February, 2010 Campaign Update

JOHN MCCAIN IN 2010 AND 2012

REALLY BAD NEWS: Senator John McCain has every intention of a rematch with Barack Obama in 2012. He has kept his presidential committee intact and when asked about Gov. Sarah Palin running in 2012 he said, “I’m not dead yet.” Nothing could be worse for the conservative cause and the Republican Party in 2012 than to have Senator John McCain at the top of the ticket again. The Senator will be 74 years old this year and 76 when he runs in 2012. The oldest man ever elected to the presidency was Ronald Reagan; he was 70 years old the day we was sworn in as the 41st president of the United States. Am I saying McCain is too old to be president? No, but I do remember Senator Bob Dole running for president in his seventies against a vigorous, younger Bill Clinton. In 1996 just about anyone could have beat Bill Clinton -- except Bob Dole. I believe the error is about to be repeated with an aging Senator running against a vigorous young president. I believe just about any Republican can beat Barack Obama in 2012 -- except John McCain.

That brings us back to 2010 and the Senate race in Arizona. My good friend Congressman J.D. Hayworth has decided to run against John McCain in the Republican Primary. The race shows what kind of man John McCain really is. Before Hayworth even made the decision to run, John McCain began running hateful negative ads against him. He demanded that the radio station that employed Hayworth as a commentator should fire him. He complained to the FEC about Hayworth having a radio show even though he (Hayworth) was not an announced candidate.

I have seen the vindictiveness of John McCain before. I have watched him turn red-faced and explode on the subway that runs under the Capitol between the various office building. McCain has a vicious temper which has not been tempered with age. On the other hand in his announcement for his run for the Senate, J. D. Hayworth said that John McCain had served the nation with honor, but that it was time for him to go.

THE TALE OF THE TAPE: J. D. Hayworth is far more conservative than John McCain in every area, including social issues. The American Conservative Union shows Hayworth in the top 4% of elected officials, but McCain only in the top 32%. That is a huge difference. Then there is this: McCain sponsored the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. The law prohibited conservative non-profit groups from campaigning but allowed Barack Obama to raise three quarters of a billion dollars for his presidential campaign. Much of that law has now been found unconstitutional. McCain sponsored the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, which would have capped CO2 emissions at the 2000 level. He also sponsored the McCain-Kennedy comprehensive immigration bill in 2005. McCain also voted in favor of the $850-billion TARP bailout one month prior to the 2008 elections, sealing the fate of his presidential campaign.

GING-PAC will back the conservative in this race and that is J. D. Hayworth.

OTHER SENATE ACTION: I had not planned on GING-PAC being involved in many Senate races not only because of the expense, but also because for a while it seemed hopeless for conservatives to take back the Senate in 2010. There are eight Republican seats vacant because of retirements and Senators running for other offices, such as governor. Our favorite Senator, Sam Brownback, is running for governor of Kansas. GING-PAC is supporting Todd Tiahrt to replace Sam Brownback in the Senate. Todd has personally promised me that he will take over the Senate Values Action Team and actively promote social conservative legislation, as Sam Brownback has. Dr. James Dobson, among many others, has endorsed Todd Tiahrt for the Senate.

With eight Republicans leaving, things looked a little bleak, that is until several high ranking Democrats also decided to step down. The latest is Senator Evan Bayh in Indiana. Indiana is a red state that has in the past gone blue for the Bayh family. Both Evan and his dad were governors and Senators in Indiana. Without a Bayh in the race, the seat will probably go to a Republican. GING-PAC does not have a candidate in that race as yet. Bayh’s decision comes after Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, announced their retirements in January. Democrats also have to defend the seats of Barack Obama in Illinois and Joe Biden in Delaware. There are also vulnerable Democrat seats in other states.

In Missouri GING-PAC is supporting Congressman Roy Blunt who stepped out of his leadership roll as House Whip to run for Senate. Roy’s son was a popular governor of Missouri who did not seek reelection, but the Blunt name has a very good reputation in Missouri. Congressman Blunt is very conservative and 100% pro-life.

In my position as chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition I have worked numerous times on pro-life and other social conservative legislative issues with Congressman Blunt. This is a man who will help social conservatives once he is in the Senate. The most likely match-up in November appears to be pro-life Roy Blunt against pro-abortion Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

THE HOUSE

On the House side we have added another candidate to the endorsed list. Tim Walberg was a true activist for social conservative and pro-life issues who lost his Michigan seat last year to a far left leaning liberal who was swept in with Barack Obama. Tim Walberg has a good chance at getting this seat back. A National Research Inc. poll has Walberg leading Schauer 46-37, and 50-40 with "leaners." It appears that voters in the conservative leaning 7th district of Michigan are having buyer’s remorse after watching Mark Schauer vote consistently with Nancy Pelosi in the House.

GING-PAC will also step forward to defend great conservative spokesmen who will be under attack by wealthy far left organizations such as Moveon-org this year. These include Michele Bachmann in Minnesota, Dr. Paul Broun in Georgia, Trent Franks in Arizona and Todd Akin in Missouri. While we want to get more conservative congressmen elected, we have to watch our back and make sure that some of the conservative workhorses we have in the House keep their seats.

OUR NEW INTERNET SITE

Last year Government Is Not God - PAC’s new Internet site went up. The old site was at www.govnotgod.org, and to archive our old material we kept that site. The new site is located at www.gingpac.org and is friendlier to use and has modern features. As we get closer to elections I urge you to check the site for information and the latest candidates we support.

To have impact in these races GING-PAC must have funds. It is crucial that we have at least an additional $50,000 as primaries begin in earnest. Please send a check to help today, or give an online gift at www.gingpac.org.


William J. Murray, Chairman
Government Is Not God - PAC
P.O. Box 77237, Washington, DC 20013

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 .