Murphy, Manion back gas tax suspension
Bucks County Courier Times
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Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-8, and his Republican opponent, Tom Manion, have opposing ideas on who to blame for record high gas prices, but both want to suspend gas and diesel taxes this summer.
That plan, first pitched by Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and now backed by Hillary Clinton but opposed by Barack Obama, would suspend the tax of 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel fuel this summer.
Obama, who called the plan a political “gimmick,” said suspending the tax would take federal funding from highway and bridge repairs. Murphy, an Obama supporter, said he wants to supplement the revenue lost from the tax by suspending tax breaks given to oil companies.
Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, D-13, said she was “open to the idea” of a gas tax holiday this summer but said it should be paid for through oil company profits and government subsidies given to those companies, not from federal infrastructure funding.
Murphy, Manion and Schwartz also want to suspend deposits of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The country’s emergency stockpile of crude held a record high of more than 700 million barrels earlier this month. President Bush opposes the idea of suspending deposits and, in a press conference Tuesday, said the reserve needed to be continuously filled in the event of a terrorist attack on the nation’s oil supplies.
Murphy, Manion and Schwartz all said they want long-term solutions to the country’s gas crisis, such as an investment in alternative energy, but they have differing views on whom to blame for the price of a gallon of regular unleaded that crept to $3.62 in the Philadelphia region Tuesday, according to AAA.
For Murphy and Schwartz, that blame falls with Bush. For Manion the fault lies with the Democratic-controlled Congress.
“Under this administration, a gallon of gas has soared from under $1.50 to over $3.60 right here in Bucks County; oil companies have made record profits; and President Bush continues to pass the buck instead of take responsibility,” Murphy said in a statement.
Manion pointed out in a statement that the price of a gallon of gas has jumped from $2.33 to $3.60 since Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007 and said Democrats have given only “false promises” to lower the price of gas.
“If the Democrats in Congress can’t lead on this vital issue, they must get out of the way so real solutions can be put into place,” Manion said.
In a press conference Tuesday, President Bush said Congress was blocking his proposals to deal with high gas prices.
Schwartz dismissed the idea that high gas prices were somehow the fault of Democrats when they took control of Congress.
“This happened under George Bush’s watch,” said Schwartz, who pointed out that a gallon of regular unleaded was $1.43 when Bush took the oath of office in January 2001. “This is just one part of the enormous failure of the George W. Bush presidency that has led us to this moment.”
GOP Young Guns aim to win 22 House seats
By Susan Crabtree
A group of energetic House Republicans known as the Young Guns are shooting forward with a plan to help like-minded GOP candidates and the cash-strapped, scandal-worn National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).
Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Paul Ryan (Wis.) launched the Young Guns fundraising program earlier this year, grabbing the headline of a Weekly Standard feature in the process. It heralded the 30-to-40-something swashbuckling trio as just the right fresh faces to lead the party and wrest the majority back into Republican hands.
The threesome has trained its sights on a list of 17 challenger races and five open-seat contests. The idea, McCarthy says, is to select candidates who share the group’s sense of fiscal responsibility and conservative values.
They also want future colleagues who are dedicated to upholding congressional ethics and represent a stark departure from the scandals of the past that helped bring down the GOP majority in 2006.
Already, nearly 50 GOP House members have committed to donating a minimum of $1,000 to each candidate on the list. Many of those also have agreed to serve as political and strategic mentors in the critical months leading up to November and to hold at least one D.C. fundraiser for a candidate. The growing number of Young Gun members meet for breakfast every other week to talk politics and strategy.
The idea, McCarthy said, is to support not only those candidates who are relatively young in age, but also those who have fresh, new, formidable résumés. Tom Manion, an executive at Johnson & Johnson, served 20 years in the Marine Corps, retiring as a colonel. He was inspired to run for Congress after his son Travis, a naval officer, died in the Iraq war. He is running against Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), an Iraq war vet elected in 2006 after campaigning as a harsh critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the war.
Despite the focus on generating new blood, however, some of the Young Gun candidates are familiar names who would not be new to Congress. The group is supporting former Rep. Melissa Hart (Pa.), who lost her seat to Jason Altmire (D) in 2006, as well as former Reps. Anne Northup (Ky.) and Mike Sodrel (Ind.), who lost to Democrats John Yarmuth and Baron Hill, respectively.
The NRCC needs all the help it can get. It has raised a feeble fraction of the funds its Democratic counterpart has taken in this cycle, and an accounting scandal discovered earlier this year spawned an FBI investigation, as well as distrust among many would-be GOP donors.
As a result, only the most optimistic and determined partisans think winning 17 seats and retaking the majority is a real possibility. McCarthy, however, is undaunted.
The freshman McCarthy, who served as the district director to former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) before becoming Republican floor leader in the California Assembly and winning his ex-boss’s seat, still finds Washington a new challenge and fighting on the political front lines invigorating.
The fourth-generation Californian from the dusty town of Bakersfield is often touted as the next NRCC chairman, and he bubbles over with enthusiasm and political stats when asked about his role in the Young Guns program.
“We’re going on offense,” McCarthy declares in his usual ebullient, guns-blazin’ style. “We’re supporting those candidates who have shown that they are dedicated to conservative values and a commitment to rebuilding the Republican Party. ”
One of those challengers is Pete Olson, who is running to retake former Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s Texas seat. Republicans lost the district to Nick Lampson by 10 percentage points in 2006 after a string of ethics scandals forced DeLay to resign. Olson, a decorated officer in the Naval Reserve, served as chief of staff to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) until last year, when he began his campaign. He previously served as a top aide to former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas).
Lou Barletta, who is running against Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), served as mayor of Hazleton, the third-largest city in the district, and his record on unions and immigration could make conservatives salivate.
According to a Young Guns brochure, during his time as mayor, Barletta reformed four illegal union contracts with the city and erased a city deficit.
He also “passed one of the nation’s strictest municipal laws against illegal immigration fining landlords for renting to illegal aliens, revoking business licenses for five years if found to hire an illegal alien, and declared English the official language of the city,” the brochure said.
Cantor, who serves as the GOP chief deputy whip and the NRCC’s finance director, says the effort will supplement, not compete with, other party committee fundraising programs.
“Our goals are the same: regaining House seats,” said NRCC spokeswoman Julie Shutley. “We’re always happy to have anybody and anyone helping us to rebuild the Republican majority.”
Did Murphy back wrong candidate?
Bucks County Courier Times
Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-8, easily won his Democratic primary Tuesday with 93,823 votes.
The result was expected since Murphy was unopposed, but the final vote count might have troubled some of Murphy’s supporters.
On Tuesday, 114,699 Democrats, about 62 percent of the county’s Democrats, cast a ballot. That means that 20,876 Democrats who voted, or nearly 14 percent of the voters, decided not to vote for Murphy, even without another choice on the ballot.
After presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton trounced Barack Obama in Bucks County by a more than 25 percent margin, some of Murphy’s political foes believe that Clinton’s supporters might have punished the freshman congressman, who endorsed Obama in August and became the Pennsylvania chairman of Obama’s presidential campaign.
Adam Abrams, a Murphy spokesman, said Murphy is not concerned about any backlash within his own party.
“Congressman Murphy is confident that this fall, Democrats, moderate Republicans and independents are going to come together to vote for a change from the failed economic strategies of George Bush and to bring our troops home from Iraq,” Abrams said.
Murphy’s vote total might actually be a sign that he has strong support in Bucks, since John Morganelli, a Democrat running unopposed for state attorney general, and Jack Wagner, a Democrat running unopposed for state auditor general, both received fewer votes in Bucks County than Murphy did.
Jerry Morgan, a spokesman for Tom Manion, the Doylestown Township Republican running against Murphy in November, said Obama’s lack of support in Bucks could spell a lack of support for Murphy in November.
“When (Obama) talks about Pennsylvania being bitter, gun-toting, Bible-thumpers and then he gets to Pennsylvania and he gets thumped, yeah, I think that will have a direct effect (on Murphy),” Morgan said.
In a statement, Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Murphy’s support of Obama shows he is “out of step with the voters” in Bucks.
“Barack Obama’s abysmal performance in Bucks County should be taken as a sign for Patrick Murphy,” Spain said. “Should he become the Democratic presidential nominee?”
MANION WINS PRIMARY!
Philadelphia native Tom Manion entered the race for Congress not as a career politician, but as a regular citizen called to public service in extraordinary times.
Tom will take his proven ability to bring people together to Washington - where he will lead the fight for the change that is so desperately needed to ensure every American is provided the hope and opportunity that was afforded to him and his family
Today, Tom and his supporters are one step closer to bringing everyone together with a landslide primary victory.
Tom would like to extend a warm thank you to everyone who has contributed to this important step in his Congressional campaign. However there is still work to be done!
Volunteers are needed for crucial jobs like operating our phone bank, working our cover poll, participating in literature drops, and displaying signs on their property.
We will be holding a pizza party in celebration of the many Tom Manion supporters who have made this victory possible. All are welcome – so please come out and join us in showing your support for the campaign.
The pizza party will be held on May 1st, time and location are to be determined.
Please keep in touch with the Tom Manion Campaign for news updates, upcoming events, and opportunities to volunteer. You can do this by supplying us with your email address or subscribing to our RSS feed.
Thanks again for your support, and thanks for helping Tom Manion get one step closer to Washington.
Upcoming Events
Come show your support for Tom Manion by attending an upcoming event listed below.
News Articles
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Upcoming Events
Come show your support for Tom Manion by attending an upcoming event listed below.
Thank You Pizza Party
Calling all present and future Manion supporters. Join us on Thursday May 1st. at Manion Headquarters in Doylestown for a pizza party to celebrate our victory in the Congressional Primary!
Join us at this informal get together to learn more about the campaign and how you can help.
Manion Headquarters
115 North Broad St. Doylestown
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Please RSVP by April 28th to Krista.foy@manionforcongress.com. We look forward to working with you as we make Tom Manion our next Congressman in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. Thank you and we appreciate your support.
Soldiers for Hope - COMMUNITY PACKING DAY
Come join Candidate Manion on Saturday May 3rd at the Second Annual “Fill A Bag - Fill a Heart” Project as the Soldiers for Hope organization prepares 4,000 care packages to be sent to our troop deployed serving overseas.
All are invited to join us…
Saturday May, 3 2008 Council Rock South High School 2002 Rock Way Holland, PA 18966Doors open at 10:00am
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