N.C. Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican, is being hit with a mailer paid for by the N.C. Democratic Party that claims he's no friend to military veterans.
The mailer shows a man with a prosthetic arm — its pincers clasping a small U.S. flag. "He Served With Honor," the ad says. "But Nelson Dollar Cut His Benefits," Dan Kane reports.
Dollar said today that the claim is "patently false."
"The Democrats have used images of our veterans and men and women in uniform in a way that is disrespectful of their service to our nation," Dollar said in a news release. "These mailers fail to cite any bills or votes to back up their claims and I can assure you in my four years in the House no bill has reached the Floor which would 'slash any veteran's benefits.'"
He cited several bills that he supported that helped veterans and the military, including a property tax break for disabled veterans that was included in this year's state budget.
Democratic Party spokeswoman Kerra Bolton said the party stands by the mailer.
She cited his vote against the previous year's budget, which included money for programs and services that benefit military families and help foster economic development in military communities, but she did not mention anything that amounted to a cut in veterans' benefits.
More after the jump.
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Both state budgets are in the $20 billion range, and military spending amounts to a smidgen of spending. But Bolton said that Dollar can't call himself a supporter of the military and veterans if he votes down a budget that contains other items that he may not think are in the public's interest. The 2007 budget, for example, included a spending increase of nearly 10 percent over the previous year.
"If you say that you support the military and you say that you support veterans, you vote for them consistently," she said. "Not just when it's politically expedient."
Dollar is seeking his third term and is facing Democrat Al Swanstrom of Cary. Dollar called on Swanstrom to repudiate the ad.
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Re: Mailer attacks Dollar on vet benefits
How ironic for Nelson Dollar, a professional politial consultant with a reputation for running nasty campaigns, complaining about being attacked for his record.