Two labor groups recently donated to Majority Action.

The Service Employees International Union's Political Education and Action Fund gave $200,000 in May, the SEIU's NYS Political Action Fund gave $150,000 in June and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union gave $100,000 in June.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole argued that the donations are being used by Majority Action — and by extension, the Kay Hagan campaign — to pay for issue ads attacking Dole.

"Her campaign is in the pocket of Big Labor," argued Dole spokesman Hogan Gidley.

But Bill Buck, executive director of Majority Action, said that there was no direct tie between the two unions and the Dole ads.

"They have contributed to Majority Action, but they can't make donations that are tied to an ad," he said.

The Hagan campaign said they have no connection to the Majority Action ads. 

Mark McCullough, a spokesman for the SEIU, also disputed Dole's attempt to link a visit by the Democrat to the AFL-CIO's annual executive meeting in Chicago Monday to the Majority Action ad.

He noted that the SEIU and the UFCW are members of the Change to Win Federation, which was created in 2005 as an alternative to the AFL-CIO coalition.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Democratic rival Kay Hagan both back the "Gang of 10."

The two rivals in the North Carolina Senate race both say they support a compromise energy proposal put forward on Friday by a bipartisan group of 10 senators.  

The proposal would allow for drilling off the coast of North Carolina and other states, encourage conservation and promote tax credits for alternative car fuels.

In a press release Monday, Hagan said she supports the plan.

"While the bill is not perfect, I have learned during my time in the Senate that compromise and consensus are necessary if we are to get anything done," she said in a statement.

Today, Dole's camp fired back, charging that there is no bill yet.

"She's telling us to sign onto a bill that doesn't exist," said spokesman Hogan Gidley, adding that Dole supports the idea.

Hagan's campaign noted that Sen. John Thune, among others, described the proposal as a "bill" on his Web site.

"Whether you call it a bill or a proposal or idea, it's out there," said Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan.

Previously, Hagan had opposed offshore drilling in North Carolina, while Dole changed positions to support it. 

Hours after Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was indicted today, his GOP colleague Sen. Elizabeth Dole sent his money to charity.

Dole donated $10,000 from her campaign to the Society of St. Andrew, a Christian anti-hunger organization, to equal the cash received this cycle from Stevens' political action committee, Barb Barrett reports.

Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, was charged this afternoon by the U.S. Department of Justice with seven counts of failing to disclose more than $250,000 worth of gifts to businessmen currying his favor on federal projects.

Stevens is one of the Senate's most powerful members.

Dole received two $5,000 payments on a single day in March 2007, according to campaign finance reports.

Dole faces a tough re-election race against Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan. Hagan called on Dole today to return a total of $21,000 that Dole's campaign received from Stevens and his committee between 2001 to 2007.

More after the jump.

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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan spent nearly an hour today listening to Charlotte-area veterans talk about their problems getting health care and other benefits.

One told her about having to get up at 3 a.m. to catch a Greyhound bus to the V.A. hospital in Salisbury. Another talked about the 14,000 pending claims by N.C. veterans backlogged at a V.A. office in Salisbury, Jim Morrill reports.

"People are frustrated because Washington is broken," Hagan said after meeting the 30 or so vets at American Legion Post 380.

Her appearance came a day after her opponent, Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole, announced her own "Veterans for Dole" steering committee. A statement that accompanied the announcement touted veterans' legislation she has supported, including a military and veteran health care bill.

Asked to describe Dole's record, Hagan said, "I don't think she's hearing the same complaints I'm hearing.

"Let me put it this way, my record will be a lot better."

Said Dole spokesman Hogan Gidley: “When it comes to providing for and supporting the military, Elizabeth Dole is second to no one ... except perhaps her own husband. Frankly, I'm embarrassed for Kay Hagan that she suggested otherwise.”

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole has a new chief fundraiser for her re-election campaign.

J. Sam Daniels left the campaign about a month ago, Dole's campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said Tuesday. Daniels had served as finance director for about two months and had previously been the campaign manager, David Ingram reports.

"It had gotten to the point, as campaigns do, where he was missing time with his family," Gidley said, adding that Daniels had been working seven days a week.

Gidley said the change was not related to the campaign's finances. In the second quarter of 2008, Dole raised $1.69 million while her Democratic opponent Kay Hagan raised $1.54 million.

Replacing Daniels is James Earp, who previously was the N.C. Chamber's vice president for business development. Earp also worked on Dole's 2002 campaign.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole had to change planes recently.

The first version of a recent ad for the Salisbury Republican boasts of her work helping North Carolina's military bases avoid closure during the BRAC process.

But as the liberal Senate Guru blog and D.C.-based newspaper The Hill pointed out, stock footage in the ad showed a French plane — a Dassault Super Étendard (top image).

A second version of the ad substituted an all-American F-15 (bottom image).

"Basically, our media consultant used the wrong stock footage, but it was corrected," Dole spokesman Hogan Gidley told the newspaper.

The campaign of rival Democrat Kay Hagan used the flub to argue Dole was out of touch.

"I imagine she’s celebrating Bastille Day today, as well," Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan told The Hill.

Update: Dole's campaign issued a statement:

"While Kay Hagan is focused on little gotchas, slipper parties and lurking around gas stations, Senator Dole is campaigning on her long record of delivering results for North Carolina and has an actual plan to improve the economy and bring down gas prices," Gidley said in a statement.

A liberal group is airing ads that target U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

Majority Action, a 527 group started in 2005 with help from investor George Soros, is spending $25,000 to $30,000 airing radio ads statewide this week that highlight Dole's record on gas-related issues.

Dole's campaign noted its earlier call for Democratic rival Kay Hagan to disavow third-party ads.

"Now we know why Kay Hagan refused to disavow third party attack groups — she's been planning on using them all along," said Dole spokesman Hogan Gidley in a statement.

He noted that Majority Action uses the same law firm as Hagan's campaign, Perkins Coie.

But Bill Buck, a Democratic consultant who serves as executive director of Majority Action, said the group has no ties to Hagan's campaign and is simply an "issue advocacy" ad.

"Perkins Coie is a huge national firm with a ton of clients," he said. "That's a goofy statement to make."

Majority Action is also airing ads targeting Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, who faces a tough re-election fight. Buck said they have not decided whether they will air more ads in North Carolina. 

The group has also received money from the Service Employees International Union, which is taking an increasingly active role in North Carolina races.

Can you send someone "back" to a place they never lived? 

On Wednesday in western North Carolina, folks supporting Democrat Kay Hagan's campaign for U.S. Senate planned to gather and decorate ruby red slippers for GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole, urging the incumbent to return to Kansas.

Except Dole has never lived in Kansas.

If anything, she's more of a D.C. gal, working in Washington most of her career and living primarily in the Watergate Apartment building since marrying then-Sen. Bob Dole in 1975, Barb Barrett reports.

Mr. Dole, of course, IS from Kansas.

The small town of Russell figures prominently in his biography. But he had already been elected to the Senate when he met the former Miss Hanford on Capitol Hill.

Hagan's ruby slipper joke — an allusion to her common refrain that she’d like to get Elizabeth Dole back home Dorothy-style — was pretty funny to folks in the Sunflower State and its environs on Thursday.

More after the jump.

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U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaign says she is asking the tough questions.

In response to criticism from Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, Dole spokesman Hogan Gidley said that she has "not been shy" about pressing for answers about "the mistakes in Iraq."

"Senator Dole has introduced legislation that would insist the financial responsibility of this war be shifted to the Iraqi government, and she joined a bipartisan effort to ask for more frequent and more detailed war reports from General [David] Petraeus," he wrote in an e-mail to Dome.

He also argued that Democratic opponent Kay Hagan has not taken a consistent position on Iraq since entering the race for U.S. Senate.

"Rather than doing Kay Hagan's dirty work with negative attacks, Senator McCaskill's time would be better spent on coaching Mrs. Hagan who clearly needs a tutorial on the subject," he wrote. 

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole says a recent bill is too late.

Responding to a Dome item from this morning, Hogan Gidley said that Democratic nominee Kay Hagan's co-sponsorship of a bill to require companies check workers' immigration status is "common sense."

"However, it's almost comical to see Mrs. Hagan's desperate political opportunism in introducing an immigration enforcement bill after doing nothing about illegal immigration during her 10 years in Raleigh," he wrote in an e-mail to Dome. "Mrs. Hagan's do-nothing approach to illegal immigration is why North Carolina has been called a 'Mecca' for illegal immigration by her hometown paper."

Gidley was referring to a March 2, 2006, article in the Greensboro News-Record about a Brazilian man living in New Jersey who sold fraudulent N.C. driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

"Critics say the incident shows North Carolina remains a mecca for illegal immigrants seeking licenses they can't get in states with more hard-nosed licensing systems," the article noted.