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| 10/24/2008 11:21:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | SavDailyNews.com Congressional Endorsements
By Lou Phelps
SDN Staff
Bill Gillespie for the 1st District
This election season demands a change in our priorities as voters, requires an acknowledgement that our economic system is in critical trouble and forces us to ask, "Who got us into this mess?" and should we reward them with re-election?
Coastal Empire News, publishers of Savannah Daily News, The Business Report & Journal and Coastal Family Magazine, is endorsing Savannah¹s Bill Gillespie (D) for Congress to represent the 1st Congressional District over incumbent Jack Kingston (R).
It is painful to no longer endorse our friend, Jack Kingston. Many of us know Jack and his family personally and cherish their friendship and their public service. Jack Kingston is a good man, personally, but he has never had a viable or credible Democratic opponent to truly consider.
And these times force us to step back, and take a hard look at his actual voting record on critical issues including fighting all measures to set a timeline to get out of Iraq, his failure to fight runaway Federal spending as a member of the House Appropriations committee that develops the budget, his leadership in defense of Tom Delay and President Bush as well as Republican party smear campaigns this election cycle, and his failure to file his personal financial disclosure information due last May 15 even though he was up for re-election. These votes and others lead us to believe that it is time for a change in 1st District representation.
Frankly, Jack began to lose our support last Feb. 27 when he appeared on the Dan Abrams show and said it was okay to "question Sen. Barack Obama's patriotism because he doesn't regularly wear an American flag lapel pin."
Problem was, sitting there on the TV set with the cameras rolling, Jack wasn't wearing a flag pin. These types of smear tactics are repugnant and demean elected officials in an era when voters are begging for straight talk on the issues versus old-style personal attack politics.
Yet, he continues to try to use such tactics, seeking to smear his opponent Bill Gillespie in this race, accusing him of lying about his educational degrees and other achievements, despite two news organizations having confirmed that Gillespie's resumé is accurate.
Savannahian Bill Gillespie is a highly educated, fiscally conservative Democrat, a war hero of the Iraq War, a recipient of the Bronze Star and a candidate with a vision of how to bring jobs back to the 1st District in manufacturing, alternative energy and the timber industry.
He has a deep resumé of academic degrees, including a B.S. and M.A. degrees in environmental science from Towson University and an M.M.A.S. in military history from the Combat Studies Institute at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and spent two and a half years at the Univ. of Maryland as a PH.D candidate in cultural geography with a specialization in immigration studies, finishing all but his dissertation (known as a PHD ABD) because the Army transferred him to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to the Command General Staff College.
We agree with Gillespie's assertion that his years of living overseas on three continents have given him a "world view" and belief system that the United States needs to respect the governments of foreign countries and cannot be the first responder to solve the world's problems, sacrificing our men and women and our country's economic means.
The military has taught him that government can run efficiently and effectively while cutting wasteful spending -- military families and leaders learn to do more with less.
He defines himself as a Blue Dog Democrat, a fiscal conservative with moderate positions on social issues; government should stay out of a woman's right to choose; stem cell research can lead to great achievements in medicine and reduce human suffering; and gay rights should be respected, though he defines marriage as between a man and a woman, supporting only gay civil unions.
He strongly supports investment in the ports of coastal Georgia and believes that within two years, new manufacturing opportunities in non-oil energy technologies such as solar panels can be launched in the district, building on the strengths of the UGA Ag lab in the district as well as the Georgia Tech research labs.
Contrast this to Kingston's voting record and political perspective on U.S. jobs, one that protects large U.S. corporations focused on overseas development, epitomized by his recent position on the Chinese Chicken debate, as silly and simplistic as that may sound.
China's top agricultural export goal is opening the U.S. market to its cooked chicken. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, (D) Connecticut., chairwoman of the House agricultural subcommittee on which Kingston sits, has fought the change, explaining that China does not deserve entry to the coveted, closed U.S. poultry market, one of the few parts of the U.S. job market not yet decimated by foreign imports.
"There is deception. There is lax regulation, and they've got unsanitary conditions," DeLauro has said. "They need to hear from us that they're at risk. Congress has to look at limiting some of their agricultural imports." Kingston¹s position?
"I am dismayed by the continued inclusion of language prohibiting the importation of poultry products from China. While I am sensitive to concerns about substandard and even dangerous imports from China, I have watched this style of response to a trade concern that has resulted in retaliation by China against many innocent U.S. companies."
In other words, if we don¹t let them bring in more chicken imports, including substandard food products, they will retaliate against letting us sell them imports that U.S. companies want to sell to China.
This lack of concern by Kingston to protect one of the few U.S. industries that produces domestic jobs and is not decimated by foreign imports, not to mention the safety of the U.S. food sources, is contrary to our view of the solutions to retool the U.S. economy.
China, as well as Vietnam, for example, have both increased the tariffs that must be paid to sell chicken to their countries, seeking to protect their chicken industry, China primarily through a sea of regulations. So...those countries are smart enough to protect their local industries, but we're not?
Our concern about Kingston's record extends beyond chicken.
This fall he opposed the bi-partisan legislation that would provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits nationwide to respond to the growing number of workers losing their jobs; voted against expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program supported even by a majority of Republicans; and was a no-show for several critical votes, including a veteran's bill.
Over the past years, he has opposed stem cell research; has sponsored resolutions calling for the 10 Commandments to be displayed in the House and Senate chambers; has supported President Bush's overhaul of the Social Security program and at least partial privitization; was one of the 19 co-sponsors of the 1997 resolution asking for an impeachment inquiry of President Clinton; and has been called by many, including USA Today, "one of the most partisan Republicans in the House," particularly as part of the Tom Delay leadership team.
This type of partisan approach to government is not working, and voters know it.
In September 2006, Kingston voiced his opposition to a House resolution that would require the identification of earmarks' sponsors in tax, authorization and appropriations bills, believing it would unfairly target members of the Appropriations Committee, of which he was a member.
No wonder. As reported by this news company last year, Kingston had one of the longest earmark lists of all the members of Congress from the South, over a million dollars' worth.
Bill Gillespie is a credible candidate and a man in touch with the needs of the military establishment in our region, which is a critical component of our local business economy.
To achieve a change, we must change.
John Barrow for the GA 12th District
John Barrow deserves our support for another term as the Congressman from Georgia's 12th District.
While his voting patterns may not be liberal enough for some in the 12th District, particularly in the Savannah area, his legal mind continues to serve us well, demonstrating a pattern of pulling apart legislation and voting on the quality of a bill and its intention versus just following a straight political party line.
He voted against the bailout bill because there was "too much downside for the taxpayer. There were specific areas of fraud and abuse that were skillfully manipulated out of the final product," he says. That approach to in-depth study is what we depend on from our elected representatives.
And we must send representatives to Congress who will take tough stands on the legislative issues ahead for the 111th congress, issues in addition to current financial crisis matters. One of those issues for the 12th Congressional District is needed reform of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, up for renewal in the next session. Improving public schools and developing a more qualified work force are seismic issues for the district.
Barrow shares our views, believing that NCLB was a good idea that "got hijacked from how it was designed. There is nothing wrong with standards, nothing wrong with being sure that Georgia is getting the same bang for its educational buck as Texas, but the Bush administration failed from the beginning to fund the bill, which is exactly what they promised they would not do if it was enacted," he states. "So we're raiding the local tax base to continue to fund federally mandated educational programs." We couldn't make these important points any more succinctly than John's own words.
A 2008 study from the U.S. Department of Education, in the recently released "Reading First Impact Study: Interim Report," states that the performance of students in 12 states who were in grades one to three during the 2004-5 and 2005-6 school years and completed the Reading First Program, a major billion dollar a year NCLB effort, had proven "ineffective." A final report on the impacts from 2004-2007 (three school years with Reading First funding) and on the relationships between changes in instructional practice and student reading comprehension is expected in late 2008. It's an issue ahead that needs tough analysis, and tough stands to ensure funding in a time when there will be little money to spare.
His opponent, John Stone (R), represents the old school party politics of big lobbyists and insider power players. He has spoken out on few issues in this campaign with the exception of his recent one-day media event in Savannah to propose his solution to the U.S. economic crisis, including ideas that cannot be enacted, such as imposing a moratorium on home mortgage foreclosures.
Barrow has high marks and endorsements from business organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And his position on immigration is realistic in light of the needs of Georgia and the 12th District. He supports securing the borders and enforcing the laws we have but without dramatic measures supported by many.
Most importantly, John Barrow is accessible and in the district often, spending endless weekends in its small towns, meeting face-to-face with voters, versus leaving all the constituent work to paid staffers.
John Barrow is a Blue Dog, fiscal conservative Democrat in an era when we're all feeling pretty blue about the economy, and we need his take on the solutions.
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