GOP-linked PAC airs new ad in NC Democratic Senate primary. What does the record say?
A group with Republican ties is out with another television ad promoting Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Erica Smith’s progressive credentials and hitting Democratic front-runner Cal Cunningham from the left on guns and gay rights issues.
The Faith and Power PAC, which has not disclosed its donors but has several ties to Republicans, spent about $500,000 on the 30-second ad. The Super PAC has spent nearly $3 million in the race, most of it touting Smith, who has struggled to raise funds on her own, according to campaign finance reports.
Cunningham, a former state senator, former Army prosecutor and lawyer, has raised more than $4.5 million in the race, including $1.4 million since the start of 2020, his campaign announced Thursday. He, too, has been buoyed by millions in outside spending. Smith, a state senator and former public school teacher and engineer, reported raising $205,000 in the cycle, per campaign finance reports.
Cunningham led Smith 42% to 17%, with 34% undecided, according to a poll released this week from WRAL. Three other Democrats are in the race, but none is polling above 3%. The Democrats are vying for the nomination to take on incumbent Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. Tillis, who faces three Republican challengers in the March 3 primary, is at 59% in the WRAL poll, with no challenger receiving more than 4%.
The Faith and Power PAC stepped in to boost Smith earlier this month. Smith disavowed support from the organization.
“What we’re concerned about is that people are sending a message that I can’t be trusted because I’m working with Republicans,” Smith said in a phone interview Tuesday. “That’s so far from the truth of what this is. I have no dealings with this Super PAC. I have denounced their interference in this primary. Once again, these underhanded tactics are being played to undermine the democratic process and voters should be outraged.”
In its latest ad, it calls Smith “the only proven progressive.”
Cunningham has been critical of the PAC’s “meddling” in the race previously. Now his campaign is defending Cunningham’s record from the left — particularly on guns and LGBTQ issues.
“It was bad enough that Washington Republicans were so desperate to prevent their weakest incumbent Thom Tillis from running against Cal that they stooped to impersonating a Democratic group to meddle in this primary, but now they are resorting to deceptive and misleading attacks on Cal’s values and the kind of Senator he would be,” Cunningham campaign spokeswoman Rachel Petri said in a statement by email.
“These shady tactics are wrong, and North Carolina voters won’t be fooled.”
A communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which endorsed Cunningham, also tweeted about Cunningham’s progressive credentials in light of the new ad, suggesting that there is at least some concern about the message.
“Voters should be reassured that Cal is the strongest progressive. He’ll tackle climate change & is endorsed by (League of Conservation Voters). He’ll pass background checks & is endorsed by the Brady Campaign. He’s supported by labor unions because they know he’ll protect the (Affordable Care Act),” Lauren Passalacqua wrote.
Medicare for All, Green New Deal
In the new ad, a narrator asks who will vote for the Green New Deal and Medicare for All and says Smith would but Cunningham wouldn’t. Smith does support Medicare for All and some policies that are included in the Green New Deal.
Smith said she favors zero carbon emissions by 2030 and supports banning fracking and off-shore drilling. She said any Green New Deal-type policy must include “environmental justice for the people who have been impacted by corporate polluters for far too long and there’s nothing that’s been done about the decline in their health.”
“It goes far beyond any plans I have heard,” Smith said in an interview with McClatchy.
Cunningham said he does not support Medicare for All or the Green New Deal. Instead, he’s called for expanding the Affordable Care Act by adding a public option and said that he supports “efforts to move to 100% renewable energy by 2050, rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, and retrain workers for green energy jobs.”
Both Medicare for All and the Green New Deal are policies endorsed by Democratic presidential front-runner Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sanders, who identifies as a democratic socialist, leads in national polling and is tied for the lead in North Carolina with former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, according to the WRAL poll.
Both Cunningham and Smith said they would support whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee.
Guns
The ad then asks who will stand up the gun lobby.
“Not NRA A-rated Cal Cunningham,” it says.
Cunningham received an “A” rating from the NRA in 2000 and voted to support a 2002 bill that would not allow people to sue gun manufacturers.
In this campaign, Cunningham said he supports expanding background checks, banning the sale of high-capacity magazines, funding gun violence research and passing red flag laws, according to his website.
“This is a moral moment and we need leaders who will act,” Cunningham said in a statement after deadly mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in August.
Cunningham, who served on Gov. Roy Cooper’s Crime Commission, has been endorsed by the Brady Campaign, which favors many gun safety measures.
“He understands the need to ensure that common-sense gun safety laws respect the rights of responsible gun owners and keep weapons out of the hands of those who cannot or should not have them. Cal understands the need to close loopholes that allow prohibited purchasers, such as those convicted of a violent crime, from acquiring firearms as well as the need to keep weapons of war out of North Carolina communities,” Brady President Kris Brown said in a statement.
Smith received a 100% rating from Grass Roots North Carolina in 2016 — the same rating as U.S. Sen. Richard Burr. Grass Roots North Carolina is a pro-gun organization “devoted to defending the individual right to keep and bear arms.”
In the previous state legislative session, Smith voted for a bill that allowed concealed carry permit holders to keep weapons in locked cars, even if they were on school property, and limited local jurisdictions ability to create their own ordinances. Smith said her vote was informed by an incident involving a community college faculty member and the wishes of county commissioners in her rural northeastern North Carolina district.
Smith, Cunningham and the other Democrats received zero stars from the Grass Roots North Carolina in 2020. Tillis received a two-star rating out of four and no endorsement from the group in 2020.
“For me, it’s not gun control but preventing gun violence and mass shootings,” she said in a phone interview Thursday. Of the NRA, she said, “They’ve never support me and always given me an F.”
Smith had a 36% rating from the NRA in 2016.
Smith’s platform includes universal background checks, a ban on assault rifles and bump stocks, closing loopholes on gun show and owner-to-owner transfers, and implementing red flag laws.
“We have to act. Children are dying and the tears of mothers are met with inaction and political gamesmanship by Thom Tillis, Mitch McConnell and the like,” she said on her website.
LGBTQ issues
In the television ad, the narrator asks and answers: “Who will stand up for the LGBTQ community? Only Erica Smith.”
Smith is endorsed by Equality NC, a gay rights organization based in Raleigh. She supports gender equity and protections for LGBTQ communities from harassment and discrimination, according to her website.
Smith cited her fight against a law that allows magistrates to not perform same-sex marriages, efforts to fully repeal House Bill 2 and to protect transgender people from violence as policies in this area.
“I do not believe we should codify discrimination,” Smith said.
In 1994, as a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, Cunningham proposed banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in admissions and employment in the UNC system, according to The Daily Tar Heel.
During his failed 2010 Senate bid, Cunningham argued against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that allowed gays and lesbians to remain in the military as long as they were not open about their sexuality.
“I support equal rights for LGBT Americans. I believe Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is morally wrong, wrong for our military, and counter-productive. We should immediately end it,” he wrote in Indy Week.
In 2012, Cunningham opposed a proposed same-sex marriage amendment to the state constitution. It easily passed that year, but was struck down by a federal judge in 2014. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriage nationwide.
Cunningham said he supports passage of the “Equality Act to protect LGBTQI North Carolinaians from discrimination in housing and the workplace,” according to his website. He has been endorsed by Bob Page’s Replacement Ltd PAC.
“North Carolinians in our LGBTQ community ought to be outraged by the Republicans behind these attacks who are attempting to mislead voters about Cal Cunningham’s values. I’m proud to call Cal a friend, and am grateful for his commitment to achieving fair and equitable treatment of all North Carolinians,” said state Rep. Cecil Brockman, who is bisexual, in an emailed statement.
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This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 3:27 PM with the headline "GOP-linked PAC airs new ad in NC Democratic Senate primary. What does the record say?."
