Posted on 08/27/2010 12:18:03 PM PDT by Tucson_AZ
To: Interested Parties
From: Rodd McLeod, Campaign Manager, Giffords for Congress
Date: August 25th, 2010
In Re: State of the AZ08 Race
With the defeat of lobbyist/insider Jonathan Paton in yesterday’s Republican primary, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ prospects for re-election have brightened significantly. The Arizona Democratic Party’s effort to defeat Mr. Paton over the summer was motivated by a desire to face Mr. Kelly in the fall. Here’s why.,
Mr. Kelly makes 2006 nominee Randy Graf appear moderate. As Mr. Kelly’s own words will demonstrate, he is an ideologue with no interest in governing; he is hostile to moderate voters, to the middle class, and to the poor; he has embraced radical positions at every turn; he is not running for Congress to improve life for the people of Southern Arizona; he is running to eliminate Social Security, Medicare and the minimum wage. Below are a dozen reasons that Jesse Kelly cannot win in AZ08.
1. Kelly’s plan for Social Security: “eliminate the program.” Asked about the possibility of “eliminating” Social Security, Mr. Kelly responded: “If you have any ideas on that, I’m all ears. I would love to eliminate the program.” Tucson Weekly, December 2, 2009.
2. Kelly’s hostility to Medicare, which he calls “the public dole.” Also in the Tucson Weekly on December 2, 2009, Mr. Kelly spoke of wanting to “privatize” Medicare, contending that, “when individuals can start owning their own insurance, then they’re in less need of Medicare in the future, thus getting off the public dole ... It’s one of the biggest problems that not enough people talk about right now.”
3. Kelly’s plan for Wall Street: whatever Wall Street wants. At the Douglas, Arizona tea party on July 17, 2010, Mr. Kelly explained that Wall Street should not have to abide by rules or regulations. Of the Wall Street reform bill, he said, “It has to be repealed. Too much government got us into this fiscal mess. More government is not going to get us out of it."
4. Kelly’s radical tax plan, Part 1. Mr. Kelly believes that corporations pay too much in taxes, and that the cost of government must be entirely borne by individuals. At the Saddlebrooke candidate forum on January 6, 2010, Mr. Kelly said, “The corporate tax rate should be zero. … We must get the corporate tax rate to zero.”
5. Kelly’s radical tax plan, Part 2. Mr. Kelly believes that tax policy should be determined by religion. At the Green Valley tea party debate on June 14, 2010, Mr. Kelly said, “We need to get to a 10% flat tax in this country ... If 10% is good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for the federal government.”
6. Kelly’s radical tax plan, Part 3. Mr. Kelly’s plan to balance the budget includes creating a national sales tax of 23% that would apply to everything a middle class family buys, from food to medicine. Supporters of this proposal have labeled it ‘the Fair Tax.” At the U of A Republican Club debate on April 8, 2010, Mr. Kelly said, “It's time to cut that completely back - fair tax, flat-tax, I support them both. They're both fantastic and a lot better than what we have now."
7. Kelly’s war on the middle class. Mr. Kelly believes that middle-class Americans are “unproductive” people who take advantage of the rich. At the U of A Republican Club debate on April 8, 2010, Mr. Kelly said, “The top 10% of this country pays 70% of the tax bill. We continue to squeeze the productive in favor of the unproductive.”
8. Kelly’s hostility toward moderates. Mr. Kelly believes that moderates must be “told” what they believe. At a Tucson meet and greet on August 17, 2010, Mr. Kelly said, “This middle you talk about — it doesn’t exist. This is a conservative country. Many people don’t label themselves as that, but they are, ask anybody. […] That middle doesn’t exist. They’re just conservatives who haven’t been told they’re conservatives yet.”
9. Kelly’s plan to expand poverty. Mr. Kelly has called for eliminating the minimum wage. At the Saddlebrooke candidate forum on January 6, 2010, Kelly said, “ We must take steps to lower and eventually eliminate the minimum wage.”
10. Kelly’s hostility toward his opponent. Mr. Kelly uses disgusting words and images to humiliate his opponents. At the Green Valley tea party debate on June 14, 2010, Mr. Kelly said, "The land of the free is where we're supposed to be living here, and these people want to control your toilets ... Stay out of my toilet, Gabrielle Giffords, alright?”
11. Kelly’s hostility toward government employees. With a US Army intelligence post at Ft. Huachuca, the Davis-Monthan Air Force base, the Coronado National Forest, and the Saguaro National Park, AZ-08 is home to tens of thousands of federal workers, who are described by Mr. Kelly in a June 30, 2010 radio interview as parasites. “What is a government worker? A government worker is a person who lives and sucks off of the taxpayer. They don't put anything into the system. They suck off of the system.”
12. Kelly’s “basically simple” explanation for everything wrong with the world. During a discussion of energy issues, Mr. Kelly explained that U.S. dependence on foreign oil was due to liberals. At a debate at Desert Christian High School on July 21, 2010, he said, “We're tied to Middle East oil because we elect too many liberals to our government. It's basically that simple.”
Each of Mr. Kelly’s statements (besides the two that appeared in the Tucson Weekly) quoted above are available to the public via the popular website YouTube.com.
Ping
So is this pretty much a lost cause now?
Kelly didn’t seem so bad from what I read about him.
Its only a lost cause if we let privatizing your own finances get called radical.
Kelly has run an incredibly strong campaign, really one of the star candidacies nationally, coming from nowhere for a clear win over Paton, who himself was an excellent candidate.
Gabby Giffords only has two months left of sending out hysterical press releases, so it's only fair that she make the most of it. The only mystery is why a FReeper would get their news from Democrat press releases and try to tear down a conservative just because his guy didn't win. Bizarre...
So...you prefer Gabby?
Gabby got in after the establishment GOPers savaged Graf...going for a repeat?
Sounds like the Democrats are actually terrified of him, because he would attack every destructive socialist scheme they have implemented since FDR and LBJ.
While I don’t agree with everything he is advocating, most of what he is advocating would help lead America out of the economic crapper we find ourselves in today. A low-flush crapper, I might add, that we have to flush a lot to get rid of waste government.
Tucson_AZ 3/15/10 - If Paton wins the primary, I certainly won't be able to vote for him, as he is a Democrat with an 'R' after his name and would just be more of the same constitutional sell-out, "only slower" self-serving, big government, lesser of two evils - but still evil choice.
Tucson_AZ 8/27/10 - The Dems sent out at least 7 different hit piece mailings days before the election smearing Jonathan Paton. Now we have Jesse Kelly, "a special-ed student, who flunked out of college, running against a Fulbright scholar."
Stupid RATS. A 10% flat tax for everyone is a great idea ... who cares where it comes from.
So now we’re slamming the handicapped (”special ed”)???
You can take every one of these statements and actions from the Dem propaganda machine and find more “extremist” ones from Gabby Grill.
Just for starters, she abused NASA jet privileges with her spoiled husband, date nights in Copenhagen, the family’s toxic waste dump downtown, she “retired” a top scientist from a local Fortune 500 company after he questioned her ill-rehearsed version of global warming, she was scared silly about a constituent in Douglas with a gun, she incessantly maligned her constituents, she voted against them toward CommieCare, shall I go on?
It’s just a question of if Kelly, the RNC, etc. etc. will take the evidence and you-tubes (like where she called us names on the local PBS station) and everything and start fighting back.
My reason for posting was to express my frustration with the Dems meddling in the primary so that the lessor GOP candidate won. I do not want Gabby to get re-elected.
Originally, I liked Jesse, but I became concerned when I found out much of what his campaign against Paton was saying was not true. And yes, I did change my opinion of the candidates as I learned more about them. (This is a good lesson to keep one’s opinions to oneself - as they may change once one finds out things are not as they were proclaimed to be!)
I “quoted” the ‘special-ed’ comment because that’s what the Dems are using as they try to frame this race. (This was heard in conversation with co-workers so I can’t cite a published reference.)
I believe that the independents/moderates will probably decide this race. I’m concerned that Jesse may not be able to overcome the Dem’s portrayal of being too ‘extremest’ (see the linked video above). I certainly hope the GOP and the Kelly campaign come out fighting against Gabby, but they are already slow coming out of the starting blocks.
It’s aggravating that Gabby can run for an AZ office when she really lives in Houston with her astronaut husband there.
BTW, I enjoyed voting AGAINST McCain.
The Democrats always think conservatives are the easiest to defeat, when the opposite is true.
And what is the use of winning if you don't put in someone who is really conservative.
So, if the most conservative one, it was a plus, not a minus.
Tucson_AZ, why don't you post your dem press releases over at DU. Every single one of the comments attributed to Jesse Kelly in that press release were either taken out of context or made up out of whole cloth.
You start your comments:The Dems sent out at least 7 different hit piece mailings days before the election smearing Jonathan Paton. Now we have Jesse Kelly, "a special-ed student, who flunked out of college, running against a Fulbright scholar."The fact is, as you already knew as a Miller supporter, is that the dems, just like the GOP establishment in AZ, ASSUMED that Paton would win the primary and were simply starting their campaign against him ahead of time. Are you honestly asking the fine people on FR to believe that Giffords would rather face Kelly over Paton whom she, at one time dated, and already DEFEATED once before in a run for the AZ House.
It will now take a miracle for the GOP to win AZ CD8
Jesse Kelly also had no chance of defeating Paton in the primary! Yet he did by a comfortable margin.
Freepers, DO NOT be fooled by an impostor. I encourage you to simply do a search here on FR of "Jesse Kelly" to find out the real story.
“5. Kelly’s radical tax plan, Part 2. Mr. Kelly believes that tax policy should be determined by religion. At the Green Valley tea party debate on June 14, 2010, Mr. Kelly said, “We need to get to a 10% flat tax in this country ... If 10% is good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for the federal government.” “
Boy what a dumb press release.
We all know what the tithe reference refers to, and ‘believes that tax policy should be determined by religion’ is a phony attack.
So the Dems are all about attack, attack, attack.
“Kelly’s “basically simple” explanation for everything wrong with the world. During a discussion of energy issues, Mr. Kelly explained that U.S. dependence on foreign oil was due to liberals. At a debate at Desert Christian High School on July 21, 2010, he said, “We’re tied to Middle East oil because we elect too many liberals to our government. It’s basically that simple.””
Let’s see, Liberals oppose ANWR, offshore drilling, the liberal Obama put a deepwater drilling moratorium, oppose oil shale R&D, oppose nuclear buildout, etc. The libs have foisted anti-energy policies on us.
What wrong with what he said?
What did Jesse Kelly say about Mr. Paton that was untrue?
This kind of Crap should be easy to defeat.
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