North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr is making a concerted bid for the votes of the state’s tens of thousands of active duty forces and military veterans in his push to win a third Senate term.
Last week, the Republican senator’s campaign announced a “Veterans for Burr” leadership team, comprising 10 retired military officers. The campaign said they support his reelection because he “led the charge” in holding the Veterans Administration accountable for mismanagement, including addressing a national controversy over sick vets’ long wait times for medical care.
On a campaign conference call with news reporters on Friday, Pete Hegseth, an infantry officer in the Army National Guard and former head of the Concerned Veterans of America, gushed over Burr’s support for veterans while he served as the ranking Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee. Burr gave up that post when he was named chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee last year.
However, Burr frayed relationships with some veterans groups at the height of the VA scandal by publicly assailing their leaders for not calling for the resignation of the agency’s secretary, former Army Gen. Eric Shinseki.
Hegseth, however, saluted Burr for backing legislation making it easier for VA managers to fire “underperforming” civil servants, noting that the agency has hired tens of thousands more employees but still is mired in bureaucratic problems. He also praised Burr for supporting legislation allowing veterans to go outside the VA system if they live far from an agency health care facility or face long wait times.
“Opponents will say that anyone who wants to reform it wants to privatize it,” Hegseth said, responding to criticism from Burr’s Democratic challenger, former state representative Deborah Ross. “That’s a classic straw man argument. Senator Burr doesn’t want to privatize the VA, nor do I.”
When VA red tape made the choice option “difficult,” Hegseth said, Burr pushed legislation to get around the bureaucratic hurdles.
“It’s accountability and choice that are going to fix the VA,” he said.
Greg Gordon: 202-383-6152, @greggordon2
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