Burr: Back for more?
Word is out among the national drive-bys that our Republican senator is likely to seek reelection in 2016. Burr himself gave that talk life in a recent interview with National Journal:
With control of the upper chamber on the line, this year’s North Carolina Senate race has a gravitational pull all its own in the political world.
But while Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan and GOP candidate Thom Tillis—and a legion of outsiders—are locked in a pitched campaign, many political insiders in the Tar Heel State are looking ahead to 2016, when Republican Sen. Richard Burr’s seat will be on the ballot.
Rumors about Burr’s retirement are rampant, say North Carolina political consultants as well as congressional aides on the Hill. Burr himself has heard the same buzz. So is it true?
“No, no, no,” Burr said in an interview. Asked whether he’s running in 2016, he nodded.
“Oh yeah. I’m planning on it,” he said.[…]
Now THAT flies in the face of some really good information I’ve been getting out of Burr’s home county of Forsyth. I have a really good source there — on a first-name basis with Richard and Brooke — who has been telling me, as late as Labor Day weekend, that you could put it in the bank that Burr was not going to run again. My source cited (1) fatigue with the Beltway life, and (2) the retirement of Burr’s good buddy, Georgia senator Saxby Chambliss, as the motivating factors.
My Forsyth source has been so on-the-money with so much other political information. It would be hard to believe that this source could either (1) purposely mislead me, or (2) get things so terribly wrong.
Perhaps Burr has recently been talked into hanging around for six more. Perhaps there is some anxiety within the Beltway about Kay Hagan possibly surviving 2014. If those fears come to fruition, keeping Burr in place would be a heck of an insurance policy for DC GOP powerbrokers. The leading contenders to replace Burr, on the GOP side, are two incumbent congressmen. If Burr left, that would be THREE open seats for the GOP to defend in North Carolina during a presidential election year.
We’ll wait and see what happens when it comes down to put-up-or-shut-up time for 2016.
Time for a primary, Dan Forest for Senator?
I wish Forest would have run this time. He would almost certainly be way ahead of Hagan by now. Instead, we are stuck with the second coming of Richard Morgan, who had ”loser” written all over him from the beginning.
Senator Burr has done a good job and deserves re-election. That is, if you care about conservative values and leadership.
And if the Lt. Governor wants to primary a squishy elected GOP leader, he should primary the governor instead.
”Tricky Dick” Burr is not anywhere close to being a conservative. He is a Quisling who is as phony as a three peso bill. He has picked up the Lindsay Graham trick of voting with the liberals on the key procedural Senate votes, and then voting with the conservatives on the final vote which is just window dressing, since the procedural vote was where the legislation was going to be defeated if it was. He has been doing this on a number of important issues from gun control to illegal immigration. As a result, Burr has been censured and rebuked by three different GOP Congressional District organizations, one by overwhelming vote of its district convention delegates and two by unanimous votes of their district executive committees.
Burr also declared all out war against conservatives when he helped finance the deplorable Watergate-style dirty tricks campaign against Chris McDaniel in Mississippi.
Hopefully Burr will retire, so we can get a decent Republican who has conservative principles in that seat instead of the disgusting phoney Burr. Tricky Dick Burr is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable.
Burr has been in DC 20 years….about 16 too many. Burr must go away and soon.
He won’t get my vote after sending $30,000 to help Thad Cochran get reelected even though the man is suffering with dementia. Chris McDaniel won that election but when former Governor Hailey Barber pulls the strings with his nephew who was the campaign manager to put Thad back in office and then gracefully retire and put his nephew in to finish his term stinks. Why would Burr try to destroy a conservative ? because he is not a true conservative as he expects us to believe.
Oh, it is much much worse than just sending money to help Thad Cochroach! Burr was one of what the Senate Conservatives Fund calls the Shameful Seven, the seven US Senators led by Mitch McConnell, who specifically financed the last minute dirty tricks campaign against McDaniel.
Down, down, down with Tricky Dick Burr! Remember Mississippi!
Here is a link to an article about how Burr helped finance the dirty tricks against conservatives in Mississippi:
http://www.senateconservatives.com/site/post/2670/thad-cochrans-senate-enablers
This is something that can never be either forgotten nor forgiven. It is an embarassment having Burr represent us in DC.
I think Senator Burr will be Condoleezza Rice’s VP running mate in the 2016 election.
Let’s worry about 2014 for now, Burr will face a primary, he’s buddies with Boehner and is fully on the trash conservative train.
The VA bill that was recently passed does little to help veterans and does a lot to help federal union workers…no thank you.
Does he ever speak about the awful rule of engagement our troops are forced to operate under? What has he done to make sure our troops get to vote, other than send a letter to the DoD…nothing.
It is time for him to go.
Speaking as a disabled veteran, you’re so right. Burr is worthless and believe me, I’ve tried to get constituent service from his office and its like talking to a stone wall.
As for a Primary, well, he had two challengers with no name recognition in 2010 and you saw how far that challenge went. Needs to be someone with a name and resources and there aren’t many true conservatives in NC with those qualifications.
Don’t like Tillis.
Don’t like Burr.
How about hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts? Like them?
If that last remark is about Governor Krispy Kreme Christie, then most conservatives do not like him either. His refusal to campaign in the tight Virginia Governor’s election for the GOP candidate was bad enough, but he even refused to campaign or overtly support Republican legislative candidates in his own state of New Joisey. This guy is not a team player, even when it is the Republican team, and even when it is moderate candidates like those legislative candidates in his own state that he dissed. No, we do NOT need Governor Krispy Kreme.
Brannon for Senate in 2016 whether Burr is running or not.
Who are the two Congressman who will run for Burr’s seat?
Meadows and McHenry?
I guess Forest doesn’t want to move to the beltway.
Even McCrory is more conservative than Burr or Tillis.
McCrory is probably the only governor to stand up to the open borders lobby in the last 2 years.
I think Walter Jones would be a good candidate but I don’t know if he could survive the lies against him in a statewide campaign.
McIntyre(D) could be a threat if he ran.
I guess Ellmers is won’t run in a race where opposition is well funded.
We will stand a better chance of electing a Conservative if Burr does, in fact run for re-election because the Establishment will spend their time and efforts in defending him, rather than putting up other candidates to water down the Conservative vote. You won’t see a large field of nine candidates like we did this time, since it was an open seat. Lots of people, including myself, were convinced that Mark Harris was a plant to dilute the vote and take votes from Brannon, which it did.
If Burr runs, it’s a better chance for Greg Brannon, who it is widely believed will run in 2016.
I’ve had many contentious conversations with his office staff over his disappointing stands and subsequent votes. I even discussed the ruse of him voting for Cloture and then voting against a bill.
I hope Burr runs for re-election and we get Brannon to take him on.
I think you are right. If Brannon defeats Burr in the primary I am sure all the Burr supporters would support Brannon in the general like the Brannon supporters are supporting Tillis this year.
After Burr’s financing of that nasty Watergate-style dirty tricks campaign against Chris McDaniel in Mississippi, I’ll bet that some of the national conservative groups backing McDaniel will be itching for pay-back, and that will spell national conservative money for a conservative challenge to Burr. The McDaniel contributor list should be a gold mine for raising money against Burr. Burr is just a bad of a suckweasel as Thad Cochroach and needs to be taken out.
Burr has been outed as a RINO as bad as Lamar by the Democrats. We need to keep this on record to hit him in 2016.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/reid-roasted-at-private-democratic-fundraiser/
“The next guy in line would be [Senate Minority Whip John] Cornyn from Texas,” said Pryor. “Cornyn, I don’t see him as really being that great.”
Pryor suggested Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.), but “I don’t think he’d ever do it.”
“Of course the best one would be Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.),” he added. “Lamar doesn’t have a chance of doing it, he’s too moderate in this environment.”