Fifth District Congressman Richard Burr, speaking to GOP in Hickory in March, may run for U.S. Senate seat held by John Edwards in 2004.
Erik Perel for the News & Observer
Ping.
Posted on 04/07/2003 7:32:04 AM PDT by JohnnyZ
Congressman raises money, eyes Senate seat
By ROB CHRISTENSEN, Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- There is little mystery why U.S. Rep. Richard Burr has become the hottest commodity in the North Carolina Republican Party -- the White House's choice for the Senate seat held by Democrat John Edwards. Burr, a 47-year-old Winston-Salem resident, is bright enough to master the intricacies of national health-care policy, funny enough to trade quips with radio host Don Imus, and charming enough to sell his political views the way he once sold microwaves.
With the endorsement of party elders ranging from former Sen. Jesse Helms to former Gov. Jim Martin, Burr is making a strong effort to lock up the GOP Senate nomination 20 months before the 2004 election.
"I think Richard Burr is a new generation of Republican," said Ed Gillespie, a Republican strategist in Washington who was heavily involved in President Bush's and Sen. Elizabeth Dole's most recent campaigns. "He is a mainstream conservative when it comes to taxes and national security issues. But it is very hard to make him scary to moderates and swing voters and suburban women. He doesn't polarize."
As Edwards campaigns from California to New Hampshire, Democrats wait to find out whether he will abort his presidential run and seek re-election to his Senate seat. Burr, meanwhile, has become a fixture on the mashed potato circuit and has begun lining up big names, starting with White House political adviser Karl Rove, to help him raise $12 million for his campaign.
Republican strategists hope Burr will be able to ride to victory using a formula similar to the one that proved successful last year for Sen. Elizabeth Dole: a strong assist from a popular president, a well-financed, high-energy campaign, and a candidate with crossover appeal.
But Burr starts the race not nearly as well known statewide as Dole. And Democrats think he is vulnerable because of his frequent trips paid for by special interests, and they plan to portray him as a champion junketeer.
In North Carolina's Republican heartland, Burr, the anti-Edwards, was a hit.
At a recent Lincoln Day dinner in Hickory, Burr lavished praise on President Bush. He said the president needs a super Republican majority in the Senate to overcome Democratic filibusters. He portrayed Edwards as an absentee senator who is too busy campaigning for president to look after North Carolina's interests.
"I think the thing for North Carolinians to do is let him live his ambition," Burr told the crowd of about 200 people attending the roast beef and green bean dinner at a Holiday Inn. "Let him run for president. But let's make sure we get a United States senator here who can represent all the people of North Carolina every day in the United States Senate."
Burr does not appear as smooth as Edwards on the trail -- and he lacks a clear message other than voicing support for Bush. But Burr is much more relaxed than Dole, and he has none of Helms' angry edge.
"He's got charisma," former Burke County Sheriff Richard Epley says. "He's a great-looking guy. He carries himself well. He's got great ideas. Richard Burr could run for anything. A man like him could run for president."
Burr represents a generational change in the North Carolina Republican Party, whose congressional leaders tend to be in their 60s and 70s.
A trim 6 feet, 182 pounds, Burr maintains his high school football playing weight, thanks to a daily 90-minute workout in the House gym. He was an all-conference tailback in high school and attended Wake Forest University on a football scholarship.
The son of a prominent Presbyterian minister and a distant relative of former Vice President Aaron Burr, Richard Burr said he never intended to go into politics. He spent 16 years in sales for a wholesale distributing company, where he demonstrated Amana microwaves at cooking schools in appliance stores.
"You would cook them a meal and 50 people would show up and they would be amazed that you could cook a meal in a microwave in 20 minutes," Burr said. "They would sample the food, and hopefully you would sell microwaves. I think I was extremely good at it. Unfortunately, it has caused me to be the dinner cook lately."
Angered by Congress' passage of a tax increase in 1991, Burr challenged Democrat Steve Neal the next year. He lost, but ran a close enough race that Neal decided to retire in 1994 rather than face Burr again.
Burr came to office as part of the so-called Gingrich Revolution that swept the Republicans into control of the House. He was part of a large GOP freshman class from North Carolina that included Walter Jones, Sue Myrick, Fred Heineman and David Funderburk.
Arriving in Congress at a time of change and turnover, Burr landed a plum assignment -- a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The post allowed Burr to forge statewide contacts with key industries -- electric utilities such as Duke Power and pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline -- and protect Tar Heel business interests.
During his eight years in office, Burr has often focused on health-related issues, including reform of the Food and Drug Administration, changing the way Medicaid money is distributed to states and working on a Republican plan to extend prescription drug benefits to the elderly.
His early success with an FDA bill marked him as a serious legislator. He was given responsibility for steering toward passage a bill that made it easier to get drugs on the market. He got the assignment, in part, because of his close ties to tobacco companies, which wanted to avoid FDA regulation of cigarettes.
Burr spent two years working on the FDA Modernization Act, dealing with doctors, patient groups, consumer groups and the pharmaceutical industry to develop a consensus on how to get drugs and medical devices approved more quickly.
Democrats have been less than complimentary of Burr's role in issues involving prescription drug benefits. While the Democrats have sought to provide broad drug coverage for Medicare patients, Burr was an architect of some more limited Republican alternatives.
Burr has been involved in other issues, such as pushing for electricity deregulation and trying to repeal a water conservation law requiring all toilets to use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush.
Demonstrating an eye for publicity, Burr attacked the toilet rule by delivering a House floor speech that was written on a roll of toilet paper. If you have to flush twice, he argued, you don't save water. Soon he was repeating his performance on "Imus in the Morning" and other national radio programs.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was so impressed with Burr that he reached down the seniority list to make him vice chairman. Burr became Tauzin's chief whip, keeping the votes in line, keeping the work flowing and forging compromises.
"His work ethic is truly admirable," Tauzin said. "He never stops. He is extraordinarily well liked. He has an amazingly positive sense about him."
Burr, who describes himself as "a staunch believer in the free marketplace," has become a major ally of drug companies and electric utilities. And those industries have generously backed his political efforts. The pharmaceutical industry has contributed at least $221,000 to Burr, the electric utilities at least $166,000, and the tobacco industry at least $147,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions.
When North Carolina businesses need help on Capitol Hill, they're likely to turn to Burr, just as they used to do with one of his mentors, former U.S. Rep. Jim Broyhill. As a result, the business community is conflicted about Burr's trying to move to the Senate.
"The business community holds him in the same high esteem as they did Jim Broyhill," said Phil Kirk, president of N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry. "They are very much alike. They are more moderate Republicans who are very involved in pro-business issues and also very effective."
Consumer advocates are less enamored of him. The N.C. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer and environmental group, gives him a lifetime score of 6 out of a possible 100, the second-lowest in the North Carolina House delegation, on its scorecard judging Burr's stance on legislation the group considers important for consumers, the environment, and for good government. The group did not like recent Burr votes against a patients' bill of rights, his vote to make it harder to declare bankruptcy, and his votes to cap medical malpractice awards.
"His voting record is not in favor of consumers," said Kiki Dunton, a staff attorney with N.C. PIRG in Chapel Hill. "It is disappointing in the way he has chosen not to protect consumers."
How moderate?
Burr's reputation as a moderate appears to derive more from his interest in health-care issues and his inclusive style than from his voting record. His votes on economic, social and foreign policy issues generally coincide with those of lawmakers with more conservative reputations, such as Robin Hayes of Concord and Walter Jones of Farmville, according to the ratings by the respected National Journal.
"I am conservative on every aspect of decisions that we are faced with," Burr said. "I am very compassionate to the programs that are designed to help those at risk."
Burr reminds audiences that he is keeping his campaign promise to serve no more than 10 years in the House. But Burr has become comfortable in other Washington ways.
The Democrats in recent weeks have begun portraying him as a "poster boy for insider excesses" for congressional junketing. During the past five years, special-interest groups have spent $82,000 to finance 18 trips for Burr to travel to such cities as Prague, Czech Republic; Paris and Marseilles in France; Madrid and Seville in Spain; and Las Vegas, according to records with the House clerk's office. For example, the nuclear power industry spent $18,292 for Burr and his wife to spend a week touring nuclear energy facilities in Paris and Marseilles for a week in 2001.
"The next time Richard Burr says he understands the concerns of working families, one will have to ask if he referring to the flight attendant who served his meals on his trips to Paris, the waiter who served his drinks by the pool in Las Vegas or the porter who handled his luggage in Prague," said Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, rehearsing what could very well become a future TV ad.
Burr said he took the trips because they were useful for his committee work, such as studying the French banking industry, or learning how Spain reprocesses nuclear waste. Every trip, he said, was cleared by the House Ethics Committee staff.
Politically ambitious, Burr began moving around the state in the late 1990s, developing ties that would help him when he decided to run for higher office.
He considered running for governor in 2000, but held off when his longtime friend, former Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer, was also a potential candidate. Burr said he would have run for the Senate last year if Dole had not.
Shortly after Dole's victory, Karl Rove invited Burr to breakfast, recruiting him to run against Edwards.
In February, Burr announced he would not seek re-election to the House and would begin a Senate bid.
Burr said he doesn't care whom he faces in the Senate race, whether it is Edwards or some other Democrat such as former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles or former N.C. House Speaker Dan Blue.
Burr has a reputation as a relentless campaigner, buying a cup of coffee at every stop. He has been known to buy as many as 30 cups in a day.
"There is nobody in the world who can be recruited," Burr said, "that will work harder than I will to win."
Burr's voting record
U.S. Rep. Richard Burr has served in the U.S. House since 1994. Here's a look at some of the key votes he has cast.
FLAG AMENDMENT. A constitutional amendment, approved by the House by a vote of 312-120 on June 28, 1995, to allow Congress and states to pass laws prohibiting the desecration of the American flag. FOR.
CUBAN EMBARGO. Legislation, approved by the House in a 294-130 vote on Sept. 21, 1995, that tightened the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba. FOR.
TAX-INCREASE AMENDMENT. A proposed constitutional amendment, which fell short of the required two-thirds majority by a vote of 238-186 on April 22, 1998, to require a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate to raise taxes. FOR.
SCHOOL PRAYER AMENDMENT. A proposed constitutional amendment, which fell short of the required two-thirds majority by a vote of 224-203 on June 4, 1998, that would guarantee the right to prayer in school. FOR.
NATO WAR IN SERBIA. Legislation, approved March 11, 1999, by a vote of 219-191, to authorize the deployment of U.S. military forces in the NATO peacekeeping effort in Kosovo. AGAINST.
DISPLAY TEN COMMANDMENTS. Legislation, approved by the House by a vote of 248-180 on June 17, 1999, to permit state and local governments to display the Ten Commandments on public property. FOR.
GUN SHOW BACKGROUND CHECKS. Legislation, which failed in the House by a vote of 193-235 on June 17, 1999, to require some gun show dealers to perform background checks within three days. AGAINST.
PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS. Legislation, approved by a vote of 275-151 on Oct. 7, 1999, that would establish a "patients bill of rights" in dealing with HMOs. AGAINST.
PERMANENT TRADE WITH CHINA. Legislation, approved by a vote of 237-197 on May 24, 2000, to authorize permanent trade relations with China. AGAINST.
TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY. Legislation, approved by a vote of 215-212 on July 27, 2002, to give President George Bush "fast track" authority. Under the new legislation, Congress can either approve or disapprove trade deals negotiated by the president, but can't tinker with the details. FOR.
SOURCE: THE ALMANAC OF AMERICAN POLITICS
Staff writer Rob Christensen can be reached at 829-4532 or robc@newsobserver.com.
Burr will be a great US Senator.
Ping.
The Democrats are going to try to paint a Republican as a tool of special interests. What an ingenius strategy!! :-D
Just when I had started to forget the sadness of no college football on TV to watch, you had to go and remind me.
Alright. I could back this guy. "Consumer" groups hate him. I already knew he was pro-gun. He opposed MFN for the Chi-coms. Anti-tax.
Isn't that what compassionate conservatism is all about? And why boobs like Bob Barr can often be counterproductive? We're the good guys -- let's wear white hats and smile once in a while!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.