Friday
Oct312008
Veterans in the congressional elections
Friday, October 31, 2008 at 3:02PM
General Wesley Clark, former Senators Robert Kerrey (D-Neb.), Max Cleland (D-Ga.), and Jon Stoltz, Chairman of VoteVets.org, held a conference call today on the state of veterans running in the elections. Stoltz said “with our races this cycle, not only do we feel that we’re going to defend all our incumbents, but we feel we have a great shot to pick up 5 or 6 seats.”
General Clark emphasized fully funding veterans health care and education, “particularly at a time when so few of us are paying any price in this war... and there’s a declining number of people who’ve have military experience in Congress.” Clark said, “we need to do a better job at bringing younger veterans into the political process, and especially giving them a chance to run as democrats.”
VoteVets.org has endorsed several candidates who are veterans, raising thousands of dollars for their candidates running for U.S. Congress. The group's endorsed candidates are: John Boccieri, Ohio-16, Charlie Brown, California-4, Mike Lumpkin, California-52, Ashwin Madia, Minnesota-3 , Eric Massa, New York-29, Walt Minnick, Idaho-1, Jill Morgenthaler, Illinois-6, Gary Peters, Michigan-9, John Murtha, Pennsylviania-12, Steve Sarvi, Minnesota-2, Jim Martin, Georgia - U.S. Senate, and Rick Noriega, Texas – U.S. Senate, as well as incumbents Reps. Patrick Murphy, Joe Sestak, Chris Carney, and Tim Walz.
General Clark emphasized fully funding veterans health care and education, “particularly at a time when so few of us are paying any price in this war... and there’s a declining number of people who’ve have military experience in Congress.” Clark said, “we need to do a better job at bringing younger veterans into the political process, and especially giving them a chance to run as democrats.”
VoteVets.org has endorsed several candidates who are veterans, raising thousands of dollars for their candidates running for U.S. Congress. The group's endorsed candidates are: John Boccieri, Ohio-16, Charlie Brown, California-4, Mike Lumpkin, California-52, Ashwin Madia, Minnesota-3 , Eric Massa, New York-29, Walt Minnick, Idaho-1, Jill Morgenthaler, Illinois-6, Gary Peters, Michigan-9, John Murtha, Pennsylviania-12, Steve Sarvi, Minnesota-2, Jim Martin, Georgia - U.S. Senate, and Rick Noriega, Texas – U.S. Senate, as well as incumbents Reps. Patrick Murphy, Joe Sestak, Chris Carney, and Tim Walz.
New Ad To Close Gitmo Battles Conservative Rhetoric
The National Campaign to Close Guantanamo launched what will be a multi-million dollar ad campaign Tuesday that will urge Americans nationwide to pressure members of Congress to shut down the detention facility.
The group is joining forces with retired Generals Bob Gard and John Johns and VoteVets.org to fight what the group described as scare tactics from the far right attempting to block the House legislation from transferring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States.
“The campaign we launched today will not rest until the fear-mongering has been silenced and Gitmo and torture have been retired to the dark chapter of America’s past where they belong,” director of National Campaign to Close Guantanamo and former Rep. Tom Andrews (D-Maine) said in a conference call.
President Barack Obama is attempting to meet a self-imposed deadline for closing Gitmo by Jan. 22, 2010, but Gard said although it “appears unlikely” that the deadline will be reached, it needs to be closed as soon as possible.
“The longer it remains open the more it will be exploited to recruit terrorists against our national security interests,” Gard said.
Johns said Gitmo is often viewed in the world as a symbol of torture and closing it could be the first step in solving other conflicts.
“If we can’t close Guantanamo and if we can’t stand up to this relentless right-wing attack on closing Guantanamo then we can not do anything else,” Johns said. “We believe that with the momentum of successfully closing this stain on America, we will be able to address successfully all the related issues.”