Kay Hagan

DAY 57

As usual, Elizabeth Dole has been saying one thing in North Carolina and doing another in DC on mortgage reform. Several months after pledging her support for modernizing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in North Carolina, Dole was back in Washington working for her special interest friends to make sure that housing reform measures didn’t go anywhere. And during the height of the subprime mortgage crisis, as hardworking North Carolinians faced the cold reality of record foreclosures, Dole was the only member of the Banking Committee to vote against FHA reform that would have helped countless Americans. Then again, she doesn’t have anything to worry about – she and Bob have owned their condo in the Watergate since the 1970s.

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 57 days.

DAY 58

Just six weeks after tragedy struck in Minnesota when a major bridge over an interstate highway collapsed, Elizabeth Dole had the audacity to vote against a measure that would have allocated sufficient funds for bridge repair. Now, after all of Dole’s votes to cut vital infrastructure funding, the Department of Transportation is reporting that the Highway Trust Fund is almost bankrupt.

Shocking.

Maybe the lack of satisfactory highways is to blame for Dole’s absenteeism from North Carolina?

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 58 days.

DAY 59

Since entering the Senate six years ago, Elizabeth Dole has been in lock step with President Bush on almost every issue, including his economic policies. Yesterday, the Department of Labor announced a loss of 84,000 jobs just in the month of August, which translates into the highest unemployment rate in five years. As it turns out, Bush and Dole’s economic policies were not doing anything to help hardworking Americans. Instead of making sure good-paying jobs stay in North Carolina, Dole preferred to let her special interest friends ship those jobs overseas and stash their extra cash in her campaign war chest. Maybe Dole will feel the pinch her constituents have felt come November when she is in the unemployment line?

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 59 days.

DAY 60

Children all across North Carolina are getting back into the swing of things for a new school year. New pencils, fresh notebooks, shiny binders – but where will students come up with the billions of dollars necessary to fully fund No Child Left Behind? Elizabeth Dole certainly won’t help. Dole voted five times against funding the education program that she described in 2004 as “bold and visionary,” and then had the audacity to assert in 2008 that she will only support the program if changes are made. When report cards come out this year, Dole’s record on education just won’t make the grade.

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 60 days.

DAY 61

Despite her pledge to run a positive campaign, Elizabeth Dole’s been slinging political mud for months. In a post-primary fundraising letter in May, Dole attacked Kay in her typical drive-by fashion – no facts, no backup, just Dole’s desperate attempt to keep her seat. Yesterday Dole outdid herself with the first candidate-approved-attack ad aimed at Kay, likening her to a “yappy dog.” In the commercial, Dole also resorted to name-calling, more drive-by attacks and notably, “I’m Elizabeth Dole and I approved this message.”
Of course she did. With her experience bankrolling negative ads at the NRSC and her campaign six years ago, she’s a pro.

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 61 days.

This feels like a blatant abuse of my front-page privileges, but it's for the common good and I'll un-frontpage it this afternoon.

Kossacks: Please recommend and comment on the Diary here! Like, now please.

(cross-posted at dKos)

Liddy Dole just rolled out a new attack ad on Kay Hagan--one that, to my mind, went several miles over the line.

Direct link

Let's see here now--portraying your opponent, who happens to be a woman, as a yipping dog. Am I the only one who thinks Dole just called Hagan a "bitch"? I've seen some dirty, below-the-belt attack ads in my time, but this takes the cake.

DAY 62

Today in Charlotte Kay will unroll her comprehensive education policy that seeks to invest in the right priorities for North Carolina students – expanding access to pre-school, fixing No Child Left Behind, and lowering the cost of college to make it a reality for all students. But Elizabeth Dole must be too busy passing notes with her special interest friends when it comes time to vote for students’ best interests. Dole has consistently received failing grades from education groups across the board, including a 0% from the National Parent Teacher Association. How will she defend that report card to hardworking North Carolinians who count on education for a better tomorrow?

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 62 days.

Liddy Dole just rolled out an attack ad on Kay Hagan, portraying Hagan as a yipping dog.

Does anyone else get the implication here?

Very good news from a new poll by Democracy Corps. On the Senate side, Kay Hagan leads for the first time in any credible statewide poll, while the presidential and gubernatorial races are still touching-me close.

On the Senate side, Hagan leads Liddy Dole by five points, 50-45. On the presidential side, McCain leads Obama, 47-44. On the governor's side, Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory are in a flat-footed tie, 46 percent apiece.

DAY 63

A new ad today by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) on behalf of Elizabeth Dole cements her status as the champion of third party attack ads. The NRSC, trying desperately to cling to Dole’s seat, is on the air with a baseless attack ad aimed at Kay, while of course ignoring the fact that Dole has voted with Bush 92% of the time and is number 93 out of all her colleagues in terms of effectiveness. But we shouldn’t really be surprised: in 2006, as chair of the NRSC, Dole was responsible for spending over $19 million on some of the country’s most despicable negative ads, and she defended a spot aimed at appealing to racist sentiments. Members of her own party were even willing to admit that Dole took the negativity too far. But vicious attack ads were nothing new for Dole, who stood by silently in 2002 while the NRSC ran exaggerated negative ads against her opponent, and she was silent again this year when her own state party ran a blatantly racist ad in the primary election.

As chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Dole led the Washington-based third party group in spending large sums of money to launch negative attacks against opponents that were called “vicious,” including some with “racial overtones.”

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 63 days.

DAY 64

This Labor Day Weekend, hardworking North Carolina families do not have much reason to thank Elizabeth Dole. When it comes to Dole's dismal record of protecting working families, it turns out, once again, she’s against their best interests at every turn. She opposed the Family Medical Leave Act for decades, she has voted against raising the minimum wage while accepting pay raises for herself, and she has made it easier for big business to short their employees’ pension plans. Dole even voted against helping displaced workers after casting the votes that sent their jobs overseas.

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 64 days.

I'm sitting in my home in Canton, wondering what I should do about tomorrow's parade in Hendersonville.

DAY 65

Like any Washington insider, Elizabeth Dole has been a regular fixture at GOP conventions since the 1980s, even speaking on behalf of the Bush-Cheney ticket just four years ago. Now, in damage control mode, after blindly supporting the failed Bush administration throughout her six years in office, Dole knows it is time to distance herself from her abysmal 92% voting record with George Bush. In a last-ditch effort to reintroduce herself to her constituents she has neglected for six years, Dole will skip this year’s GOP convention to campaign here instead. Folks still can't find out where she is, though: still no public events calendar on her website.

Read the entire post to read more on today's reason on why Elizabeth Dole is wrong for North Carolina and check back for updates over the next 65 days.