All Entries in the "Garland “Andy” Barr" Category

Campaign Watchdog: Claim that Barr wants to abolish Medicare ‘false’

READ PREVIOUS CAMPAIGN WATCHDOG STORIES

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

The statements: “Andy Barr is trying to trick you to hide a radical agenda: abolishing Medicare for seniors, even putting your Social Security in the hands of Wall Street.”

— U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, in a television commercial attacking Barr, his Republican challenger

The ruling: False

The facts: Barr hasn’t said he plans to abolish Medicare or privatize Social Security. In campaign speeches, Barr says he will defend Medicare and Social Security.

The Chandler campaign is referring to the budget plan of another Republican, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who is the ranking GOP member of the House Budget Committee. In January, Ryan released a lengthy proposal to reduce deficit spending, including the partial privatization of Social Security and Medicare.

Chandler’s campaign cites a July 7 report from the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which said Ryan’s proposal, if enacted, effectively would end Medicare and divert Social Security funds into private investment accounts.

To connect Barr to Ryan’s plan, the Chandler campaign cites a July 15 interview with Barr on WVLK-AM in Lexington. Barr was asked by a caller if he would support Ryan’s budget proposal. Medicare and Social Security were not mentioned in the question.

“Yeah, I mean absolutely. I’m not in Congress now, of course, and I don’t have an opportunity to support a particular budget,” Barr replied. “But that budget, a leaner budget, is certainly preferable to the ones that have been offered by the president and the speaker of the House.”

While it’s true that Barr favorably remarked on Paul’s plan that day, he has not endorsed specific items in the plan, and he frequently has said that he would oppose efforts to privatize Social Security or end Medicare.

Outside groups jump into 6th District House race

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

Outside groups with undisclosed donors are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District race between U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, and Andy Barr, his Republican challenger.

The Center for Individual Freedom reports spending $136,797 on commercials attacking Chandler because of the federal government’s deficit spending while he served in Congress.

The Center for Individual Freedom is a politically conservative non-profit organization based in Alexandria, Va., just outside Washington, D.C., and organized under federal tax laws as a 501(c)4. That tax designation means it — unlike a candidate or political party — can accept unlimited donations and it does not have to reveal the identity of its donors.

The Center was founded in 1998 when several tobacco company executives pooled their resources to fight government regulations on tobacco products, but not much more information is publicly known. Its 2008 tax filing, the most recent available, showed more than $5.7 million that year in donations.

Kentucky Poll: Ben Chandler locked in tight battle with Andy Barr

PDF: Detailed poll results

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, is barely clinging to his House seat as the Nov. 2 election approaches, a new Kentucky Poll shows.

Forty-eight percent of likely voters surveyed in Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District said they would vote for Chandler, compared to 44 percent for Andy Barr, his Republican challenger. Eight percent were undecided.

Chandler’s four-point lead is within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Chandler also should worry about other numbers in the poll, said J. Brad Coker of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C., which conducted a district-wide telephone survey of 500 registered voters Oct. 15 to 19 for the Herald-Leader and WKYT-TV.

On the trail: Chandler asks for patience, Barr demands change

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

In their television ads, U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, and Andy Barr, his Republican challenger, spend most of their time hitting each other with accusations that are often misleading or false.

But on the campaign trail, giving speeches, they scarcely mention each other. As the Nov. 2 election looms, Chandler and Barr sprint across the 16 counties of Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District to tell voters their plans (they’ll create jobs) even if they’re fuzzy on details (how they’ll create jobs).

Chandler, a four-term congressman, urges recession-weary voters to be patient with a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress whom he says are digging out from an economic collapse that happened on the Republicans’ watch.

“We’re working hard to get this car out of the ditch,” Chandler told a breakfast crowd at Mount Sterling’s Court Days on Saturday. “And we’re going to do it.”

Barr, a Lexington lawyer making his first run for elected office, says Congress has failed and won’t do any better without a new direction.

“I think we need, frankly, to get the government out of the way,” Barr told the Kiwanis Club in Winchester on Wednesday. “I think the reason why our economy has not recovered is not because we’re not spending enough, it’s because government policies are creating too much uncertainty for the employers, who are actually in a position to hire the American people once again.”

Barr beats Chandler in third quarter fund-raising

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

For the second consecutive quarter, Republican challenger Andy Barr outpaced U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, in campaign fund-raising, although Chandler still has $1.3 million on hand to spend between now and the Nov. 2 election.

On Wednesday, the Barr campaign said it raised more than $486,000 from July 1 to Sept. 30. The Chandler campaign said it raised more than $458,000 in that same period.

Barr campaign manager John Connell said he was traveling Wednesday evening and did not have Barr’s cash-on-hand information with him. The third-quarter 2010 campaign-finance reports are due Friday at the Federal Election Commission in Washington.

In addition to the campaigns, several outside groups are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising for Barr and Chandler on Lexington television stations.

Barr, a Lexington lawyer, is scheduled to face the four-term Chandler on Monday at 8 p.m. on Kentucky Tonight, broadcast statewide on Kentucky Educational Television. That will be their first and possibly only public meeting of the campaign.

Campaign Watchdog: Claim on Barr’s police record ‘true’

MORE: Read previous Campaign Watchdog reports

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

The statement: “Barr lied twice on state job applications, failing to disclose an arrest and guilty plea for false identification.”

– U.S. Rep. Ben Chander, D-Versailles, attacking his Republican challenger, Andy Barr, in a commercial now running on Lexington television stations.

The ruling: True.

The facts: In 1993, as a 19-year-old college student vacationing in Key West, Fla., Barr was charged by police with possession of a fake Mississippi driver’s license. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to provide eight hours of community service, according to court records.

A decade later, when Barr applied for state jobs under Gov. Ernie Fletcher, he checked “No” on the sections asking if he had “ever been convicted of violating any law” other than “minor traffic violations.”

Barr said earlier this year that he believed his Florida conviction was “minor” and therefore did not merit disclosure on the applications.

Campaign Watchdog: Open records claim about Barr ‘mostly false’

MORE: Read previous Campaign Watchdog reports

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

The statement: “Prosecutors said when Barr was counsel to Fletcher, critical documents mysteriously disappeared. And the attorney general officially cited Barr, calling his actions a subversion of the state’s open records law.”

– U.S. Rep. Ben Chander, D-Versailles, attacking his Republican challenger, Andy Barr, in a commercial now running on Lexington television stations.

The ruling: Mostly false.

The facts: The “prosecutors” cited in the first sentence actually is just one man, Pierce Whites, an aide to Democratic state House Speaker Greg Stumbo. Whites also worked for Stumbo five years ago when Stumbo was the attorney general investigating Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

In July, Whites — a Democratic appointee who gives money to Democratic causes — told a newspaper that “critical documents mysteriously disappeared” in Frankfort while Fletcher was governor and Barr was one of his staff lawyers. This is the interview from which Chandler’s ad quotes.

The only example provided to support Whites’ statement is a 2007 opinion from the attorney general’s office, which Stumbo and Whites led, chiding the Fletcher administration for “its apparent failure to implement a program for ensuring preservation of records.” The second part of Chandler’s claim refers to this attorney general’s opinion.

Campaign Watchdog: Tax claims about Ben Chandler ‘mostly false’

MORE: Read previous Campaign Watchdog reports

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

The statement: “Chandler took a pledge to vote against tax increases, but then broke it by voting over and over again to raise your taxes.”

– Americans for Tax Reform, criticizing U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, in a commercial running this week on Lexington television stations

The ruling: Mostly false

The facts: Americans for Tax Reform, a Washington non-profit led by former corporate lobbyist and Republican Party activist Grover Norquist, has booked more than $170,000 worth of air time to attack Chandler, who stands for re-election Nov. 2 against Republican lawyer Andy Barr of Lexington.

In its current ad, the group tells Central Kentuckians that Chandler voted “over and over again to raise your taxes.” It cites five House votes from 2007 and 2008 as evidence.

Voting to raise taxes — as those bills did — violated Chandler’s pledge with the group to not raise taxes on any individuals or businesses. Chandler signed the pledge on Dec. 18, 2003, during his first run for Congress.

But the votes did not “over and over again” raise the taxes of Central Kentuckians, as the ad alleges, unless they were an oil or natural gas company, the U.S. subsidiary of a foreign parent company or made more than $500,000 a year.

Andy Barr and Ben Chandler debate immigration issues

Welcome to the Bluegrass Politics Debate. Each Wednesday and Thursday through the end of September, the candidates for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District seat — U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, and Republican lawyer Andy Barr of Lexington — will debate a topic chosen by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The candidates ask and answer the questions. Questions are limited to 35 words. Answers, which will be posted online by 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, are limited to 75 words. Rebuttals, which will be posted online by 6 p.m. on Thursdays, are limited to 35 words.

The entire debate will appear in the Sunday City|Region section of the Herald-Leader, as space allows.

Week 8 topic: Immigration

Barr’s question for Chandler: Since 2007, you’ve approved enough spending to increase the publicly-held debt from $4.9 to $9 trillion. Why did you oppose a May 7, 2009 committee amendment to provide an additional $200 million for border security?

Chandler’s answer: Because protecting America is my top priority, I’ve consistently opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants and supported building a fence and sending additional troops to the border. Your attack is deceptive. I’ve repeatedly supported dramatic funding increases to secure our borders, and voted against this amendment because it would have stripped funding from our troops’ rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan and from our response to the deadly H1N1 virus outbreak. Are you against these important efforts?

Barr’s rebuttal: We need more than lip service. We need a Congressman who will consistently vote for border security and enforcing our immigration laws so states don’t have to do the job for the federal government.

Chandler’s question for Barr: In these tough economic times, illegal immigration takes critical jobs from American citizens. Will you pledge to support increased funding as I have for the E-Verify program which checks the work eligibility of potential employees?

Barr’s answer: On June 24, 2008, you voted against extending the E-Verify program. On June 12, 2009, you voted against an amendment that would have made the E-Verify program permanent. Then, on July 17, 2009, you voted against a ban on funds being used to delay the implementation of a requirement that federal contractors use the E-Verify program. You talk about supporting E-Verify, but unlike you, I will actually vote consistently in favor of it.

Chandler’s rebuttal: Funding I supported improved E-Verify, slashed the error rate and reduced costs. Before these improvements, you would’ve been irresponsibly locking in a system that hurt small businesses and let illegal immigrants slip through the cracks.

Campaign Watchdog: Claims about Barr’s PAC ‘mostly false’

MORE: Read previous Campaign Watchdog reports

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

The statement: “Barr actually started a PAC to support a radical agenda that included eliminating Social Security and Medicare.”

- U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, attacking his Republican challenger, Andy Barr, in a television commercial running this week on Lexington television stations.

The ruling: Mostly false.

The facts: In 2002, Barr and a friend, David Moss, started a political action committee called the Kentucky Capitalism and Freedom Committee. They registered it with the state government to support local and state political candidates who were “committed to the principles of individual freedom, limited government and competitive capitalism,” according to the registration. They cited as inspiration the free-market teachings of Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman.