January - February Update

In 2006, the year the Republicans lost control of the House, I spotted a candidate in Ohio whom I believed would be a real leader, a man I viewed as a social conservative we could count on. That year GING PAC supported  Jim Jordan in his first run for Congress. He won and took office in 2007 just as Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as Speaker. Over the last four years Jordan has shown his leadership and when Republicans took back control of the House, he was elected as the new head of the powerful Republican Study Committee. 

A sizeable majority of House Republicans in the new 112^th Congress, 175 out of 242, belong to the Republican Study Committee.  The RSC is the conservative caucus, and any House member who is serious about conservative values belongs to it and participates in the formation of policy and legislative agendas.  Its rivals in the House are the Congressional Progressive Caucus, composed of about 74 Democrats who have a socialist agenda, and the perhaps even more radical Congressional Black Caucus, many of whose members also belong to the Progressive Caucus.

Jordan is known as a real fiscal hawk, but he is also outspoken about social issues.  He made a statement about the annual March for Life on the front page of his website, and also spoke at a Sanctity of Life event back in his home state of Ohio.  Jim Jordan released a statement explaining why he will not be attending this year’s Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC), which he said was due to the inclusion of the pro gay group called GO PROUD.  Said the Congressman, “Family is the cornerstone upon which a community, state, or nation is built, and conservatives must lead the way in promoting the strengths of the traditional family whenever we can.”

ERIC CANTOR – The new Majority Leader, Eric Cantor is another candidate GING PAC has supported since the first time he ran for Congress. He ranks second in command after Speaker Boehner. Having a true social conservative in this position of leadership will be invaluable in helping to schedule votes on the floor.  I am confident that Congressman Cantor will work closely with Speaker Boehner to schedule votes on some social conservative issues that Nancy Pelosi never would have allowed to come to the floor.

On January 16, the anniversary of Roe v Wade, Cantor issued this statement:  “For the past two years, the life community has suffered the consequences of being completely out of power.  Against the will of our people, Democrats have jammed through an agenda that forces taxpayers to fund abortion and embryonic stem cell research, and even attempted to repeal conscience protections for health care providers.” The Majority Leader went on to say that, “We know that we have an uphill battle in the Senate and the White House.  But I can promise you one thing: the People’s House will stand for life, and we will do everything in our power to make sure our values are reflected in the law of the land.”                          

MICHELE BACHMAN - GING PAC supported Michele Bachman in her first bid for Congress, and in two election cycles since then.  Michele is using the grassroots passion for changing our big, wasteful, overbearing  government to push for real reforms.  Liberal Democrats in Washington must think she’s everywhere they look at the beginning of this new year, not just on the floor of Congress but out in the street speaking to March for Life participants.  And, right after Obama was supposed to have transformed himself into another Ronald Reagan with his State of the Union message, there she was on CNN with her rebuttal speech, hammering away at every misguided, big spending proposal that Obama and the Democrats have come up with.

RANDY FORBES - GING PAC supported Randy Forbes in his first Congressional race in 2000.  Now, he is the founder and head of the Congressional Prayer Caucus and one of the staunchest defenders of religious liberty as our founders envisioned it. When President Barack Obama incorrectly stated several times that the national motto was E Pluribus Unum, it was Congressman Forbes who authored a letter to the President signed by members of the Prayer Caucus, asking him to correct his error. He also introduced a congressional resolution reaffirming “In God We Trust” as the national motto.

It is to be hoped that the new members of Congress whom we supported will prove to show similar courage and leadership.

ANN MARIE BUERKLE -   New Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle is both a nurse and a lawyer, and has valuable experience in the medical insurance field also.  She is a strong opponent of Obamacare, and has commonsense ideas to fix some problems with our nation’s health care system.  She has already joined the Republican Study Committee, and Ann Marie has also just been appointed to Chair the Subcommittee on Health in the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.  Her subcommittee is charged with oversight of the Veterans’ Health Administration.  In the last issue of the Update I wrote about other members we supported such as
CONGRESSMAN ALLEN WEST,  who is now taking on an activist roll in Congress. He was one of the first new members to welcome representitives of Iraqi Christian refugees into his office. 

MARCO RUBIO -  On the Senate side, Marco Rubio of Florida was in the Senate only a matter of days before turning his attention to foreign affairs, an area that has been neglected by the Obama Administration. Our influence in Central and South America and the Caribbean has diminished, with the result that Venezuela and China are taking advantage of our inattention.  Rubio has already welcomed to his office and met with General Douglas Fraser, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command.  They discussed the new governments in Brazil and Colombia, and Venezuelan influence in South America.

Senator Rubio, whose parents are from Cuba, very frankly stated his opposition to the recent Obama Administration announcement that our government will ease regulations regarding travel and remittances to Cuba.

THE 2012 CYCLE
The good news is that Speaker John Boehner was sitting behind the president for the State of the Union address on January 26^th. That bad news is that Vice President Biden sat next to him, and that the address was being delivered by Barack Obama. The nation needs to unload itself of debt and restore its Judeo-Christian values -- and those two things will not happen so long as there is a big-spending, pro-abortion president in the White House.

The spending is so out of control that 40 cents of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowed. The government owes so much that the Federal Reserve must keep interest rates at zero to allow the borrowing to continue. Our nation simply can’t afford the welfare state that has been built and it cannot continue to pay government employed janitors four times the rate paid in the private sector. We need rational leaders on both the fiscal and social fronts.

America simply can’t afford Barack Obama! In the 2012 election cycle GING-PAC can make a difference. GING-PAC can legally spend an unlimited amount of money to tell the truth about Barack Obama and his allies during the next election … BUT … We can’t spend money we don’t have.  We need your help!  If we are going to have a GOP nominee for the presidency who is a strong pro-life social conservative, we need to have cash on hand. In just three months the first pre-primary presidential debate is scheduled. We are already in the election cycle and we need funds to make a difference. Please help!

William J. Murray,

Chairman

November - December, 2010 Campaign Update

ELECTION SUMMARY

            OVERVIEW -  This issue of the Campaign Update was delayed so we could publish complete results for the candidates we supported. A couple of our elections went to recounts and the last one was not decided until the last week of November when Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY), first elected from New York's 25th Congressional District in 2008, conceded to Ann Marie Buerkle (R).  The final margin of victory for our candidate was just 567 votes out of more than 209,000 cast. Buerkle did not have the support of the GOP establishment; she was deemed to be too conservative to win. The GOP has picked up six seats in New York state so far. The 1^st congressional district located on Long Island is still in dispute, and will probably be decided in court sometime next year.

            The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has set up an interactive map at its Internet site that reveals the 63 picked up in the House so far in the November election. This is a good tool that I recommend and it can be found at: http://www.nrcc.org/news/Election-Results-Map

THE SENATE

            Overall we did not do as well in the Senate as we had hoped. Our original candidate in Colorado, Jane Norton, is the former Lt. Governor and could have easily won in the General Election, but she was defeated by Ken Buck, a Tea Party favorite who was little known outside of just one Colorado county. Both were social conservatives and both pro-life. After Norton lost the GOP primary, we backed Ken Buck who just was never able to gain the statewide backing that Jane Nortan had. The result was a victory by the left. And in Nevada, Sharron Angle whom we had worked with for more than two years lost to Harry Reid. Sharron won virtually every county except for Las Vegas, where union bosses and the mafia controlled the ballot boxes. We also lost in California, Washington and West Virginia.

On the upside Marco Rubio, whom we backed well before any other national PAC, won in Florida. Marco stunned the media during his victory speech by spending the first five minutes talking about the Lord and how important God was to him and his family. Marco Rubio loves our Lord and our nation, and I believe he will be one of the most powerful political forces in the nation in the decade to come.

Two other powerful social conservatives who are pro-life won in the Mid-West. We backed Roy Blunt in Missouri and Dan Coats in Indiana. We can count on both of these men to be champions of pro-life and religious liberty issues.

While Lisa Murkowski has declared victory in Alaska, the Miller campaign has filed lawsuits to try to change the outcome of the election. I like Joe Miller, but he lost because he took advantage for his own family of social services he publicly criticized.  

THE HOUSE

MUCH MORE CONSERVATIVE: In January either 63 or 64 Republicans will take over seats which had been held by Democrats in the House. Many of the Republicans who won ran against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her radical economic and social agenda. The defeat for the left was stunning in more than one way. During the “Republican Revolution” led by Newt Gingrich in 1994 the GOP had a net gain of 54 seats, or ten less than in the 2010 cycle. More important is the quality and conviction of those elected in the 2010 cycle and three GING-PAC victories in Florida exemplify that.

In Florida we backed David Rivera in the 25^th, Daniel Webster in the 8^th and Allen West in the 22^nd. Rivera is a strong pro-life social conservative whose ancestry is Cuban. Webster is a former preacher in the same vein as Gov. Mike Huckabee. He defeated the radical far left loon Alan Grayson who constantly embarrassed Congress with his outrageous floor statements. Allen West is a true American hero. You may recall that he was punished by the Army for firing a gun over the head of an Iraqi to obtain information on enemy movements. He was a field commander, a Lt. Colonel respected by his men and who got the job done. The left hates men like Allen West who love their country, particually when they are African-Americans. In the mind of leftists, African-Americans should be plantation slaves of the Democrat Party.  

Tom Marino in Pennsylvania is yet another example of a strong social conservative backed by GING-PAC, who won his race. We also had some very painful losses in the house such as Glen Urquhart in Delaware. There is only one House seat in Delaware and it had been held by Mike Castle who stepped down to run for Senate. Although very popular in the state among both Democrats and Republcians, Castle lost in the primary to Christine O’Donnell who in turn ran one of the worst statewide races for Senate I have ever seen. When O’Donnell lost, she took Urquhart down with her.

On the incumbent side GING-PAC won in all races, including Eric Cantor in Virginia and Michele Bachmann in Minnesota. The far left went all out to knock off Bachmann because she had become a symbol of the Tea Party. It was Bachmann who called for Tea party demonstrations in Washingon, DC before the ObamaCare votes. Bachmann has become a lightning rod for attacks from the far left and a target of the “mainstream” media. At left is a photo of Michele Bachmann holding a copy of one of my books, The Pledge: One Nation Under God. Bachmann has been a champion of traditional values.

A complete list of GING-PAC candiates and their election outcomes is enclosed with this update. As mentioned about the only election we were involved in that has not been certified is the Senate race in Alaska. While Joe Miller is the more conservative of the two, Lisa Murkowski has told GOP leaders that she will caucus with Republicans next year.

WHAT NOW

            For the rest of the year the radical left is still in charge of the White House and both houses of Congress. Democrat leader Senator Harry Reid said his first priorities are to allow homosexuals to openly serve in the military and to pass the Dream Act to allow the children of illegal aliens to receive subsidized college educations. Because the GOP does not control the Senate it will be difficult to stop a lot of the spending that has caused 40% of the federal budget to be covered with borrowed money that our kids and grandkids must repay.

To really change America we must change the occupant of the White House. America simply can’t afford Barack Obama! In the 2012 election cycle GING-PAC can make a difference, but only with your help. If we are going to have a GOP nominee for the presidency who is a strong pro-life social conservative we need to have cash on hand. In January the race will begin and GING-PAC must be a part of deciding who wins the GOP nomination. Please send a check to help today, or give an online gift at www.gingpac.org.

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 .