I have decided to run for Congress in the Republican Primary Election this spring. We already have a solid team, and a surprising level of grassroots support for this campaign.
My primary reasons for running are:
1. I do not believe our present representation in Washington D.C. has a substantial focus upon our district, and has shifted his focus to politicizing the media promoted issues vs. pursuing an agenda to represent the 8th District of Ohio.
2. Our present representation has refused to modify his leadership approach in these trying economic times, and bring money back to the district for investment in projects and job creation.
3. The present representation has voted to use our tax dollars to support giant corporations on Wall Street with bank bailouts, but simultaneously refused to support legislation to help ease the economic pressures on the middle class.
4. Our current representative has become a professional fundraiser for the Republican National Committee, spending more than 100 working days fundraising on the golf course in 2009.
5. The 8th District was already in trouble before the economic downturn with the erosion of our job base and middle class that was brought on by free trade policies that are staunchly supported by our present representative, who makes no distinction between us small business owners and giant, multinational corporations.
I already understand that this is a David vs. Goliath effort here, but I do not believe that Mr. Boehner is representing the people of the 8th District in D.C., and if we don’t do something different, nothing is going to change.
I Will Focus On The Issues And Needs Of Those Within Our District
So why do I claim that John Boehner’s focus is on national politics and not our district?
Let me give you an example.
Recently, I had the honor of spending some time with Terry Pendergraft at the Preble County Veteran’s Services office. He gave me some examples of the kinds of cases he’s presently dealing with in his office.
It’s well known that the Veteran’s Administration continues to drag their feet in helping our vets with the benefits that have been rightfully earned. But Congress has not acted to force the VA to stop shredding case files, and clean up its act.
Right here in Preble County, we have a widow of a husband that had already been rated at 100% disability, and had been receiving benefits for years before he passed on. She is now going to lose her home because the VA stopped sending benefits payments when her husband died, and they have not acted to remit her portion of his pension – a simple process that used to take 30-60 days.
She is in foreclosure because she lost all income and nobody is championing her cause through the proper channels in D.C.
Nothing has been done by Congress to fix this problem with the VA. Our representative, the minority leader, is more content to play pundit to the White House in national media than champion issues here in his district.
I Will Work For The People In The 8th District Of Ohio
John Boehner spent over 100 days on the golf course conducting fundraisers for other Republicans in 2009, and seems more interested in being the national spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.
This might be great for the RNC, but it’s not working for the widow in Preble County, nor is it working for a lot of people in the 8th District of Ohio.
We turn on the news and see Mr. Boehner in the national spotlight, but issues are being ignored in his own backyard.
We need Congressional leadership that is connected with the district as a whole, not just a small, affluent neighborhood in southern Butler County and the D.C. Beltway.
We need Congressional leadership that will focus on the needs of the Congressional District.
I Will Modify My Leadership As Conditions In Our District Require
We all remember Mr. Boehner’s tirades against earmarked funds, and his open refusal to bring any back to our district.
None of us truly want to increase the federal deficit, and bloat the budget with “pork spending”.
But let’s face reality here, for 18 years, we’ve been sending our taxes to Washington while the rest of the nation had representatives who fight to bring federal money back to their districts.
We have financed everyone else’s projects, and Mr. Boehner has enjoyed building his own personal, political power base at our expense.
At less than 2% of the entire federal budget, earmarks represent a miniscule percentage of the spending that goes on in Washington.
But these funds can sometimes be the lifeblood of a region when it comes to stemming the blood loss of jobs and people.
Southern Butler County might not be feeling the effects of the economic crisis as badly as the rest of the district, which further emphasizes that as a whole, the district requires leadership that is in touch with the voters.
I Will Bring Balance With More Support For The Working Middle Class
I have documented on my campaign website http://www.imwithmanfred.com an interview with John Boehner on ABC’s This Week in September of 2008.
In this interview, Mr. Boehner explained how he wasn’t interested in adding any kind of support for homeowners in the TARP (Trouble Asset Relief Program) Bill, also known as the “Bank Bailout”.
He said the issue had already been handled back in the summer of 2008 in the Housing Bill, but quickly added that he didn’t vote in favor of the Housing Bill either.
He didn’t want any support of homeowners in the TARP Bill, and voted against support for homeowners in the Housing Bill, but he was loud in his support for Wall Street and the banks.
We have a video clip of Mr. Boehner standing on the floor of the House of Representatives, admonishing other conservative Republicans to vote yes on the TARP bill. In fact, Mr. Boehner was quoted in the press as saying, “Now is not the time for ideological purity.”
So, he abandoned his conservative, ideological purity to encourage other Republicans to support TARP, but refused to do anything about supporting the middle class?
I Will Balance Support For Global Corporations With Support For Small Business
This would be acceptable if it were the only issue on the table, but all one has to do is drive through industrial areas of our district to see the effects of other economic policies that Mr. Boehner has staunchly supported.
Middletown, Hamilton, Eaton, Troy, all of these areas have lost a substantial number of middle class, living wage jobs as a result of free trade policies. Manufacturers have sent jobs overseas, which further trigged the loss of supply chain jobs and related service providers.
Every small business owner is impacted by the economic loss in the middle class, because there are fewer people in the regional customer base. The economic base has eroded as people have left the area to try and find work elsewhere.
We’ve bartered away our working middle class.
That middle class is the economic engine that drives small business and without it, small business owners will continue to experience lower sales, as there’s no economic growth in the region.
I realized that when Republican leaders talked about being pro-business, they’re really talking about policies that are pro-multinational business, and not necessarily pro-small business.
Never before in history has there been any distinction, and we’ve always assumed politicians were referring to us small business owners as well in their support for business.
If that were truly the case, why would they be promoting policies that hurt our middle class customer base?
How many small businesses have been pushed out of operation because of their inability to compete with multinationals that enjoy the exploited labor of these oppressive, totalitarian regimes?
I Will Balance Support For Global Corporations With Support For Freedom And Liberty
Some say that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and other similar free trade policies are good for our nation because it brings cheap imports back that raises our standard of living.
Some argue that it’s free market economics at work, and private companies will seek the lowest variable costs to increase profitability.
While I won’t disagree with the push towards lowering costs and increasing profitability, I do challenge the notion that it’s free market economics in a pure, academic sense.
Many of these nations that we’ve rushed to establish trading relations can only offer an advantage through the exploitation of their people’s labor by repressive, totalitarian policies. Only by hammering individual freedoms and liberty can these governments maintain such economics.
Is this really free market capitalism?
And if by some stretch that you believe that this is the case, is any favorable economic policy more important than the fundamentals of freedom and liberty?
We’ve sent our troops all over the world to fight and die for freedom, yet we continue to create incentives for multinational corporations to benefit from human suffering. In the cases where standards of living are genuinely improved in these areas, we’re doing so at the expense of our own middle class back here at home. Where’s the balance?
My Commitments To You
I commit to the following:
* I will once again connect this district with Congress through comprehensive, active involvement, accessibility, and true representation.
* I will work to make sure that Federal funds are being brought back to this district before they go anywhere else.
* I will work to bring balance to policies that support small business and the working, conservative middle class.
* I will work to achieve consensus-based solutions, and not continue to polarize and politicize.
* I will work to establish a legislative agenda that defines policies favorable to small business and not just multinational corporations.
Many Republicans feel that we're doing the wrong thing by bringing a challenge to Mr. Boehner. However, I submit that a primary election is most certainly the time and place to define the direction of the Republican Party.
I will continue to support our Republican candidates and the party as a whole. But I am in this for the long haul and will continue to push for better representation in our district until things improve.
I am focused and committed to a grassroots campaign to bring the changes that I’ve outlined in this letter.