Despite the fact that Elizabeth Dole has been openly critical of the national SCHIP program and the inevitable threat it poses to the tobacco industry particularly in North Carolina, she has consistently voted to override President Bush's veto of any measure that block's the Administration's proposed payment cuts to Medicare providers.

She has also introduced an expanded and fiscally responsible version of the same SCHIP extension bill (a bill that failed to pass legislation in 2007) which would increase Medicare funding by $17 billion and cover children of families that "make up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level."

Senator Elizabeth Dole, apparently distracted from North Carolina concerns while managing the GOP's low-performing Senatorial Campaign Committee (RSCC) in 2006, is now concentrating on state issues. Recently, Dole has supported full tribal benefits for the Lumbee Indians, who have longed been denied tribal recognition. Locked in a surprisingly competitive re-election race against State Senator Kay Hagan, the niece of 3-term Florida U.S Senator and former 2-term governor Lawton Chiles, Dole is likely to receive a large chunk of votes because of her famous name and accomplishments on the national stage.

Senator Elizabeth Dole has a proven record of accomplishment for North Carolina constituents. In addition to her remarkable public service career, having served five presidents and after winning 54% of the vote in November 2002 Senator Dole is focused on growing the economy and creating jobs, strengthening national security and modernizing our military, improving education and making quality health care more affordable and accessible. She Dole is committed to making North Carolina – and America – safer, stronger, healthier and more successful in the months and years ahead. She has introduced 48 bills since 2003 (Average of First Term Senators) and co-sponsored 407 bills at the same time. Senator Dole has helped North Carolina retain the title of the most military friendly state.

Dole is among Republican leadership in the Senate and is one of the more prominent names in politics. That's her advantage.

Her disadvantage is that she is one of the more prominent names among Republican leadership.

Her Republican status is the reason she has just a single-digit lead over a virtually unknown Kay Hagan. While it is unlikely that she will lose, she is going to have to spend a lot of money to hold on to her seat and not become another Republican swept up on the way out as many did in 2006 when more than 20% of incumbents in the Senate lost their seats.

Kay Hagan's attacks against Elizabeth Dole's alleged connections to the oil industry lost some credibility on August 7 when the Dole campaign released documents showing that Kay Hagan and her husband own gas and oil wells in at least five states. The Dole campaign also pointed out that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that accuses Dole of being "Bought by Big Oil," has itself received $458,000 from the oil companies. These hypocritical attacks by Hagan reflect only her inexperience and poor judgment, qualities that North Carolina can hardly afford in the U.S. Senate.

The election of 2008 finds many presiding Republican Senators at risk of losing their seats to Democratic challengers on account of a increasing disillusionment amongst many voters with high oil prices and the continuing war in Iraq (issues closely attributed to the GOP.)

Many of these Democratic challengers have resorted to aggressive campaign strategies and smear tactics that prioritize attacking their Republican opposition rather than providing the voters with a clear, concise understanding of their positions on key issues.

In response the string of three recent negatives aired by the Hagan campaign, the Elizabeth Dole campaign has added a "Smear Meter" to calculate the amount of money Hagan spends on launching these negative attacks against her.

The total is currently $614, 397 (and is always increasing). For whatever its worth, perhaps this measure taken by Dole is a reflection of her said commitment to bipartisan cooperation in the Senate rather than the usual mudslinging that hinders productive legislation.

Regardless of whether one is a republican or a democrat, Hagan says all must unite to work towards an end to the energy crisis by ending our dependency on foreign oil.

Unfortunately, some of her methods appear to lack progression or promote renewable energy. The bipartisanship linked to the bill via the D&R;mixed-group "Gang of 10" still promotes off-shore drilling for 32.5 million federally owned acres and 68 million on-shore.

Now the bill does provide funding for R&D;incentives and other company tax breaks for automobile manufacturers so that new steps may be making to revolutionizing the American car and cease dependency on petroleum by moving technology towards the next generation of biofuel, but the hunt for oil will still exist off-shore and on American soil. Will Hagan keep her promise to push green legislation if she wins the election, or is she comfortable with appeasing Republicans?

Here's a link to her full statement regarding positive off-shore drilling in America and on federal soil.

http://www.kayhagan.com/press/

Kay Hagan's website on August 12 featured a YouTube video with her latest political ad which made a number of claims regarding her record in the State Senate. The Dole campaign quickly disputed Hagan's assertions and produced some convincing evidence to back up their arguments.

Hagan's ad refers to her as an "independent voice" but the North Carolina State Senate website clearly shows that she voted with the Democratic majority 99.7% of the time. Independent?

The ad claims that Hagan reached across party lines to ban driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. The truth of the matter is somewhat different. In 2001 Hagan actually voted for a budget that allowed an Individual Taxpayer Number to serve as acceptable proof of identity to obtain a driver's license. Only after Congress passed the Real ID Act of 2005, which prohibits illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses, did Hagan vote to restrict the use of the Taxpayer ID number for obtaining a driver's license.

The Hagan ad goes on to claim that she has balanced five state budgets in a row. It turns out that since Kay Hagan took office, the per capita debt in North Carolina has more than doubled and is being paid for by huge tax increases. Since 2001 the General Assembly has increased taxes by nearly $6 billion.

Kay Hagan increasingly is resorting to negative campaigning and the use of distortions and convenient omissions in her political messages. Surely that type of campaigning is going to come back to bite her when the voters go to the polls in November.

Senator Dole's stances are much better known than those of Hagan since Dole has a track record of being in public service much longer. That means unexpected surprises are less likely if she is reelected. She may also present a strong case for working more closely with Democrats to pass bipartisan legislation after campaigning successfully for Kennedy and Johnson back in 1960.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has launched its first television spot attacking Sen. Dole's rival, Kay Hagan, for her role in increasing North Carolina's state debt, increase in taxes, and the inaccuracy of her own campaign ads regarding her record and her attacks against Sen. Dole.

This race is tight, especially for a state that boasts a strong Republican tradition.

Hagan's campaign responded by claiming she was instrumental in balancing the budget for five years on the State Senate and has supported efforts to strengthen the efficiency of government programs throughout North Carolina.

As the incumbent and her challenger start the stone-throwing that will rattle the television sets and radio dials from now till November, again we see the pull of financial contributions in our political process. To some extent, the candidate with the most ads wins based on the simple math that the more ads you have, the more people know your name.

Issues get bogged down in soundbites, name-calling, and competing claims while the extent of public broadcast of a candidate's name can be the determining factor when the booths open up.

Hagan is running an effective campaign and will do best (as will all Democrats) to run the "Republican = More Bush" line as far as it leads, but Dole has a lengthy resume as Senator for North Carolina, which may help to hold off the groundswell of anti-Republican sentiment that Hagan is depending on.

Expect more debates on the issues of fiscal responsibility and tax policies to be the main talking points between these two competitors.

Again, in the case of Elizabeth Dole (R), who has been wrestling the past few weeks with a tightening race against Democrat Kay Hagan, we see a struggling Republican Senator invigorated by the wave of hysteria after Palin's arrival and speech at the RNC trying to fuel the GOP flames back in their home state.

This past weekend, Dole spoke to a guest dinner in Burlington for the Almanac County Republican Party, ""I've broken a few glass ceilings along the way, and let me tell you something, Sarah Palin is going to break another one. I am really, really excited about her selection ... She is willing to stand up for what she thinks is right."

She then went on to attack Hagan's tax plan saying that the Democratic rival will raise North Carolina taxes by $6 billion and that her plan will reduce taxes by 25%.

Dole reiterated her support for offshore drilling as a viable and effective option to lower gas prices and create an independent American energy source. She also advocated drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Reserves.

Commenting on the dinner and Dole's address, Rep. Howard Coble (R - 6) said, "Gov. Palin's energy, coupled with this energetic group tonight - I don't think we can lose, Elizabeth."

At a fundraiser in Goldsboro last week, Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole defended herself against Hagan's attacks that she has spent too little time in North Carolina and too much time in Washington.

She emphasized the amount of time and ground she's covered in her campaign: "The campaign's going well. I've been in all of the 100 counties at least twice. And it's good because you have a chance to hear what's on people's minds -- their concerns."

She then went on to proclaim that she is "very proud of being a North Carolinian" and that her "roots are deep, deep in this state."

The specifics of her defense in Goldsboro in particular were her efforts in the process of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, which added nearly 300 new airmen to the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

Dole closed her statements by aiming forward as she detailed a plan to reform guest worker programs that will work for the N.C. farmers and leaving the issue of 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants as a second priority to nurturing the North Carolina economy.

""We're not going to be able to round up and deport 20 million people," she said. "You have to go part by part, and it will resolve itself."

This latest news about Elizabeth Dole (R) and Kay Hagan (D) racing to voice their support for offshore drilling before the other candidate beats them to it is classic American politics and I suspect we're going to be seeing a whole lot more of these circus acts as the races heat up into the Fall and incumbents scrap for their lives to save their seats.

Yesterday, the two hopefuls for the North Carolina Senate announced that they supported offshore drilling when they had both previously opposed lifting the ban "it might harm the environment and tourism."

Hagan claimed she supported drilling on the basis that it may potentially lower gas prices and has been proposed as a compromise to introduce alternative and renewable energy initiatives.

Dole also cited the increase in gas prices as the impetus for her flip-flop.

Either way, the candidates' anxiousness to endorse offshore drilling reflects just how tight some of these elections are now and how much more intense they promise to get in the coming weeks.

Both Elizabeth Dole (R) and Kay Hagan (D) played their "military endorsement" cards this weekend in hopes of nabbing the majority of the nearly 900,000 potential military votes between the veterans and active duty military personnel in the state of North Carolina this weekend.

Dole made her case at the Cary Veterans of Foreign Wars hall touting her work in fundraising for the World War II memorial in D.C., her efforts to refurbish the Walter Reed Hospital, and legislation that she supported for families of wounded soldiers and predatory lending protection for servicemen and their families.

But Dole's best case in the battle for the military vote was made by her husband, Bob Dole, by him just being there. He had profound impact with very clear, potent points such as noting that the only thing he wanted inscribed on his tombstone was "VETERAN" and that the military in North Carolina was a more than $20 billion business.

In these campaigns, familiarity is a massive advantage and most of the voting age public has some awareness of who Bob Dole (R) is, which does nothing but help Elizabeth when it comes to the military vote in November.

However, Hagan also made her case from the VFW state headquarters in Raleigh. Her platform focused on veteran health care and her family's military background.

Hagan's message resonated with Willie Robertson, a VFW post commander and Democrat, who was backing Hagan, ""We talked to her [Dole] four years ago. I thought she would be an advocate because of her husband. She said a lot of things, but she didn't do a lot of things."

The North Carolina Senate race is among six which Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada characterized as being within the margin of error according to polls for the National Republican Senatorial Committee which is led by the Nevada Senator. The implication is clearly that in a year where Republicans are troubled by the burden of an unpopular outgoing administration, so many "pick 'em" races is "so far, so good" for the Republicans.

This Saturday (September 27th), just two days before the bailout got dropped in the House, Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole spoke out in opposition to Bush's plan to grant $700 billion to rescue Wall Street from an impending meltdown.

The Senator argued that the bailout "violates every principle of American capitalism and free enterprise that I have been taught and that our country has always held."

She took a cue from the mounting disapproval of the bailout according to the polls, stating, "I put my faith in our people before our government, and in free enterprise, with appropriate regulation and oversight, before nationalized control of our economy."

Hagan's campaign was quick to pin down Dole's statement against Bush's proposal as a late decision - too late, in fact, to be considered authentic and that the Senator's disapproval wreaked of political opportunism.

Regardless, the decisions on behalf of Republicans to vote down Bush's bailout plan mark a pivotal moment in the movement of the Republican Party away from the unpopular President and towards their more conservative, non-interventionist roots.

Senator Dole has voted against the revised Wall Street bailout bill like a handful of her fellow Republicans in the Senate. This move was probably a result of voters warning her about what would result from supporting the bill and therefore part of the Bush agenda. It may also help the Republican party as a whole to be reminded that it would never support such wasteful spending if it lived up to its principles.

Dole Votes Against Bailout

As one of the dissenting votes on the bailout bill, Dole acknowledged that action must be taken, but she argues that a market-based solution would be more effective. After the vote she stated,

"To fix the markets, we must deliver a market-based solution, not a government bailout."

She further criticized that the bill would now cost $800 billion, expands government, does not adequately protect taxpayers, raises the federal deficit, and "bails out foreign investors before American homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages."

As an alternative she supports tax credits for home purchases, suspending mark-to-market practices, and Increasing transparency in the clearing and settlement of “swaps” contracts.

read these ppls profiles i think the answer is way to obvious dole had a substancial amount of more experenceand she went to harvard and a few other places and she has experence in the field alredy.