November, 2008 Campaign Update

HOUSE CANDIDATES WE SUPPORTED - HOW WE DID!

Trent Franks - Arizona 2nd Won with 60% of the vote! He was the incumbent

Sydney Hay - Arizona 1st Lost. She ran against Democrat incumbent

Duncan Hunter, Jr.-CA 52nd Won open seat. Son of presidential candidate.

Tom Rooney - Florida 16th WON a Democrat seat with 60% of vote

Allen West - Florida 22nd Lost. He ran against Democrat incumbent

Paul Broun - Georgia 10th Won. Incumbent - we held seat with 61% of the vote.

Bill Sali - Idaho 1st Lost. This would have been his second term.

Michele Bachmann - MN- 6th Won. Incumbent - she won despite being a target.

Jeb Bradley -New Hampshire 1st Lost. He ran against Democrat incumbent

Bob Straniere - New York 13th Lost. Seat had belonged to retiring Republican

Jim Jordan - Ohio 4th Won. Incumbent - we held seat with 65% of the vote

Bob Latta - Ohio 5th Won. Incumbent - we held seat with 64% of the vote.

Lou Barletta - Pennsylvania 11th Lost. He ran against incumbent Democrat

Chris Hacket - Pennsylvania 10th Lost. He ran against incumbent Democrat

Melissa Hart - Pennsylvania 4th Lost. She was trying to retake her old seat.

Pete Olsen - Texas 22nd WON a Democrat seat with 53% of the vote

Eric Cantor - Virginia 7th Won. Incumbent - we held seat with 63% of the vote

Rob Wittman - Virginia 1st Won. Incumbent - we held seat with 57% of the vote

We won in ten of the eighteen House races in which we supported candidates. If Pennsylvania would not have gone so heavily for Barack Obama I believe we would have won perhaps all three of our races there.

The Republican Party defeated a total of four Democrat House incumbents. Of those four, GING-PAC was involved in two races, one in Florida and one in Texas. The Republicans also managed to win 18 of 30 open seats. We were involved in three of those races and we won two of those three. This may not have been a Republican year, but it was a conservative year. The Republican Study Committee lost seven incumbents, but picked up eleven new members. This means that the number of real conservatives in the Republican House caucus actually increased!

With the increase in the number of conservatives we may have a better chance at influencing the Republican leadership and moving them away from the direction of “borrow and spend” that caused them to lose the House back in 2006. The Republican Party had moved away from the “Republican Revolution” of Newt Gingrich and toward the “power at any cost” strategy of Speaker Dennis Hastert.

SENATE CANDIDATES WE SUPPORTED

Bob Schaffer - Colorado Lost. He was running for open seat that was held by GOP

John Kennedy - Louisiana Lost. Almost knocked out incumbent Democrat

Norm Coleman - Minnesota Won! Close victory and there will be a recount.

Roger Wicker - Mississippi Won! This was a special election.

Elizabeth Dole - North Carolina Lost. We actually didn’t expect to win this one.

Jim Inhofe - Oklahoma Won! This was a great win with 57% of the vote.

Senator Jim Inhofe is one of our greatest allies in the Senate and he was targeted by the environmentalists who promised to spend millions to defeat him. In the end John McCain carried Oklahoma and Senator Inhofe received 57% of the vote. Roger Wicker also won the special election in Mississippi. Both he and Republican Thad Cochran were elected to the Senate in Mississippi.

John Kennedy came real close to winning in Louisiana and Bob Schaffer put up a great fight in Colorado, a state that was won by Barack Obama. The Democrats did not get the filibuster proof majority of 60 they had hoped for in the Senate. As of the writing of this update the Republicans had 53 seats; however there will be a runoff in Georgia in December and a recount in Minnesota.

THE PRESIDENCY

Yes, we lost, but GING-PAC put up a good fight for social conservative votes. There was just no enthusiasm for John McCain among social conservatives and our campaign was more anti-Obama than pro-McCain even though Sarah Palin was on the ticket. Our special YouTube video commercials received a lot of interest. Our newscast at www.obamanews2009.com had almost 48,000 views as of the writing of this update. Our 30 second Internet commercial about Obama’s poor relatives he refuses to help at www.brotherskeeperobama.com During the closing days of the campaign I was on numerous radio shows in the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia as well as on some national shows. had more than 32,000 views.

Social conservative groups had to act alone to assist the McCain/Palin ticket. The McCain people virtually shut Palin up and social issues were not really discussed by the campaign. In the last two months of the campaign there was a total of ONE conference call to social conservative leaders. The K Street types that McCain had on his team hired a Muslim woman for “Arab American outreach.” What idiots. Three out of four Arab-Americans are Christians whose families fled Muslim oppression in the Middle East and they would not even talk to her. Conservative Muslims would not deal with her either because she was a woman.

Instead of talking social issues to blue collar folks in Pennsylvania, McCain delivered a message about tax cuts. I hate to break this news to the Republican leadership, but coal miners don’t really care how much tax Bill Gates or Warren Buffet has to pay. This was a sorry campaign and the results would have been even worse had not Sarah Palin been on the ticket.

WE MUST REPLENISH OUR FUNDS

There are going to be run-offs and special elections almost immediately. Just about all of our funds have been exhausted during the hard fought 2008 election cycle. We must prepare now for the upcoming fight to put more social conservatives in the House and Senate. Please send a check or give an online gift at www.gingpac.org .

New Freshman Republicans

THERE ARE NEW HOUSE REPUBLICANS - On Thursday evening I met with several of the "freshman class" of House Republicans. Earlier in the day the group elected Rep.-elect Steve Austria of Ohio to be president of their class in the 111th Congress. Of those present at the meeting Thursday evening, the political action committee I am chairman of had helped to elect three. GING-PAC assisted in the elections of congressmen-elect Duncan Hunter Jr. of California, Pete Olson of Texas and Tom Rooney of Florida. (Photo of myself with Duncan Hunter Jr.)

ROY BLUNT STEPS DOWN --For eight years Congressman Roy Blunt has served as Majority Whip in the House and for the last two years in the more difficult position as Minority Whip. During that time he has been an advocate of social conservative causes and has met almost weekly with conservative activists including me. This week I and other conservative leaders met with Congressman Blunt before he stepped down from the leadership position. He is replaced by his former deputy whip, Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia. Congressman Cantor is also a champion of social conservative values.

LAME DUCKS TO RETURN - This week was to be the last for the 110th Congress, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will call a special session in December to revisit loans to the automotive industry. NOTE: Mitt Romney may believe that Chinese and Indian car companies can replace GM and Ford, but the millions of Americans associated with the auto industry don't. Republicans blocking the loans at the request of radical pro-China free-market traders such as Mitt Romney will kill any chance of future Republican gains in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois where the bulk of American owned auto parts makers live. By stopping these loans to automakers the GOP told the Reagan Democrats to pack up and go home to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.