GOP, Burr challenger trade fire over sexual assault in TV ads

by Jordain Carney - 10/26/16 2:38 PM ET

Democratic Senate candidate Deborah Ross is trading fire with Republicans over a 1990s sexual assault case and the state sex offender registry, as the race for a North Carolina seat heads into the final stretch.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) released an ad Wednesday focusing on the North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union’s mid-90s push for the state’s court to give Andre Green, a 13-year-old accused of sexually assaulting his neighbor, a more lenient sentence. Ross was state director of the group from 1994 to 2002.

{mosads}”We know ACLU lawyer Deborah Ross puts her radical agenda before common sense. But shockingly, she tried to free rapist Andre Green after he broke into his neighbor’s house, beat and raped a young mother while her son watched,” the ad’s narrator says.

Ross “fought to release him when he turned 18. It makes you wonder what Deborah Ross was thinking,” the ad continues.

Democrats quickly blasted the spot, arguing it’s a sign that incumbent Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is “desperate” to keep the focus off his own record and his support for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“North Carolina voters see right through these desperate ads — especially since they come as Senator Burr claims ‘there’s not a separation’ between him and Donald Trump, who has openly bragged about sexually assaulting women,” said Helen Hare, a spokeswoman for Ross.

She added that the “false attacks ditch the facts on Deborah’s work to toughen sentencing and penalties for violent criminals, not to mention her focus on helping survivors get justice.”

At the time, first-time sexual offenses such as Green’s carried a life sentence. His case came up shortly after North Carolina lowered the age at which minors could be tried as adults from 14 to 13.

Ross and the North Carolina ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief, acknowledging that Green should be locked up but questioning the precedence of sending 13-year-olds into an adult prison.

The ad — part of the GOP group’s $2 million reservation that will run through Election Day — comes as Republicans try to put distance between Ross and Burr.

The North Carolina senator — who wasn’t initially expected to be vulnerable — is leading by an average of 3.2 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

Ross also fired back Wednesday at GOP accusations that she opposed a state sex offender registry.

The Democratic Senate hopeful released a TV ad, featuring former state Sen. Fountain Odom (D) — who is the author of the North Carolina sex offender registry.

“The way I was raised, if you question someone’s character, you better tell the truth. But Richard Burr is lying,” the former state legislator says. “Hiding behind false attack ads about me and my friend Deborah Ross.”

Odom adds that he “sponsored the sex offender registry, and Deborah Ross helped me. I was there, Mr. Burr.”

It’s the second ad Ross’s campaign has used Odom in as it works to counter GOP attacks. The two campaigns first traded shots on the issue over the TV airwaves in late September, with Odom saying in the initial ad that “Sen. Burr is flat-out lying, and that’s why people hate politics.”

Burr’s campaign has accused Ross of opposing creation of a sex offender registry, pointing to a 1995 ACLU memo from Ross, saying a bill creating a sex offender registry would “make it even harder for people to reintegrate into society and start over and could lead to vigilantism.”

Burr also told a local TV station earlier this month that Ross “took the side of sex offenders” while working at the ACLU.

Democrats, however, argue that voicing concerns about a piece of legislation isn’t the same as opposing it. Ross separately noted in a Senate debate that she “voted 18 times to strengthen and update” the sex offender registry while serving in the North Carolina House of Representatives.

Tags Donald Trump Richard Burr