For now, Democrats plan to attack Sen. Richard Burr on the economy.

Eric Schultz, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, took issue with the headline of a previous post on Burr's chances in 2010.

He rattled off several criticisms of Burr: The controversial ATM statement and his votes against President Obama's stimulus package, the Senate budget resolution, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

"North Carolinians deserve two senators who will work to get this economy working again," he said. "Not one who stands in the way at every turn."

Several things were notable about the criticisms. They focused on contrasts between Burr and Obama, they centered on the economy and they were recent.

Of course, things change. At this point in the 2008 election cycle everyone thought the race would be about illegal immigration. 

Sen. Kay Hagan said that women have made progress, but not enough.

Speaking at a pro-choice women's luncheon in Washington Sunday, the Greensboro Democrat noted that she was taking the seat of former Sen. Jesse Helms, drawing brief boos from the audience.

She related that in 1999 Helms kicked now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and nine other Congresswomen out of a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after they tried to present him with a petition to sign an international treaty against the discrimination of women.

"That's whose seat I am taking," she said. "Looking around this room today, I know that you would agree that a lot has changed in this country and a lot has changed in the great state of North Carolina."

Speaking at an event sponsored by EMILY's List, Hagan repeated her support for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would extend the time period for filing a discrimination claim. It is the first bill Hagan has cosponsored and was the subject of her first speech in the Senate.

She also noted a smaller, but still irritating, act of discrimination.

"Imagine my surprise when I tried to use the Senate members' gym recently and found out that there is a pool, but — guess what — it's only for the men," she said.

Sen. Kay Hagan spoke on the Senate floor today.

The Greensboro Democrat used her first speech in the Senate chambers to urge support for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would amend the rules under which a person is compensated for discrimination.

"When someone is discriminated against in the workplace or anywhere else, surely they feel the impact of that discrimination far longer than 180 days," she said.

She added that the bill would not place "an undue burden" on employers by opening them up to litigation based on claims from decades ago.

"It simply says, for all of the legal jargon, that it's not acceptable for women to make less than men for the same job, with the same qualifications and with the same performance," she said.

Hagan is one of 53 cosponsors of the Senate version of the bill.

Related: Some senators wait weeks, months or even years to speak first, but Senate historians say that's no longer the case.

The full text of Hagan's remarks after the jump.

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Sen. Kay Hagan has cosponsored her first bill.

The Greensboro Democrat is one of 53 cosponsors of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a bill that would amend the rules under which a person is compensated for discrimination.

The bill arose from the case of Lilly Ledbetter, who discovered that Goodyear Tire Co. had been paying her less than her male colleagues for years. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that Ledbetter did not file her case in time.

The case was a cause celebre during the presidential campaign, with both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporting the bill and John McCain opposing it.

Ledbetter joined Hagan at a campaign stop in Charlotte in October to criticize then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole for voting against a prior version of the bill.

All but two of the 17 women in the U.S. Senate are also cosponsors. 

A small business group is honoring nine North Carolina politicians.

The National Federation of Independent Business is giving the Guardian of Small Business award to U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole and U.S. Reps. Sue Myrick, Patrick McHenry, Howard Coble, Walter Jones, Virginia Foxx and Heath Shuler.

Except for Shuler, all of the recipients are Republicans. 

The award is given to members of Congress who voted with the group at least 70 percent of the time. This past session, the NFIB opposed bills that would allow "card check" unionization and make it easier to file claims of pay discrimination and supported bills to aid small businesses.

The highest score went to Myrick, who voted with the NFIB 90 percent of the time, or all but one of 11 votes. The lowest went to Rep. G.K. Butterfield, who voted with the group 50 percent of the time or five out of 11 votes.

Fifty-eight senators and 194 representatives will receive the Guardian award this year.

CHARLOTTE - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan sought to woo women and labor votes today at appearances with an Alabama woman who sparked a Supreme Court case over equal pay.

Lilly Ledbetter was a longtime employee of the Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Al., who discovered after years that her male counterparts were paid more for the same job. She filed a discrimination suit and won in lower courts. But in 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that whatever the merits of her case, she'd waited too long to sue.

Ledbetter and Hagan ripped Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole who, in April, voted against a bill known as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007, reports Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer. It would have allowed suits such as Ledbetter's to stand.

"I don't understand how Liddy Dole could have voted against it,"Ledbetter said. "But she did."

The two spoke to a small audience at Queens University that included a dozen Teamsters from Local 71.

Dole spokesman Dan McLagan noted that Hagan, a state senator, last year voted to give Goodyear incentives to persuade it to keep its North Carolina plant open.

"Is it me, or is it a bit hypocritical of Hagan to be campaigning with a woman who is suing the same company that Hagan voted to give a taxpayer handout to?" McLagan said. "Also, is it hypocritical for Hagan to be giving tax breaks to a company that has had previous issues with pay discrimination?"