Sen. Richard Burr is the target of a new Internet ad campaign that seeks to tie his political contributions from the defense industry and the Chamber of Commerce to his vote on a bill involving how overseas American contractors handle allegations of rape.
"Did Sen. Burr Put Campaign Cash Above Victims of Gang Rape?" says the online ad that is scheduled to begin running today by Change Congress, a Washington-based group that pushes campaign finance reform.
The group is currently running ads on other issues targeting Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, all Democrats.
"We've had a series of campaigns that have tried to point out cases where members have voted consistent with contributors but inconsistent with their constitutuents," Larry Sessig, the co-founder of Change Congress said in an interview.
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The ad grew out of an allegation of a gang rape in 2005 of a Houston woman who who was working in Iraq as a firefighter for Halliburton/KPR. The woman was forced to take her case before an arbitration panel rather than before a judge and jury because of an arbitration agreement that was part of a contract she signed before going to Iraq.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn, offered an amendment to ban federal funds from going to companies that require arbitration in the case of sexual assault. Burr was one of 30 Republican senators who voted against the amendment.
Change Congress hired a polling firm, Research 2000, to conduct a a poll of 600 likely North Carolina voters, which concluded that Burr's vote was unpopular. The group also cited statistics that Burr, a Republican, had received more than $700,000 in campaign contributions while in the Senate from the defense industry and from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, groups which opposed the Franken amendment.
Burr noted that one of the two co-founders of the group, Joe Trippi, is working for Kenneth Lewis, one of Burr's Democratic challengers.
"Why The News & Observer is reporting on an ad paid for by a group with such an obvious agenda is beyond me," Burr said in a statement. "The group's co-founder, Joe Trippi, is a paid political consultant for a Democrat candidate who is running against me, and this is nothing more than a campaign stunt. This is not the first we have heard from this candidate, nor do I expect it to be the last."
Marisa McNee, a spokeswoman for Change Congress, said Trippi had no involvement in the ad or in targeting Burr.
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