March, 2008 Campaign Update

THE HOUSE

HUGE REPUBLICAN LOSS!

Democrat Bill Foster’s huge victory in the race for Dennis Hastert’s old House seat in the Illinois special election on March 8th is really bad news for the Republican Party. The 14th district of Illinois is solidly Republican, and in 2004 President George W. Bush carried it by a whopping 22 point margin over Senator John Kerry. Democrat Bill Foster won 53 percent of the vote compared to 47 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis.

Oberweis is well known for his dairy business and his financial management company and will run for the same seat again in November, with Foster only filling the seat until then. Whoever wins in November keeps the seat for a full term. Oberweis is not a good candidate and does not court social conservatives. Although he is well known and has lots of money, he has already lost primary races twice for the U.S. Senate and once for governor.

It gets worse: Hastert's seat was one of three open GOP seats in Illinois because of GOP retirements. Congressmen Jerry Weller and Ray LaHood are not running for reelection. Unless John McCain makes a wise VP choice and is able to whip up real enthusiasm by November, the Democratic Party's chances of getting all three seats improve. The Weller seat is a true toss-up because the Republican nominee favored to win has dropped out of the race. GING-PAC has made no decisions on supporting any of the Illinois Republicans for these seats as yet.

REPUBLICAN HOPE IN LOUISIANA

Governor Bobby Jindal is 100% behind my good friend Woody Jenkins who is running for the 6th congressional district in Louisiana which includes the Baton Rouge area. Woody was cheated out of a US Senate seat in 1996 with massive fraud in New Orleans that brought Mary Landrieu to Washington, DC instead. This led him on a campaign that helped clean up registration and voting laws in Louisiana. I met Woody in New Orleans at the Council for National Policy meeting the day before the primary which was held on March 8th. He did well, securing 49.5% of the vote. Unfortunately he did not get 50% and now must face an April runoff with a candidate who did not even get 25% of the vote. Then, the actual special election will not be held until May. As soon as he wins in May be will have to start his campaign for the November election. This was all caused by the early retirement of Richard Baker on February 2, 2008. Woody is a solid pro-life social conservative.

GING-PAC continues to support Woody Jenkins’ campaign financially!

THE SENATE

With limited financial resources, GING-PAC must be very careful in picking both House and Senate candidates to support in 2008. In the Senate one we must support is Senator Jim Inhofe. Senator Inhofe has been a great help to social conservatives in Washington, DC. He has traveled to Iraq to support our troops more often than any other senator. In addition, he spends his August recess each year in Africa taking the Gospel message to African leaders. (Photo: William Murray and Senator Inhofe.)

The bad news: the Democratic party and the extreme left, led by G

eorge Soros’ Moveon.org, have targeted Senator Inhofe for defeat. As much as $50 million could be spent outside the campaign to defeat him. The extremists are planning to set up fully staffed offices in Oklahoma separate from Inhofe’s opponent to run a “defeat Inhofe” campaign. We must do all we can to support Senator Inhofe. So far in this election cycle GING-PAC has contributed just $2,000 to Senator Inhofe. We can do more as soon as the funds are available.

There are 23 Republican Senate seats to defend in 2008 versus only 12 Democrat seats. Unfortunately Republican leaders have put on the blinders and are ignoring a lot of danger signs. As an example, the White House and GOP House and Senate leaders keep telling us that there is no recession when virtually every American knows otherwise. Many of the Republican Senate candidates are running on 1990’s issues that the vast majority of people don’t see as important right now. The GOP needs to quickly move to 21st century issues that have people concerned such as our failing infrastructure and the collapse of the dollar.

PRESIDENT

I had the unfortunate experience of hearing Senator John McCain speak just after he secured enough delegates to force Governor Mike Huckabee to withdraw from the race. It was just pathetic. He spoke for about 10 minutes at a lunch I was attending and then allowed questions. His theme was from the era of the 1980’s or 1990’s, addressing none of the current concerns of Americans, other than Iraq. He did not touch on the price of oil even though it hit a record high that day. When asked about his faith he gave the testimony of another man instead of his own, and this left everyone in the room scratching their heads.

As for his vice presidential selection ideas, he started off his speech by telling us what a great guy Mitt Romney is, with a “bright” future in the Republican Party. Meanwhile Karl Rove is pushing what he calls an “M & M ticket” for McCain and Mitt. I can think of few choices that would be more of a disaster. If John McCain wants to insult the hundreds of thousands of people who voted for Mike Huckabee, the best way to do it would be to pick Mitt Romney for Vice President. A marginal Christian with a Mormon sidekick is not going to excite social conservatives, particularly evangelicals.

Please continue to help GING-PAC elect pro-life social conservative candidates such as Woody Jenkins for the House, and Senator Inhofe for the Senate. Woody Jenkins can win the run off and the special election in Louisiana with your help. Please send a generous year end gift to GING-PAC today. Thank you!

William J. Murray, Chairman

Government Is Not God - PAC