Burr: "I'm not going to change anything" (Audio)
When I was in D.C. last week reporting on Sen. Kay Hagan's first days in office, I also spent some time with some of our other Congress-critters.
Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican, is North Carolina's senior senator. He plans to run for a second term in office in 2012.
We talked a little bit about Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. Burr was a big supporter of McCain, particularly in North Carolina. He is convinced that it's the economy more than anything else that did in McCain's campaign, particularly in North Carolina.
I asked if he thought North Carolina had changed in some fundamental way. After all, Democrats won a fifth consecutive term in the governor's mansion, won the state's presidential electors for the first time since 1976 and expanded their hold on the Council of State.
Burr said, no, that all things being equal, the state has always had voters willing to look across party lines. This year was odd, he said, because of the economy but did not represent a redrawing the political fundamentals.
So, I asked, does 2008 have any bearing on 2010, when he'll be running again?
Again, no.
"I still have to prove to the voters that I've done the best that I can, that I've worked hard on their behalf," Burr said.
However, Burr does seem to have taken note that Sen. Elizabeth Dole, the Republican incumbent who lost to Hagan, was beaten in no small part because she was perceived as an absentee senator.
"I spent 11 weekends in Washington in 14 years, and I've seen some news accounts that say I'm going to be home more often than I have been. My wife says, 'I don't think that's possible,'" Burr said.
In the end, Burr said, he doesn't plan on changing how he operates.
