May
23
Vern McKinley Asserts His Conservatism In Interview At Miller Politics Blog
Filed Under 2008 Election, Earmarks, Economics, Frank Wolf, News Items, Republicans, big government | Leave a Comment
Vern McKinley was interviewed by Lee “Ben” Miller for the Miller Politics blog yesterday.
MP: “Why did you decide to challenge incumbent Frank Wolf for the Republican nomination?”
McKinley: “I observed the 2006 election and saw a ‘Big Government Republican’ and a ‘Big Government Democrat’ offered by the two major parties. There was an ‘urban legend’ in the District that Congressman Wolf was a good limited government, fiscal conservative and he perpetuated this myth. I took a Vote-Smart survey that showed I agreed with him only about 25 to 30% of the time. This led me to research his record further and everything I found out about him as well as his votes subsequent to my initial research has shown that my decision to challenge him was a good one.”
Read the full interview at Miller Politics.
May
22
McKinley Required Reading: GOP in danger of becoming ‘Pelosi-lite’
Filed Under 2008 Election, Earmarks, Media, Republicans, big government | Leave a Comment
This week the Washington Times published an article discussing Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor’s fear that Republicans may be giving in to the Democrats a bit too much of late.
A top House Republican yesterday said the leadership must steer disheartened rank-and-file members from adopting a centrist or “Pelosi-lite” agenda and instead reaffirm conservative principles, or risk deepening the political grave the party dug for itself under President Bush.
“The job of the conference right now is to not allow us to slip into [saying] we’re going to just be like them. We’re going to go and just be Pelosi-lite and go with their solutions and try and slip by this election,” said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican chief deputy whip.
Read the full article at the Washington Times.
May
16
Vern McKinley Makes “Change Congress” Pledge
Filed Under 2008 Election, Earmarks, Frank Wolf | Leave a Comment
Vern McKinley has made the following pledges in support of “Change Congress“:
- I will support the abolition of “earmarks.”
- I will support reform to increase transparency in Congress.
While Frank Wolf continues to say one thing and do another on earmarks, McKinley solidifies his principled view on earmarks by taking this public pledge.
For more details on “Change Congress” check them out here.
May
8
Liberty Maven Takes On Frank Wolf
Filed Under 2008 Election, Earmarks, Frank Wolf, Republicans, big government | Leave a Comment
The Liberty Maven blog has posted an article critical of Frank Wolf’s conservatism. It even charges him with potential corruption. DISCLOSURE: Liberty Maven has endorsed Vern McKinley For Congress.
Frank Wolf loves introducing legislation that creates more government bureaucracy just so it looks like he’s doing something. Frank Wolf has continually requested earmarks for the 10th District over the years. This year, the very year he is supposedly now against earmarks, he requested over $250 million in earmarks. This is by far the highest amount among Virginia Republicans who have released their requests.
He talks like a limited government Republican but acts like a spendthrift Democrat.
Read the full article at Liberty Maven.
Apr
30
Loudoun Times: Vern McKinley Challenges Frank Wolf
Filed Under 2008 Election, Earmarks, Economics, Foreign Policy, Frank Wolf, News Items, Republicans, Taxes, big government | Leave a Comment
An article in the Loudoun Times discusses Vern McKinley’s challenge to Frank Wolf in Virginia’s 10th District.
McKinley is firmly against the federal government contributing money to the Metrorail extension out to Loudoun. The main reason, he said, is that voters need to get away from thinking of members of Congress as “ATM machines and Santa Clause.”
“Your oath as a congressman,” he said, “is not to get as much money for your district as possible.”
Read the full article at the Loudoun Times.
Apr
21
McLean Connection Covers McKinley’s House Race
Filed Under Earmarks, Frank Wolf, News Items, Taxes, big government | Leave a Comment
The McLean Connection covered the 10th district Congressional race earlier this month. In the article Vern McKinley is critical of his opponent Frank Wolf on earmarks and spending.
McKinley decided to run against Frank Wolf in the primary after doing some research on the congressman during the 2006 election. McKinley was upset that the National Taxpayers Union had given Wolf a rating of only 45 percent.
“I was just amazed at how bad [Wolf] was on spending issues and earmark issues and pork barrel spending,” said McKinley.
Read the full article at McLean Connection.
Apr
18
McKinley Interviewed on Winchester ABC TV 4/18/2008 [Video]
Filed Under Earmarks, Economics, Foreign Policy, Media, News Items, Regulation | Leave a Comment
Vern McKinley was interviewed this morning on ABC TV 3 in Winchester, Virginia. He covers why he is running, the stumbling economy, earmarks, and the Iraq war.
Check out the interview video at the TV 3 web site.
Jun
25
Contact: Lisa Bell
703-470-5042
Ashburn, VA—President Bush in his 2007 State of the Union Address called for an end to earmarking An earmark is funding for a project that is not requested by the President and is essentially a special interest add-on that an individual member of Congress requests. Citizens Against Government Waste, an organization which strives to eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in the federal government, has a better name for earmarks: Pork. The earmark process often lacks transparency and is done secretively. To shed some light on this secretive process, President Bush directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide detail on nearly 15,000 earmarks costing tens of billions of dollars for fiscal year 2005.
As a follow-up to the publication of these 15,000 earmarks by OMB, challenger Vern McKinley contacted Congressman Wolf’s office regarding the 51 earmarks in his Tenth District (VA) that totaled $54 million. McKinley requested some very basic information from the Congressman on these earmarks, including which of the 51 earmarks his office was involved with, what the justification was for that involvement, whether the Congressman applied any consistent policies to earmarks and finally whether these policies address the case of accepting campaign contributions from companies or related entities within the district that also receive earmarks.
Of particular interest to McKinley were two instances where the recipients of two $3 million earmarks during 2005, Science Applications International Corporation and Northrop Grumman, were also two of the largest campaign contributors to Wolf through the companies’ PACs or through other means (www.opensecrets.org).
Instead of addressing McKinley’s straightforward questions, Congressman Wolf noted that he does “support reform and transparency across the board in identifying how taxpayer dollars are spent” which “includes publication of requested earmarks by sponsor in all legislation which comes to the House for a vote and from every committee.” However, Congressman Wolf was one of only 24 Republicans who voted against a rule just last year requiring that all members identify the particular pork-barrel spending earmarks they are requesting (House Vote 449).
Congressman Wolf’s response is clear: The earmarks he requested are a secret and they will remain a secret. “Congressman Wolf is very selective in his disclosure of earmarks. If he sees some political benefit to disclosure he releases the information, but if he wants to keep the details to himself he will do so. Throughout this campaign, I will continue to press Congressman Wolf, not only on the issue of earmarking, but also on the broader issues of government spending and the proper role and size of the federal government,” McKinley concluded.
To learn more about the McKinley for Congress campaign, please visit www.McKinleyforCongress.com.
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