news-record.com

RALEIGH (AP) — Sen. Elizabeth Dole is airing a new ad that questions her rival's ties to an atheist political group as a new poll released Wednesday shows the Republican incumbent slightly behind in her first bid for re-election.

Dole's ad questions why state Sen. Kay Hagan attended a fundraiser at the home of a man who serves as an adviser to the Godless Americans Political Action Committee, a group that mobilizes atheists to emphasize the separation of church and state and other issues.

Hagan, who went to the September fundraiser at the Boston home of activist Woody Kaplan, is a Christian and elder at her local church. She plans to hold a news conference Wednesday with her pastor and family to respond to what she called an attack on her faith.

Dole's ad comes as a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows Hagan with a slight advantage over Dole, 47 percent to 43 percent. The poll was conducted Oct. 22-26 and included 601 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Dole's ad shows clips of some members of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee talking about some of their goals — such as taking "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance and removing "In God We Trust" from money.

"Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took Godless money. What did Hagan promise in return?" the narrator says in the ad.

The 30-second spot ends by showing a picture of Hagan while another woman — Godless Americans PAC executive director Ellen Johnson — declares in the background, "There is no God!"

Dole campaign spokesman Dan McLagan said the end of the ad was not misleading, arguing the woman's voice is clearly not the Democratic lawmaker. McLagan said the ad does not question Hagan's faith, only why she would associate with a group with an atheist agenda.

"The concern is that she's going to support judges that has the same world view that she's taking money from — or oppose judges who have the opposite" world view, McLagan said.