replaces Laura Caudell, who left in the spring for a job in Birmingham, Ala.

Walker spent the summer working in research communications for Thompson’s budding presidential campaign. Before that, he spent about six months as deputy director of research at the RNC. In 2006, he worked as a political appointee in communications for the Department of Defense and the Department of the Treasury.