As POLITICO reports this morning, Deborah Ross remains under fire for her radical record as head lobbyist for the North Carolina ACLU. Among her dangerous positions, POLITICO points to Ross’ opposition to the North Carolina sex offender registry, her defense of flag burning, siding with a convicted sexual predator, fighting to remove the 48-hour cooling off period, and voting against a law that would allow law enforcement to collect DNA from bomb-makers.
Much like her odd response in last week’s debate when she defended her opposition to the sex offender registry by claiming she was just being a “good lobbyist,” Ross defended her radical position to POLITICO by stating, “They raised something that was so easy to push back on.”
Really? Ross must have missed this…
On Friday an independent, non-partisan, fact-check was issued that not only found claims that Deborah Ross opposed the North Carolina sex offender registry to be TRUE, but also reported that Ross’ defense of voting to strengthen the sex offender registry is FALSE.
Read more from POLITICO:
POLITICO: North Carolina’s Senate race gets personal
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The GOP is airing intense and personal ads based on Ross’ tenure as a state representative and as a top lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she voiced opposition to a sex offender registry bill and advocated rights of flag burners and even an adolescent who was convicted of sexual assault, whom the ACLU held had been given too harsh a sentence for someone his age.
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Now, Burr and the Republican-backed Senate Leadership Fund cast Ross as heartlessly prioritizing "sexual predators over victims," said Kelly Lowe, a Marine Corps veteran and a rape victim who was featured in one statewide ad. In another ad, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill says Ross "sued to end the 48-hour cooling off period for domestic violence victims" and "voted against a law that would allow law enforcement to collect DNA" from bomb-makers. A third ad targets Ross for defending "those who want to burn the American flag."
Democrats, several of whom expressed concerns about Ross’s ACLU affiliation a year ago during candidate recruitment, were at least ready for the attack. Ross’ campaign immediately deployed competing ads, including one featuring Fountain Odom, the Democratic state legislator who authored the sex offender registry law, who says Burr is "flat out lying" and that Ross voted 18 times to strengthen and update the law.
"They raised something that was so easy to push back on," Ross said, adding that the attacks are "clearly not sticking because we have brought the truth out" and people tell her that they "think what Richard Burr has done is despicable."
Burr said "her words and her actions don’t support her claim," repeating quotes from 1995 and 1997, when Ross said the sex offender registry "will have unintended consequence and it won’t protect your child."
Ross is not always the most natural candidate: At one point during a debate with Burr Thursday, Ross defended her ACLU work by noting that "as a good lobbyist – lawyer, you have to look at the implications" of legislation.
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