Should Conservatives Support Robert Hurt for Congress?

The dynamic in the race for the Republican nomination in the 5th District seems to be anybody but Hurt. His votes for the Warner tax increases, as well as the Northern Virginia Trasnsportation Authority are making many people raise their eyebrows (to say the least).

Robert Hurt is addressing this issue by saying it is a vote he regrets. His campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, argues that Sen. Hurt was misled, and if he knew there was really a surplus he wouldn't have voted for it. He is also arguing that people are just cherrypicking a couple votes out of over 5,000 votes Se. Hurt cast. Sen. Hurt has also signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge to not raise taxes that is sponsored by Grover Norquist.

To say that harking back to this vote is cherrypicking is to ignore the political situation surrounding the Warner tax increase vote. This was one of the bigget votes in the state senate in years. Activists, and the RPV chair Kate Obenshain were calling on the state senate to not pass the tax increases. A western style wanted posters were created with the faces of all the Republican state senators who voted for the tax increases, and an effort was made to primary many of those state senators in the 2007 election cycle. Some would also consider the vote a significant reason the Republicans lost the state senate in 2007.

To brush off a vote like this by saying you regret it and wouldn't have done it if you had all the information is like saying you wouldn't have voted for the first bailout if you had all the information. That is not the kind of person we want. We want someone who will get it right when it comes time to vote.

It is almost as inspiring as supporting someone for president who supported the Gang of 14 while in the U.S. Senate, and we all saw how well that worked out.

That said for Lawrence Verga and others to compare what is going on in the 5th district to NY-23 inaccurately represents both what happened in New York, and what is going on in Virginia. In New York the Republican leaders chose someone who was more liberal than the Democrat, and was endorsed by the SEIU and ACORN. In Virginia we have someone who has a long record of service in the state legislature, and besides those two very important votes it is a very good record. He is socially conservative, and he is pro gun. These things could not be said about the Republican nominee in NY-23.

Robert Hurt is someone who will very understandably have a difficult time energizing and inspiring the grassroots. Is he someone I would support in a primary? No. While he will not be a conservative leader in Congress, he will be much better than Tom Periello, and will do a good job, and therfore we can and must support him as conservatives if he wins the nomination. If our goal truly is to advance conservative values, then if we fail to defeat him in the primary, we must back Sen. Hurt in the general election, and make sure he wins. To support a third party in the 5th district guarantees we will lose the race, and hurts the conservative cause.

Al Bedrosian Takes on Roanoke Times Endorsed Republican for Board of Supervisors

Al Bedrosian is a long time friend, and a true conservative. If you know anyone in North Roanoke, please encourage them to read this and Vote for Al Bedrosian. Honestly this is similar to the Congressional race in NY-23 this weekend. When the Republicans become liberal, and forsake our party creed and the principles this party is supposed to stand for, it is not only our right, but our duty to challenge them in elections.

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I, Al Bedrosian, am running for Roanoke County Supervisor – Hollins District (North Roanoke County) this Tuesday, November 3rd. I will be running as a conservative write-in candidate – which means I need you to write in my name B-E-D-R-O-S-I-A-N as County Supervisor when you vote this Tuesday

My reasons for running as a write in candidate are as follows:
2 months ago, I was approached to write an article for the Roanoker Magazine about Roanoke County Government. My findings, which were published in the October 2009 issue of The Roanoker Magazine were disheartening to say the least:

- Size of Roanoke County budget nearly doubled in the past 10 years, while the population during that same time only increased by 15%.

- The tax burden per person in the county has nearly doubled to $2100. An average family of 5 has a county tax burden of over $10,000!

- Roanoke County has the second highest Real Estate rate in all of Virginia, second only to Loudon County in Northern Virginia. – that’s REAL MONEY that we pay in our monthly mortgage or mid/end of the year tax bill if you own your house.

- The County bypassed the voters (did not get their approval as they should) and passed an $83 million bond – which included spending $50 million on a new GYM with waterslides in North Roanoke County. Building gyms with our tax dollars, when people are struggling to make ends meet. This is NOT the role of government.

- The current Supervisors voted to accept federal STIMULUS money, with strings attached, to cover up shortfalls in the budget. Federal Stimulus money is money stolen from our children’s future.

The sad thing is that this Fiscal IRRESPONSIBILITY was performed under republican controlled County Supervisors!! Everything listed above is directly opposed to the Republican Creed of Virginia which calls for lower taxes, and government involvement ONLY when it cannot be done by the private sector.

Unfortunately, I uncovered these items after the Primary in June, 2009 so was unable to run in the Republican primary and remove our so-called Republican supervisor in the Hollins district. I did however approach Mr. Flora and ask him politely to step down and let a true Republican/conservative run for office. He refused. I took this issue up with the republican leadership, but they showed little interest. I thought there was really little I could do until the final nail in the coffin occurred this past week, THE ROANOKE TIMES endorsed Mr. Flora, our current Hollins Supervisor.

When a liberal newspaper endorses a Republican over a democrat start getting VERY nervous. The endorsement of the current Hollins County Supervisor by the Roanoke Times has made me say ENOUGH is ENGOUGH. If you vote in the following 6 voting places in North Roanoke County, I am asking for you to write in B-E-D-R-O-S-I-A-N as County Supervisor. PLEASE SEND WITH A personal NOTE TO YOUR FRIENDS….Let me know if you are in the district and would be willing to vote for me. I will be voting for Republicans: McDonnel, Bolling, and Cuccinelli

You can reach me on Facebook.

WE have less than a week to get this message circulated among conservatives in North Roanoke County!

-Roanoke Valley Christian Schools off of Williamson Rd.
-Burlington Elementary School – off of Peterscreek Rd.
-Mountain View Elementary School – off of Plantation Rd.
-Life Church – off of Peterscreek Rd.
-Bonsack Baptist Church off of 220 alternate
-Hollins Library off of Peterscreek Rd.

Thanks

Al

Another New York Special Election?

The end of March New York had a special election to fill seat vacated when Hillary Clinton's senate seat. It appears that within the next month we will have another congressional special election in New York. This will be in New York's 23rd congressional district. Obama selected Rep. John McHugh the ranking member on the armed services committee to serves as the new Secretary of the Army. This is a very rural district that has a Republican congressman, but voted 52% for Obama. It will be a critical election as Republicans need to hold onto all their seats. At this point the early favorite to be the Republican nominee is McHugh's chief of staff, Robert Taub. Hopefully the NRCC does not ruin our chances of winning this time by running very negative adds.