A brief speech by Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory at the 2004 Republican national convention posted online today by the N.C. Democratic Party.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaign has a new ad responding to an earlier ad responding to an earlier ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. 

What the ad says: The ad begins with a clip from an anti-Dole ad: "'I'm telling you Liddy Dole is 93.' '93?'" It moves to a profile image of Dole and then images of people involved with the military, farming and law enforcement. Narrator: "Does Kay Hagan think we believe that? Elizabeth Dole's got firepower. She just received the Best of Congress award. She saved our military bases and thousands of jobs -- saved our farmers -- and gave sheriffs tools to fight illegal immigration." Person on a park bench: "She's dedicated her life to helping us." Dole: "I'm Elizabeth Dole, and I approved this message."

The background: The opening clip is from an ad paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, an independent group legally prohibited from coordinating with Kay Hagan's campaign. It is not a Hagan ad, though Hagan has made the same criticism.

DOLE AT 93: The "93" criticism refers to an annual study conducted since 2005 by the Congressional data service Knowlegis. The study ranks members of Congress on their power.

After scoring in the middle of the pack the first two years, Dole's rating plummeted to 93rd when Republicans became the minority in the Senate in 2007.

Her rating was also low due to fewer mentions in the news media and service on less powerful committees on banking and armed services.

Dole's campaign says those committees are important to North Carolina, home to a number of banks and military bases.

BEST OF CONGRESS: Working Mother magazine named Dole one of the "Best of Congress" in August. The award is not a general look at effectiveness. It measures lawmakers' support for issues important to working mothers, including medical leave, and their support for "family-friendly" policies in their own offices.

Fifty lawmakers applied for the award. The magazine gave it to 24 of them.

MILITARY BASES: The U.S. Department of Defense announced a round of base closings and other changes in 2005 as part of a regular program begun at the end of the Cold War. The multi-year process is designed to be insulated from political pressure.

Some North Carolina leaders had feared the loss of thousands of jobs — something that never materialized. A number of politicians, including Dole and Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, have claimed credit for North Carolina's relative success, but there is no way to quantify how much each helped.

FARMERS: In 2004, Congress and President Bush approved a buyout of the Depression-era system of price supports — or quotas — for tobacco leaf. Cigarette companies financed the buyout, passing on the costs to consumers.

The buyout is designed to put $9.6 billion into the pockets of quota owners and growers over 10 years. Some farmers have used the money to reinvest in the crop, while others chose to change crops or retire.

Dole supported the buyout during her 2002 campaign and was a vocal advocate in Congress, along with other senators from tobacco-growing states.

SHERIFFS: Since 1996, the federal government has offered a test program for sheriff's deputies to investigate illegal immigration.

Though immigration enforcement is typically handled by the federal government, the goal of the 287(g) program is to start deportation proceedings on illegal immigrants who are arrested for non-immigration related crimes.

In North Carolina, a handful of sheriffs' offices, including Mecklenburg and Wake counties, have signed up for the program, which Dole has promoted.

The federal government pays for the cost of training deputies in immigration enforcement and grants sheriffs' offices access to immigration records.

Is the ad accurate? The ad implies incorrectly that Hagan's campaign sponsored the ad attacking Dole. It also omits any detail on the "Best of Congress" award, and there is no way to quantify her role in helping the state's military bases. Otherwise, it is accurate.

— David Ingram and Ryan Teague Beckwith

Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is attacking Democratic challenger Kay Hagan for raising money from “anti-religion activists” at an upcoming event in Boston.

Hagan is scheduled to appear Sept. 15 at a fundraiser hosted by author Wendy Kaminer and her husband, Woody Kaplan, reports Barb Barrett.

Both are leaders of the Secular Coalition of America, which advocates for atheists and humanists in public policy. Kaplan also sits on the advisory board of the Godless Americans political action committee, whose Web site says it advocates for non-believers.

More after the jump.

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DENVER - Barack Obama's campaign manager said today that the campaign will soon return to the airwaves in North Carolina and other battleground states.

David Plouffe told reporters the campaign had pulled ads in most battleground states during convention week, reports Jim Morrill.

"We weren't going to be anywhere this week," Plouffe said. "We'll be back very very soon in North Carolina on the air."

The Obama campaign has spent about $2 million so far in the state, mostly on TV advertising.

Plouffe called North Carolina "a central battleground." He said with its relatively large African American population and large numbers of voting age young people, the state is one of several Southern targets, including Virginia, Georgia and Florida.

Each of those states went for Republican George Bush in 2004.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee says it's sticking with 92 percent.

In a recent TV ad, the national group argued that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole voted with President Bush 92 percent of the time, citing an average of scores given by Congressional Quarterly. The Washington-based news service said that method is inaccurate, and the correct figure is 88 percent.

But DSCC spokesman Matt Miller said they weren't backing down.

"We use what has generally been the accepted method, which is to take all the years and average them together," he said on a conference call with reporters this afternoon. "We stand by that number, absolutely."

He added that North Carolina voters "would think just as poorly" of Dole at 88 or 92 percent.

"If she wants to have an argument whether she's voted 92 percent of the time with Bush or whether she's voted with him 88 percent of the time, I think that's an argument that we'd be happy to have," he said.

Miller also noted that Dole's score has gone down — from 98 percent in 2003 to 85 percent last year.

"She realizes in an election year she probably has a problem that she has voted with Bush over 90 percent of the time, and you can see her trying to move away from that," he said.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole has voted with President Bush 88 percent of the time.

Recent ads by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and press releases from the Kay Hagan campaign have repeatedly said that Dole votes with Bush 92 percent of the time.

Hagan has even launched a "92 Days, 92 Ways Dole is Wrong for North Carolina" daily release tied to the figure.  

But a representative of Congressional Quarterly said today that number is incorrect because it improperly averages the yearly scores it gives members of Congress.

That's because the editors of the Washington-based news service use a different number of votes in their calculations each year based on whether the president had a clear position before the vote was taken.

(Imagine that a senator voted with Bush 100 percent of the time on 10 votes and 50 percent of the time on 20 votes. The average would not be 75 percent, or 150 divided by 2, but 66 percent, or 20 out of 30.)

Congressional Quarterly recently calculated the overall vote scores during the entire Bush administration including votes cast up until the August recess, which have not been available to now.

That score shows Dole four percentage points lower than the DSCC has claimed. 

Barack Obama won't talk to any of the reporters traveling with him about the subject of a vice presidential running mate.

But he did entertain a question from a voter tonight at a town hall meeting in Raleigh, reports Margaret Talev of McClatchy's Washington bureau.

The man's premise was that President Bush had looked to Vice President Dick Cheney for heavy hitting on many fronts.

"What's your plan to utilize your vice president?" the man asked

While Obama's answer was predictably critical of the Bush-Cheney team, his response also seemed revealing in that he did not emphasize Washington experience, foreign policy experience or age.

Instead, he talked about a running mate's need to be passionate about domestic policy issues. He also said he wants someone who would feel comfortable playing an active role in advising and challenging him.

"I won't hand over my energy policy to my vice president," he said. "I won't have my vice president engineering my foreign policy for me."

Obama said wants a running mate who is "independent" and willing to tell him, if elected, "You know what, Mr. President, you're wrong on this and here's why" and will help him think through major issues.

How often have North Carolina's members of Congress voted with President Bush?

Congressional Quarterly, a Washington-based news service, has compiled statistics based on votes taken in which the president has a clear position.

Here are the averages since Bush took office through last year:

Republicans:

Sen. Elizabeth Dole*: 91.6 percent
Rep. Sue Myrick: 91.4 percent
Sen. Richard Burr*: 89.4 percent
Rep. Patrick McHenry*: 87.3 percent
Rep. Virginia Foxx*: 87 percent
Rep. Robin Hayes: 81.9 percent
Rep. Howard Coble: 79.6 percent
Rep. Walter Jones: 65 percent

Democrats:

Rep. Mike McIntyre: 50.7 percent
Rep. Bob Etheridge: 37.3 percent
Rep. David Price: 27.4 percent
Rep. G.K. Butterfield*: 24.8 percent
Rep. Heath Shuler*: 19 percent
Rep. Brad Miller*: 17.9 percent
Rep. Mel Watt: 16.1 percent

Members who were elected since 2001 are noted with an asterisk.

Dole has been in office since 2003. Burr's score is an average of his Senate score since 2005 (88.7 percent) and his House score from 2001-2004 (90 percent).

McHenry and Foxx have been in office since 2005, Butterfield since 2004, Shuler since 2007 and Miller since 2003.

Update: A representative of Congressional Quarterly said that averaging the yearly scores is mathematically incorrect. A complete tally of voting scores is available here.

A conservative senior advocacy group has complained about an ad targeting U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The 60 Plus Association, which styles itself as the "conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons," called a recent TV ad "rude and frankly insulting to senior citizens" in a press release today.

The group was responding to a recent ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that features two older men arguing whether Dole is "92" or "93," though it turns out they are talking about her effectiveness ranking and the percentage of votes she cast that agreed with President Bush. Dole is actually 72.

"I know Senator Dole personally and she is a classy young lady," said 60 Plus President Jim Martin in a statement. "Exaggerating her age by 20 years in a thinly veiled attempt to question her competence and dedication is an attack on real seniors and is insulting to North Carolina voters. Playing the age card is bad enough, fibbing in order to play it is an outrage."

He noted that there 50 members of Congress who are between 72 and 90 years old.

The association, which advocates for abolishing the inheritance tax and reforming Social Security, has been supportive of Dole in the past.

Update: Martin is also 72 — four months older than Dole. In an e-mail to Dome, he said his comment was "kind of a tongue in cheeker."

A recent TV ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee questions U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's effectiveness and support for President Bush.

What it says: Two men are sitting on rocking chairs in front of an old country store. "I'm telling you, Liddy Dole is 93." "93?" "Yep, she ranks 93rd in effectiveness." "After 40 years in Washington?" "After 40 years in Washington, Dole is 93rd in effectiveness, right near the bottom." "I've read she's 92." "Didn't I just tell you she's 93?" "No, 92 percent of the time she votes with Bush." "What's happened to the Liddy Dole I knew?" "She's just not a go-getter, like you and me." A narrator then adds: "The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising."

The background: Dole has worked in Washington in the late 1960s, serving on the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Secretrary of Transportation under President Reagan and U.S. Secretary of Labor under President George H.W. Bush.

In 2002, she was elected U.S. senator from North Carolina.

In her first year in office, Dole voted with President Bush 98 percent of the time, according to an annual study of Senate votes tied to a clear presidential position done by Washington-based news service Congressional Quarterly.

Over the next four years, Dole's support of Bush declined to 85 percent, but her five-year average of support is 91.6 percent.

An annual study conducted since 2005 by the Congressional data service Knowlegis ranks members of Congress on their effectiveness.

After scoring in the middle of the pack the first two years, Dole's rating plummeted to 93rd when Republicans became the minority in the Senate in 2007.

Her rating was also low due to fewer mentions in the news media and service on less powerful committees on banking and armed services.

Dole's campaign notes that those committees are important to North Carolina, home to a number of banks and military bases.

"I've seen hundreds of senators come and go," argued her husband Bob at a recent event. "In both parties, I've seen good senators and I know how they work. You have a work horse and a show horse, and Elizabeth's in the work horse category."

As a side note, the ad subtly implies that Dole is in her 90s. She is actually 72.

Is the ad accurate? Yes, except for the implication about her age.