Don’t know why anyone would be surprised, but I thought it was worth mentioning—the New York Times has endorsed Democratic challenger Deborah Ross in her bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Richard Burr:
The contrast between the two candidates could not be sharper. Mr. Burr is a quiet party wheel horse whose career in the House and the Senate has been supported by significant campaign donations from the fossil fuel and nuclear energy industries. He was appointed to Donald Trump’s national security advisory panel, but, like many Republican incumbents, he has been hemming and hawing about Mr. Trump’s demoralizing candidacy. “I take him at his word,” the senator said rather meekly after Mr. Trump denied that he had ever committed the sexual assaults on women that he bragged about in the “Access Hollywood” tape. Mr. Burr has been trying to convince voters that Hillary Clinton’s “lack of judgment” is worse than Mr. Trump’s.
Mr. Burr is caught up as well in the controversy over the “bathroom bill” championed by Gov. Pat McCrory, whose re-election campaign is in trouble. In the face of business boycotts, the senator called for retreat from the ill-advised law that forces transgender individuals to use public bathrooms according to their birth gender and prohibits cities from passing antidiscrimination ordinances to protect gay and transgender people.
Latest Elon University poll: Burr 43 percent; Ross 39 percent.
