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U.S. Sen. Richard Burr says a planned televised bipartisan session on health care is a political play by the White House.

Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, is helping craft the GOP strategy for the session, which is scheduled for Feb. 25. He told WPTF's Bill LuMaye on Tuesday that the event is an attempt to halt the bad news for President Barack Obama's administration.

"I think that the hemorrhaging that exists at the White House right now is so severe they're trying for a political game changer," Burr said. "I think this has very little to do with trying to reach an agreement on the policies of health care."

Burr said Republicans intend to demand that parts of the health care bill that are unacceptable be removed. They will pitch their own ideas. But as in a campaign debate, the format should be negotiated, he said. The White House has not yet formally invited Republicans, he said. 

"What's the format for it?" he said. "Are you going to have an exchange of ideas or are you going to stand up at a microphone and lecture us? This is something that the American people would be interested in watching if it's constructive."

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham is calling for tax breaks for small businesses as a way to help stimulate the economy.

Cunningham, a lawyer and former state senator from Lexington, proposes tax credits for businesses that hire new workers, the temporary elimination of capital gains taxes on small businesses and the creation of a new bonus manufacturing tax credit to reward companies that research and manufacture their products in this country, Rob Christensen reports.

"The private sector is the engine that drives our economy," Cunningham said in a statement. "To be sustainable, jobs must be grown from the bottom-up — from the small businesses on Main Street, North Carolina — and from the entrepreneurs who bring new ideas to the market."

He also called for extending the home buyers' tax credits through 2010.

This is the second part of Cunningham's economic plan that he has released. Details are featured on his Web site.

Cunningham is one three candidates seeking the Democratic Senate nomination in May for the the right to face Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

Bruce Clark, who ran the campaign that put Anthony Foxx in Charlotte's mayor's office, is hoping to do the same for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kenneth Lewis.

Clark had taken a job in Washington when Lewis called last month, the Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill reports.

"I've had the luxury of working for two candidates that I believed in,” said Clark, who grew up outside Chicago. "“I just said to myself, 'This is the guy who’s got to be our next senator.'"

Lewis faces former state Sen. Cal Cunningham and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall in the May 4 Democratic primary. But the Chapel Hill attorney led his better-known rivals in fundraising, according to new reports.

And in a primary where it takes 40 percent of the vote plus one to win, Lewis is relying on a solid base. That's because African American voters make up as much as 41 percent of the state's Democratic electorate. Last fall, in a city where about 35 percent of registered voters are black, Foxx relied on a strong African American vote to beat Republican John Lassiter.

A former staffer for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr now is the top spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Doug Heye was the communications director for Burr’s Senate campaign, then took the same position in his Senate office — a job he held for two years, Barb Barrett reports. Heye left Burr’s office to run the Senate campaign for RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who was then lieutenant governor of Maryland.

Heye graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1994.

GOVERNOR ONLINE: According to depositions taken in a public records lawsuit, Gov. Mike Easley kept a secret e-mail account for state business and his press secretary said he wanted public information officers to delete e-mails to the governor's office to avoid having them become public. Given the federal investigation still swirling around the Democrat, whether his administration followed the public records law may be a small concern for the former governor.

BIG BUCKS BURR: In one night, Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr raised more money than any of the Democrats who want to win his seat have been able to raise in months. Burr is by far the overwhelming money leader as the Senate race begins this year.

SHE LIKES HIM/NOT: U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx wailed on President Barack Obama in a post to her Twitter account. She concluded her criticism by reporting that she also got the president's autograph.

IN OTHER NEWS: Democrats, by a slim margin, tend to be rooting for the New Orleans Saints in Sunday's Super Bowl. The state Democratic Party has picked up a lot of travel expenses for Gov. Bev Perdue and her husband.

Mark Braden, who was deputy campaign manager for Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaign in New Jersey, has taken the same job for North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr.

Braden will manage the campaign's day-to-day operations and oversee all campaign operations for Burr, who is seeking re-election in November, reports Rob Christensen.

Before helping Christie defeat Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in November, Braden served as national advance lead for the McCain-Palin campain in 2008.

DEFINE 'NEVER' In December, Department of Correction officials and a lawyer for the state's attorney general said in court that prison officials never authorized the release of inmates sentenced to life in the 1970s and never promised them they were going home.

E-mail messages and memos exchanged within the department show that his staff considered the releases certain. (N&O)

CHANGE WELCOME: The state would welcome changes to No Child Left Behind, the federal law that pushed schools to reach unattainable goals, state education officials say. (N&O)

MONEY, MONEY: Republican Sen. Richard Burr, benefiting from incumbency and strong business ties, starts the year with at least a 13-1 money advantage over each of his prospective Democratic challengers. Burr's financial prowess was on display one night last week in Raleigh at the Angus Barn restaurant, where he raised $425,000 — more money than any of his opponents had raised all of last year. The speaker was Karl Rove, the former chief strategist for President George W. Bush.

Cal Cunningham is leading Secretary of State Elaine Marshall in fundraising in the Democratic Senate primary.

Cunningham, a former state senator from Lexington, has raised $320,058 since entering the race late last year compared to Marshall who has raised $233,327, according to year-end reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

Cunningham reported having $303,175 on hand while Marshall reported having $211,113 on hand, Rob Christensen reports.

A third Democratic candidate, Chapel Hill lawyer Ken Lewis, has not yet made his campaign finance figures available.

The Democrats are behind the pace of where Democrat Kay Hagan was at this point in her successful challenge to Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008. At the same point, Hagan had raised $561,836.

Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr has $4.3 million in his campaign account.

Update: Lewis reports that he has $116,000 on hand and has raised $380,000 in his bid for Senate. 

Republican Sen. Richard Burr began the year with a $4.3 million campaign war chest, almost certainly giving him a financial advantage over his potential Democratic challengers.

Burr raised $1.2 million in the final three months during the past quarter, according a report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The Winston-Salem freshman reported raising $6.4 million during the election cycle and spending $2.5 million, Rob Christensen reports.

He reported raising $3.4 million from individuals and $2.4 million from political action committees.

He will likely face one of three Democrats seeking their party's nomination: former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, Chapel Hill attorney Ken Lewis, and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

Karl Rove, chief political advisor to President George W. Bush, said Barack Obama's operation overwhelmed John McCain's campaign in North Carolina in 2008.

Rove, who was in Raleigh to help raise $425,000 for Sen. Richard Burr on Thursday, was asked about Obama's victory over McCain, Rob Christensen reports. It was the first time in 32 years that a Democratic presidential candidate had carried the state.

"President Obama had a big tactical advantage that allowed him to nip the state by less than four tenths of one percent or something like that," Rove said in an interview. "Between June and November he raised and spent $850 million to John McCain's $525 million. That's a big difference. If you can come in here and cover the state as did in the end with television advertising and McCain had no dollars to respond, that's a problem."

"The imbalance in organization, media and campaign activity in this state was enormous," Rove said. "Of course one out of every five adults in this state is African-American and they voted for Obama in numbers much larger than they turned out before."