THE HOUSE
An open seat already – This year isn’t like 2009 when House seats opened up every month; still, even before the new 214th Congress convened, a seat in New York became vacant. Sadly enough, it was the Republican held seat in New York City. New York Republican congressman Michael Grimm who represents Staten Island won re-election to the House in November despite pending federal charges. He had said during the campaign that he would resign if he became “unable to serve.” He pleaded guilty under a plea deal in late December to one felony count of aiding in the filing of a false tax return in 2009.
Another disgraced Republican who once held the seat may return and try to win it back. Former congressman Vito Fossella, who held the seat from 1997 through 2008, is considering a bid to recapture the seat. Fossella declined to seek re-election after it was revealed he had a secret child from an extramarital affair.
The most likely Republican to have establishment support, however, is Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan. Mr. Donovan is well known in New York City because he impaneled the grand jury that declined to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner, who died July 17 after a chokehold by police officers attempting to arrest him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes.
While the decision not to indict drove protesters into the streets and has caused a huge amount of friction between police and the leftwing mayor of New York City, political observers said it could help Mr. Donovan. Donovan is from a working class Irish Catholic family. He was endorsed by the Right to Life Committee when he ran for State Attorney General of New York in 2010. If he runs, GING-PAC will probably endorse him because he may be the only Republican capable of retaining the seat due to his social conservative leanings. GING-PAC has been involved in as many as eight special elections in off years. We must stay prepared to elect social conservative candidates.
THE SENATE
GING-PAC supported Senate freshmen take their seats – GING-PAC endorsed candidates running for the Senate did very well in this last election cycle.
These are fresh faces in the Senate that come with some new ideas, but yet hold traditional values on such issues as abortion and marriage. They were sworn in on January 6th at the Capitol and can now work to fulfill their campaign promises and work to fight the unconstitutional and lawless Obama administration for the next two years.
Please pray for them to stand strong against Barack Obama’s legions, including his leftist cronies in Congress and the left-wing media. The media has already begun to attack personally several conservatives in the 114th Congress. The Washington Times/CNN media machines will spin everything done by the Republican controlled Congress as racist and anti-woman. The vilification has already begun.
Most of these new Senators have some Washington political experience, such as James Lankford and Dr. Bill Cassidy. Others such as Joni Ernst and Ben Sasse have never held a federal office. These men and women are on the front lines in defending the values that made this nation great. Below is a list of all freshman Senators supported by GING-PAC:
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), Senator Steve Daines (R-MT),
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD),
Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK),
Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC).
Committees change leadership – The most important change in the Senate is that the Republican majority is in control of committees, and of what the whole body will vote on. For the last six years of control by Senator Harry Reid, not a single budget bill has been voted on. The entire nation has been run on giant “omnibus” bills where all sorts of weird spending can be hidden. The traditional process of thirteen budget bills for the specific areas of governance will return and Democrats will have to vote up or down on issues they would rather not vote on at all.
Up until now President Obama has not had to veto a bill, mainly because virtually no bills actually passed the Senate and Obama just ran the government as he saw fit. Now all of that changes, with the Senate back to business and run as it should be.
Senate Committees will once again have real hearings, and that has already caused one longtime Democrat Senator, Barbara Boxer, to call it quits. I met with Senator Jim Inhofe the day after he took over the chairmanship of the Environment and Public Works Committee from leftwing environmentalist nut case Barbara Boxer of California. Inhofe told me and others at a lunch that he was going to have real experts on climate change testify at hearings, not just those making millions off the current scam of “global warming.” He said the committee will now deal with science rather than bluster.
Soon after Senator Inhofe took the helm of the committee Senator Barbara Boxer announced that she would not run for reelection in 2016. This means she believes that there is no way the Democrats can retake the Senate in 2016 and her anti-farmer, anti-industry agenda is dead in the Senate. She is going back home to California, which is a blessing for the rest of the United States.
REMEMBER: Your support is needed for the special elections this year. Please help this month to make sure we have ready funds on hand for situations like New York.
William J. Murray, Chairman
Government Is Not God – PAC
P.O. Box 77237, Washington, DC 20013
WWW.GINGPAC.ORG