A lot of news this week on the political front. We had two huge wins on Tuesday, and today The Wall Street Journal published an article I wrote about the need to defeat Alaska Congressman Don Young in the upcoming Republican primary.

As I wrote in the Journal, “The reason for the endorsement is simple. [Lt. Gov. Sean] Parnell is a solid conservative who led the fight for lower taxes and spending in the state legislature, and joined Gov. Sarah Palin in pushing for reform in the state. The man he is hoping to replace isn’t economically conservative in the least. Mr. Young is actually a poster child for what has gone wrong with the Republican Party in Washington.

“Over his 35 years in Congress, Mr. Young made himself into the most powerful Republican on the House Transportation Committee. But instead of using his power to steer Republicans down a principled, conservative track, he helped derail the GOP train in 2006.

“Mr. Young spends taxpayer money so wastefully he could make a liberal Democrat blush. As chairman of the Transportation Committee (from 2001 to 2007), Mr. Young was directly responsible for one of the biggest boondoggles of the Republican majority – the 2005 highway bill. With a price tag of $296 billion, the highway bill contained a record 6,371 pork projects.

“One of those projects was the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, inserted by Mr. Young. The notorious bridge was meant to connect the city of Ketchikan, Alaska – population 8,000 – to an airport on Gravina Island – population 50. Instead, it came to symbolize Republican excess, and helped cost the GOP its majority.”

You can read the rest of the article below. For those of you who can’t wait to donate to Sean’s campaign to defeat Young, you can do that by clicking here.

This is one of our toughest yet most important political campaigns ever, and if we win, it would mark the second time this year that Club members beat an incumbent in a GOP primary, which I believe would be an unprecedented feat for any PAC.

A Super Tuesday

We got some great news earlier this week from Tuesday night’s primaries. The Politico newspaper reported (and Rush Limbaugh read on air yesterday) that the “Club for Growth had a big night Tuesday, as the two candidates it endorsed and funded prevailed in hotly contested Republican primaries in New Mexico and California.”

Rep. Steve Pearce (NM-Sen) edged out Rep. Heather Wilson 51% to 49% and Tom McClintock (CA-04) won by a surprisingly large margin, 54% to 39%, despite former Rep. Doug Ose spending over $3.25 million of his own money in attack ads.

Thank you to all the Club members who made these wins possible. The Club for Growth PAC bundled $275,000 from Club members for Steve Pearce in his primary race and over $200,000 for Tom McClintock in his primary race, and spent nearly $100,000 on TV and radio ads.

The Club PAC’s last four races, all wins, cost over $800,000 in TV and radio ads and other independent expenditures that were crucial to the victories. If you’d like to help refill the PAC’s war chest, please click here to donate.

Rush on the Club

Before I continue on Pearce and McClintock, here’s an excerpt of what Rush Limbaugh said yesterday about the two victories. (You can listen to the whole segment here.)

“One of the things I have suggested is focusing a lot on the future. These are cycles. We can rebuild. The conservative movement can triumph once again. It’s going to have to start locally, supporting state and local conservatives in their quest, getting to know who they are, supporting them, voting for them, giving them confidence to keep going. The Club for Growth, a conservative group, had a big night Tuesday. Two candidates it endorsed and funded prevailed in hotly contested Republican primaries in New Mexico and California. This is how it’s done. . .

“So this is the future. These are new roots being planted, and these are the kind of things that are going to have to happen all across the country along with other things in order to bring about this rebirth of conservative—and it isn’t going to be that hard, and it isn’t going to take that long.”

We appreciate the plug Rush, which brought a flood of new members to our website yesterday.

Rep. Steve Pearce is a strong economic conservative who has faithfully honored his pledge to oppose tax increases throughout his time in Congress. Wilson had one of the worst economic records of any Republican and sided with Democrats on key budget issues such as spending bills vetoed by President Bush.

McClintock is revered among California activists for being a limited government superstar in the State Legislature. He has long fought for lower taxes and opposed wasteful government spending even when it meant taking on members of his own party. During his years in Congress, Ose often sided with the big spending Republicans.

Now, Rep. Pearce will face New Mexico Rep. Tom Udall in the general election. Udall is an inveterate liberal who has voted for tax increases and increased government spending, receiving a 0% on the Club for Growth’s RePORK Card. No doubt, Udall would continue this tax-and-spend tradition if elected to the Senate.

McClintock faces off against Democrat Charlie Brown, who is no friend of economic conservatives and nearly beat retiring Rep. John Doolittle in 2006.

One final note. Club members who often visit our website may have noticed that our PAC endorsed Harri Anne Smith earlier this year in Alabama’s second congressional district, an open Republican seat. But we never sent any emails or letters asking you to donate to her campaign and our PAC also did not run any ads there. We held back because after the endorsement we were not impressed with how she was running her campaign. She managed to make the runoff and we are taking another look at her chances. Clearly she is the best candidate on our issues, but we also have an obligation to our members to see that they get a good bang for their candidate donation bucks.

Have a great weekend!

Best Regards,
Pat

Patrick J. Toomey
President, Club for Growth
2001 L Street, NW, Ste 600
Washington, DC 20036
PH: 202-955-5500

If you ever want to remove email address information from your membership to the Club for Growth, just click here.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121270989481150353.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

OPINION

Don Young Embodies What’s Wrong With the GOP
By PAT TOOMEY
June 6, 2008; Page A13

Today, the Club for Growth Political Action Committee endorses Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in his bid to unseat Republican Rep. Don Young in the state’s August primary.

The reason for the endorsement is simple. Mr. Parnell is a solid conservative who led the fight for lower taxes and spending in the state legislature, and joined Gov. Sarah Palin in pushing for reform in the state. The man he is hoping to replace isn’t economically conservative in the least. Mr. Young is actually a poster child for what has gone wrong with the Republican Party in Washington.

Over his 35 years in Congress, Mr. Young made himself into the most powerful Republican on the House Transportation Committee. But instead of using his power to steer Republicans down a principled, conservative track, he helped derail the GOP train in 2006.

Mr. Young spends taxpayer money so wastefully he could make a liberal Democrat blush. As chairman of the Transportation Committee (from 2001 to 2007), Mr. Young was directly responsible for one of the biggest boondoggles of the Republican majority – the 2005 highway bill. With a price tag of $296 billion, the highway bill contained a record 6,371 pork projects.

One of those projects was the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, inserted by Mr. Young. The notorious bridge was meant to connect the city of Ketchikan, Alaska – population 8,000 – to an airport on Gravina Island – population 50. Instead, it came to symbolize Republican excess, and helped cost the GOP its majority.

But the bridge isn’t Mr. Young’s only earmark to draw negative attention. It seems the veteran lawmaker inserted a $10 million earmark into the 2006 transportation bill for a road project in Florida.

Of course, Florida is not exactly next door to Alaska, so more than a few people have wondered why Mr. Young pushed to fund the pork-barrel project. Among those inquiring into the matter is the Justice Department, which is looking at the fact that a Florida real estate developer, Daniel J. Aronoff, who stands to benefit from the federal earmark, has raised some $40,000 for Mr. Young’s campaign coffers.

It’s not just on spending that Mr. Young abandons Republican principles. Recently, he has joined with Democrats in voting to increase the minimum wage, increase income taxes on top earners, and to pass a bloated farm bill. Mr. Young also voted for “card check,” which would allow unions to organize without holding secret ballot elections.

He has a history of voting against important free-trade agreements and, just a couple of weeks ago, proposed a $1 per-gallon tax increase on gasoline. He must not have had to fill up at the pump lately.

During his time in Congress, Mr. Young has come to represent the worst of a Republican Party that became too comfortable in power. In 1995, a Republican majority passed a budget that actually cut spending. Today, only 40 Republicans out of 248 GOP senators and representatives have sworn off earmarks, despite overwhelming support for earmark reform among the party’s base and the general public.

Just 12 years ago, the Republican Caucus, including Mr. Young, voted for a bill to phase out farm subsidies. Three weeks ago, Mr. Young and many of those same members voted for a farm bill that exemplifies everything the GOP once stood against. Somewhere between then and now, many congressional Republicans abandoned their former commitment to limited government, fiscal discipline and economic freedom.

There is no question that the Republican Party is in trouble. Faced with staggering losses in 2006 and what might be an even worse election cycle this year, GOP congressmen are finally acknowledging the dismal state of the Republican brand. What are they doing about it?

Not much. The reason is that Mr. Young and many other members are not willing to change. They don’t want to give up their pork projects, their subsidies and their favorite big-government programs. And those members with the temerity to challenge the broken system are berated as disloyal and threatened.

“Those who bite me will be bitten back,” Mr. Young warned New Jersey’s Republican Rep. Scott Garrett last July. Mr. Garrett had tried to remove a $34 million earmark inserted into an appropriations bill by Mr. Young.

The Alaska primary represents a crossroads for Republicans. Will party leaders line up behind Mr. Young, even as the Justice Department is looking into his earmarks? Or will they tell him they cannot support a member who has flagrantly disrespected taxpayers and abandoned Republican principles?

If Republicans want to start winning again they need to return to the principles of fiscal responsibility and limited government that won them control of Congress in 1994. This is no easy task. But the GOP can start by showing Mr. Young the door.

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