As the primary season comes to a close GING-PAC candidates have won in several major races, however, we have had some losses as well. Below is a summary recent elections as well as details on our plans for the November election.
THE SENATE
PRIMARIES RUN THEIR COURSE: The primary election season is just about completely over except for seven states including Maryland and Hawaii.
We did not endorse or fund many candidates in Senate primaries because we want to make as big an impact as we can in the November general election. Senate races are state wide and costly. The only Senate candidates we backed in the primary are individuals whom I had the opportunity to interview on a one-on-one basis, to make sure it was wise to spend any of our limited budget in their races.
WE LOST SOME: Three of those candidates lost. Jane Norton in Colorado was a great candidate who had held state office before. She is pro-life and stands for traditional marriage, but her sister is married to a high ranking Republican insider. Her campaign was good, but that insider charge cost her the election. However, Ken Buck is also a good pro-life, pro-marriage candidate that we can support in the general election.
In the two other Senate races we lost, we just cannot support the winners. In Kansas, Todd Tiahrt was the conservative supported not only by us, but by the pro-life groups as well. He was endorsed by Sarah Palin, and even Phyllis Schlafly campaigned for him. The winner, Jerry Moran, has bounced all over the place on various issues. If he wins he will replace the retiring Sam Brownback. Brownback ran the Senate Values Action Team, and I can assure you that Jerry Moran never attended even one of those weekly meetings. In Arizona we backed J.D. Hayworth who is a great conservative who had served in the House for several terms. We just could not back John McCain who had actually written the amnesty bill for illegal aliens while George W. Bush was president. Suddenly at election time McCain came out swinging against illegal immigration and amnesty. We have limited funds and will not support either Moran or McCain in the General election although both will probably win.
WE WON SOME: We backed Carly Fiorina early in her primary. She won the primary battle and will face Senator Barbara Boxer who chairs the powerful Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. This is the committee that is writing the legislation which is destroying our economy by destroying jobs in America. She is a true “global warming” nut who worships the ground that Al Gore walks on. In California, tens of thousands of jobs have been lost, as water has been cut off to communities to save fish smaller than a fingernail. I believe Carly can beat her and I have her assurance that she will vote pro-life and pro-family in the Senate. We also won in Florida by backing Marco Rubio, even before Charlie Crist ran out on the Republican Party and refused to return donations. A late August Public Policy Poll showed Rubio in the lead at 40%, followed by Charlie Crist at 32%, and Democrat Meek at 17%.
See the current GING-PAC candidate scorecard.
THE SHARRON ANGLE FACTOR: GING-PAC got a lot of press over the questionnaire Sharron Angle filled out. An AP reporter requested the questionnaire from us, which is a public record. He was astonished to learn that yes, she was a social conservative. Headlines were made of the fact that she indicated on our questionnaire that she was against allowing homosexual “couples” to adopt children. In my opinion it is an abomination against God to allow homosexuals to twist the minds of little children to their perverted lifestyle. In an interview Sharron Angle mentioned our PAC by name, saying indeed government should not try to replace God.
THE HOUSE
FLORIDA: Lt. Col. Allen West won the primary in Florida and that was one of our top House races. West is just one of a new breed of conservative African-Americans who are not afraid to say that Barack Obama has it all wrong. More important, the GOP turnout was significantly higher than the Democratic turnout throughout the 22nd district. The district was solidly Republican until 2006 when Democrats swept in because of corruption problems, particularly in Florida. The current congressman, Ron Klein, is a lap dog of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Allen West is not the only African-American Republican running for a House seat and he is not the only one we are supporting. Including primary races there were thirty-five African Americans running as Republicans for House seats and virtually all of them are social conservatives. In California we are backing Starr Parker who is an old friend of mine and a social conservative activist who founded the Center for Urban Renewal and Education which is based here in Washington, DC and works for free enterprise solutions to inner city problems.
WE WON SEVERAL PRIMARIES: GING-PAC candidates won in most of the primaries we participated in. We lost only two, one in Arkansas and one in Idaho, and both of those were first time races for the candidates involved. We won several primaries with candidates who have never run for federal offices before, including Tim Burns and Tom Marino, both in Pennsylvania which is a key state. In Florida, not only did Allen West win, but David Rivera, whom we supported, won as well.
In North Carolina we backed Ilario Pantano, who was the first candidate for the House to openly condemn the Ground Zero mosque. Pantano has come under heavy fire for standing up to the Islamists and liberals. His Internet site states clearly that “Islamic terror” is a threat to the United States.
MORE TO COME: We are now reviewing all those GOP candidates who won primaries in key districts, particularly those districts carried by George W. Bush in 2004 and John McCain in 2008. Candidates in those Republican leaning districts that are now held by Democrats will be our target areas for the general election for the most part. We will not be endorsing or sending funds to GOP candidates who have a large lead in the polls and who do not need our help. We want to make a difference in the general election and help to bring more social conservatives to Capitol Hill.
WATCH OUR SITE FOR UPDATES
You can check our Internet site at www.gingpac.org for updates and to learn more about candidates as we endorse them. We also welcome your comments and suggestions. Recently someone asked me why we didn’t support Tom Coburn in Oklahoma. We did support him six years ago, and he is a great social conservative, and I really enjoy working with him on Capitol Hill … BUT … He has a huge amount of campaign funds on hand and is way ahead in the polls. He simply does not need our help this time around
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED
It is a crucial hour. You have seen the damage that Barack Obama has done to our nation in less than two years with the House and Senate in the hands of the far left. We may not be able to stop him completely, but if we can take away his majority in either the House or Senate or both, we can sure slow him down until 2012! To have impact in the general election, it is crucial that we have additional funds. 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