February, 2008 - Campaign Update

THE PRESIDENCY AND CONGRESS

MIKE HUCKABEE KEEPS ON GOING

TWO INCUMBENTS LOST IN MARYLAND

All of the pundits proclaim that Mike Huckabee does not have a chance and that he cannot “win” enough delegates to beat Senator John McCain. They point out that Mike has to get 120% of the remaining delegates to “win.” But there are two sides to every coin. While he may need 120% of the remaining delegates to win, he only needs 60% to stop McCain from winning. Everyone forgets that Mitt Romney and others have delegates as well, not just McCain and Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee has won more actual primary elections than any Republican other than John McCain. Mitt Romney did win more caucus states where he could use his vast wealth to bus in delegates, but that is why he dropped out of the race. Romney won only two actual primaries and he had an overall favorable rating of -24. (Yes, that is minus 24 points.) Most voters viewed him as contrived and phony. But, Mitt Romney spent over $100 million dollars sapping votes from Mike Huckabee. The real conservative, the real 21st century thinker is Mike Huckabee and that is why he outlasted the other candidates.

On Super Tuesday night I was at Mike Huckabee’s headquarters at the Clear Channel Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. When the first numbers came in from Georgia cheers went up from the crowd that had gathered. As time went by it became apparent that Mike Huckabee was going to win every state that he had the funds to campaign in. Even in states he was unable to visit he was receiving double digit support and claiming second place in others.

At about nine o’clock, individuals close to the campaign including myself were escorted onto the stage in preparation for a statement by Gov. Huckabee. When he came onto the stage the crowd went wild shouting “Mike is back, Mike is back.” It took some time before Mike Huckabee was able to settle down those gathered and make his statement.

In typical Huckabee fashion he said, “The media said it is a two man race and it is; they just got the wrong two men.” With that the crowd once again began to chant. In his usual manner Mike Huckabee was gracious not only to his opponents but to all those who had continued to believe in him even when the pundits and press had declared his campaign dead.

In my home state of Virginia, Mike Huckabee was 30 points behind one week before our primary and yet almost won, carrying more than half of all counties. In just three days of campaigning he closed the gap by 25 points. When people have the chance to hear Mike Huckabee, they wind up voting for him.

THE HOUSE

In the middle of the presidential primary people forget that there are other candidates on the ballot. In Maryland there were both Democrat and Republican primaries for Congress as well. And two incumbents lost their seats. Both were defeated because they had run afoul of the party’s activist base.

Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) and Albert Wynn (D-MD) are from different parties. Neither had been involved in a scandal, and there had not been recent redistricting. Both lost because they were not ideologically in sync with their party’s base.

Congressman Gilchrest, the Republican, voted with Democrats more often than with his own party, and his constituents had enough. Groups such as the Club for Growth spent nearly $1 million to dump him. He did not vote with social conservatives and I am glad to see him go. Wynn, the Democrat, had the opposite problem, having sided with business more often than with his left-wing constituency. More goes on than just the presidential race, and GING-PAC will be involved

One of the upcoming races that is important to us is in Louisiana. Although the presidential primary is over, a special “snap” election is being held on March 8th to fill the seat of Congressman Bobby Jindal (R-LA) who was just sworn in as the Republican governor. The March 8th race is a party primary with a run-off on April 5th if no candidate gets more than 50%, and then there will be a final election between the Democrat and the Republican on May 3rd. All this, and the winner will have to run again in November!

Our candidate in the race is my old friend, former state legislator Woody Jenkins. Woody was cheated out of a US Senate seat by current Senator Mary Landrieu in an election in which van loads of Democrats went from polling place to polling place to vote over and over again using the names of the dead. The election was shamefully dishonest.

As a legislator Woody Jenkins authored more than 300 major bills including one to protect home schoolers and deregulate state control of private schools. He is a pro-life champion!

There are now 29 Republican congressmen who have either outright resigned or announced that they will not run for reelection this year. (This includes Bobby Jindal who resigned to become governor of Louisiana.) With that many incumbent Republicans leaving, we need as many good conservatives as we can find to fill the slots. Woody Jenkins will not be a McCain Republican; he is solidly one of us, a true social conservative who will fight for the Christian values this nation was founded on.

Slowly but surely, we are replacing “moderate” Republicans in Congress who do not vote with social conservatives and we are replacing them with men like Woody Jenkins. In December GING-PAC won two major victories in special congressional elections by helping to elect Rob Wittman in Virginia and Bob Latta in Ohio. I have mailed Woody a GING-PAC check and with your help GING-PAC can help him win and make it three special election victories in a row for us!

PLEASE HELP TODAY: Make a secure on-line contribution to GING-PAC to help us elect true social conservatives such as Woody Jenkins to Cobgress.

OUR NEW INTERNET SITE

Government Is Not God - PAC has a brand new state of the art Internet site. and we hope you are enjoying it! This update is also posted at www.gingpac.blogspot.com and comments can be left at the blogspot! My weekly legislative updates can be read at www.murrayonthehill.blogspot.com .

William J. Murray, Chairman

Huckabee's Super Tuesday Win

On Super Tuesday night I was at Mike Huckabee’s headquarters at the Clear Channel Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. When the first numbers came in from Georgia cheers went up from the crowd that had gathered. As time went by it became apparent that Mike Huckabee was going to win every state that he had the funds to campaign in. Even in states he was unable to visit he was receiving double digit support and claiming second place in others.

The news media had been streaming into Little Rock all day as exit polls showed a clear comeback for the man who had been dismissed by the media after a second place finish in South Carolina and falling to forth in Florida. All major outlets including Fox News had declared the Republican primaries a “two man race” between McCain and Romney. Meanwhile Mitt Romney continued his constant negative attacks on Mike Huckabee using surrogates such as Washington insider Paul Weyrich to declare that Huckabee was just “splitting the conservative vote” to allow McCain to win.

At about nine o’clock individuals close to the campaign including myself were escorted onto the stage in preparation for a statement by Gov. Huckabee. We he came onto the stage the crowd went wild shouting “Mike is back, Mike is back.” It took some time before Mike Huckabee was able to settle down those gathered and make his statement.

In typical Huckabee fashion he said, “The media said it is a two man race and it is, they just got the wrong two men.” With that the crowd once again began to chant. In his usual manner Mike Huckabee was gracious not only to his opponents but to all those who had continued to believe in him even when the pendants and press had declared his campaign dead.

There were more than 25 television cameras set up. So much press had showed up that a second press stand had to be set up on one side of the auditorium. The main press stand at the back had filled to overflow.

Mike stayed as long as he could after speaking to greet supporters before going to the area the campaign had set up for TV interviews. A special room had been set aside for those of us who were longtime supporters of his presidential campaign. We watched in amazement as the various networks that had declared his campaign dead and who had stopped sending reporters to cover his events interviewed him. CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CSPAN and even CBS ran long interviews with Mike who made it clear it was now him and McCain and that Romney, despite spending over 100 million had not done well. Romney had outspent Mike Huckabee by 15 to 1 buying off many Washington insiders.

I had talked to Mike Huckabee’s national campaign manager Ed Rollins the day before Super Tuesday. This is the ninth presidential campaign Ed Rollins has worked on including Ronald Reagan’s. Men who have trained under him include Lee Atwater and Karl Rove. He has seen just about every kind of conduct from candidates and he told me that Mike Huckabee treats everyone around him with kindness and respect.

Although Ed Rollins is a practicing Catholic I have never known him to be an outwardly spiritual man. Yet, it was a spiritual experience that brought him to the Huckabee campaign. At age 65 he asked for God’s direction in his life and was guided to Mike Huckabee’s campaign for president.

Very few of those who work on the campaign are paid. Attorneys give up their valuable time to take phones to listen to the problems of voters at polling places. CEO’s of corporations sit next to high school students working on phone banks to get out the vote. Virtually every yard sign for the Huckabee campaign has been printed at the expense of those who are passing them out. The Huckabee campaign has spent just $1.00 for every $15.00 spent by multi-millionaire Mitt Romney and the results in delegates is about the same.

In the last two months Government Is Not God – PAC has spent over $50,000 in support of Mike Huckabee. The night before Super Tuesday we paid for the calls to 187,000 pro-life households in Georgia asking them to turn out to vote for Mike. We did our part in the victory he had on Super Tuesday.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED. We can do more, but we need your help now to replenish our funds. We need to help Mike in other primaries and we have other pro-life congressional candidates to help as well. Please give today at www.gingpac.org .

William J. Murray, Chairman

NOTE: Although I have personal relationships with Gov. Huckabee and membes of his staff there is no coordinated activity between GING-PAC and the Huchabee campaign. Any telephone, radio or print campaings by GING-PAC promoting the Huckabee campaign are not discussed in advance with anyone associated with Gov. Huckabee.