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Accusations traded in 5th District race
Incumbent Foxx, challenger Carter complain about misrepresentations
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Published: October 29, 2008
A new television ad by Roy Carter, the challenger in the race for the 5th Congressional District seat, accuses incumbent Rep. Virginia Foxx of ignoring the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq.
The Foxx campaign has accused Carter of taking money from an adult business.
Both candidates are trading negative advertising and accusing the other of misrepresentations as the race heads toward the finish.
Foxx is a Republican trying for her third term. Carter, her Democratic challenger, is a retired football coach making his first run for office. Statesville resident Summer Lipford says in the Carter ad that she contacted Foxx "over and over again" in an effort to get answers about the death of her son, Army medic Steven Sirko, in 2005. She says that Foxx never met with her, never contacted her and "has done nothing to represent me or my son in Washington."
A spokesman for Foxx said that she has responded to every letter from Lipford and that Foxx has asked the military to take a close look at Sirko's death. The campaign also provided the Winston-Salem Journal with copies of letters that Foxx wrote to Lipford and to the Army about Sirko's death.
Foxx aides said that Lipford never requested a meeting with Foxx. When Foxx personally called Lipford after her son's death, they said, Lipford would not speak with her and hung up the phone.
Lipford says she disagrees with the Army's conclusion that Sirko died of an accidental drug overdose and wants the Army to reopen its investigation.
Lipford acknowledged in a recent conversation that she did get one letter from Foxx shortly after her son died. But Lipford maintained that Foxx has done nothing to help her.
Todd Poole, Foxx's campaign manager, wrote to Carter and asked him to pull the ad, calling it "dishonest, disgusting and malicious."
"Tactics like that show how desperate they are to win," Poole said. "They are willing to smear a good woman who works passionately for the veterans of the district."
The Lipford ad also says that Foxx got a "D" from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a zero rating from the Disabled American Veterans.
The Foxx campaign disputes those claims, but in this case both sides are right: Foxx's low rating from the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans' group came in 2006, but she received a "B" for 2007-08. The disabled veterans' group gave Foxx the zero in 2005, but Foxx earned a 66 percent rating in 2006 and a 100 percent rating in the second session of 2008. The ratings are from the organizations and Project Vote Smart, which collects information from various interest groups.
Ryan Eller, Carter's campaign manager, said that the campaign stands behind Lipford, but he added that he couldn't say whether Lipford and Foxx ever had any contact.
"We sat with her, she told us her story, and no one who listens to that story would be happy with how Mrs. Lipford was treated," Eller said. "The Carter campaign will continue to run the ad as Mrs. Lipford asked us to do so."
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter, sees the Lipford ad -- plus the potential for heightened turnout among Democrats -- as signs that the district could be in play.
The newsletter said that the ad "is the kind of attack that can create buzz and strengthen an existing undercurrent of displeasure with Foxx." Cook has changed its rating of the 5th District race from "solid Republican" to "likely Republican." Congressional Quarterly, another nonpartisan political journal, continues to rate the district as "safe Republican."
Carter has been criticizing Foxx for taking money from political-action committees representing the oil, banking and insurance industries, and has vowed that he would not do so.
But the Foxx campaign recently responded by accusing Carter of taking money from an adult business.
According to Carter's campaign-finance reports, Carter has received about $2,800 in contributions from his son, Todd Carter, who is director of marketing for a company that sells adult products. To Poole, that is "a contribution from the sex industry."
Carter called the Foxx campaign's accusation "deplorable."
"That is not a donation from the sex industry; that is a donation from my son," Carter said.
The controversy took a new twist when Carter's campaign manager said that Foxx had also taken money from someone running an adult business. David Greenhaw, who owns a Houston store that sells adult products, said he made a $25 donation to Foxx after he heard that Carter was being criticized for taking a donation from Todd Carter, whom he knows. The Foxx campaign said it had returned Greenhaw's donation.
"I got a personal note signed by Virginia," Greenhaw said, adding that the congresswoman probably didn't know what line of work he is in.
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
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