Coop, you may be interested in this endorsement of Jackie Winters from the Portland Oregonian, Oregon's largest newspaper:
Hooley, Winters for 5th District - Oregonian 4/23/04
Jackie Winters is the best Republican to face Darlene Hooley in what will be a competitive race this fall
Friday, April 23, 2004
Many voters nationwide don't get much of a choice in their congressional elections because of creatively drawn district boundaries that favor certain parties or incumbents. But voters in Oregon's 5th Congressional District get a real competition. Rep. Darlene Hooley will face a Democratic challenger in the May primary and a solid Republican opponent in the November general election.
Voters in this conservative, swing district should nominate Hooley and Republican state Sen. Jackie Winters. Both make a good case for representing a diverse district that stretches from Corvallis to a piece of Southwest Portland, and from the Cascades to the coast.
...(Winters portion of Endorsement)
The fight for the Republican nomination pits Winters, the Salem-based co-founder of Jackie's Ribs restaurants, against Jim Zupancic, 52, a Lake Oswego business and real estate attorney. Both favor President Bush's tax cuts, oppose abortion and agree that businesses are over-regulated. However, their political experience and personal styles are markedly different.
Winters, 66, has served in the state Legislature since 1999, both in the House and Senate. She's distinguished herself as a hardworking, independent and thoughtful legislator, and she recently helped broker a deal on the state's health and human services budget. Her knowledge of the links between federal and state funding would serve her well in Congress. So would her years running a small Oregon business.
Zupancic, a former school board chairman in Lake Oswego, presented himself as a moderate, pro-schools Republican when he ran unsuccessfully for a state House seat two years ago. This time, he's repositioned himself several notches to the right.
He says he opposed the recent state tax plan that was designed to protect Oregon schools and other vital services from crisis. He also repeatedly hammers Winters for her support of those taxes, calling Winters and Hooley "the tax-and-spend twins."
Zupancic is a smart, ambitious and well-funded candidate, but his change of tune is troubling. What's more, we think Winters exercised solid leadership for helping craft a budget and then supporting a bipartisan plan to fund it. Both Salem and Washington, D.C., need more common-sense leaders like that.
The Oregon GOP congressional primary is this Tuesday, May 18, and it appears that it's going to be close in the 5th CD race between state senator Jackie Winters and Jim Zupancic to determine the right to take on vulnerable liberal Democrat Congresswoman Darlene Hooley in a district that Bush carried in 2000. If she wins the primary and beats Hooley in November, Jackie Winters would become the first black female Republican ever elected to Congress.
Jackie Winters is endorsed by the Portland Oregonian and the Salem Statesman-Journal, as well as by the agriculture and timber industries (all three endorsements are on this thread). Moreover, Winters is strongy endorsed by the NRA (see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/1117567/posts), and by the former chairman of the Oregon GOP as well as by Oregon Right to Life (see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/1117567/posts). And since her opponent, Jim Zupancic, refused to fill out the Christian Coalition's candidate survey (see below), religious conservatives know that Winters is the only Republican candidate in the race who will stand up for family values. Here is a press release regarding Zupancic's snubbing of the Christian Coalition (which release also includes some of Jackie Winters' most important endorsements), followed by an op-ed by Winters published yesterday regarding her commitment to reduce government spending and make President Bush's tax-cuts permanent. Please tell your friends in Oregon to vote for Jackie Winters on Tuesday. In the meantime, here are the press release and op-ed:
Zupancic first refused to fill out the NRA questionnaire, now refuses to fill out the Christian Coalition Voter Guide questionnaire. Local Republican says "I just don’t know if we can trust him."
The Christian Coalition of Oregon distributed their 2004 Primary Voter Guide across Oregon today. Jim Zupancic is listed as “refused survey.” This refusal to fill out the Christian Coalition’s survey on such issues as partial birth abortion and marriage defined as one man and one woman, comes on the heels of Jim Zupancic refusing to fill out the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) questionnaire.
“I find it very telling that Jim Zupancic does not want to tell the Christian Coalition or the NRA where he stands on the issues,” Senator Jackie Winters stated today. “My opponent has taken issue with my stands on issues and yet when he is asked to provide his, he ducks the questions.”
“I just don’t know if we can trust him,” said Cheryl Mesdag, an activist in the Marion County Republican Party who has a long history in local GOP circles, in today’s Statesman Journal profile article on the Fifth Congressional race.
Furthermore, Lou Beres, State Chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, recently wrote to his members saying: “At Christian Coalition of Oregon, we are dedicated to holding elected officials accountable for their actions. That means getting them on the record before they take office and paying very close attention to what they do after they’re elected.”
The Christian Coalition of Oregon does not endorse candidates in elections. They survey the candidates on issues and publish their responses in a Voter Guide distributed to churches throughout the state.
Jackie Winters, who filled out the Christian Coalition’s questionnaire, stated “I think it is very telling that long time party stalwarts are seeing that Jim Zupancic does not want them to know where he stands on the issues important to them. I believe Republican voters are tired of his vicious attacks against me and realize they don’t know where he stands on the very issues he is attacking me on.”
Jackie Winters has received the endorsements of several active grassroots’ organizations and major district newspapers including the following:
Oregon Right to Life (ORTL); National Rifle Association Victory Political Victory Fund (NRA); Oregon Forest Industries Council (OFIC); AG-PAC (a grassroots membership organization made up of agriculture groups throughout the state); BrainstormNW; the Statesman Journal; The Lake Oswego Review; and The Oregonian.
Standing tall for taxpayers is 1st priority
JACKIE WINTERS
May 13, 2004
During Ronald Reagan’s tenure in the White House, his mandate was “work like tireless bloodhounds to root out government inefficiency and waste of tax dollars.” That is exactly what I will do when I am elected to Congress in November.
Approximately $1.9 trillion is sent to Washington, D.C. every year by hard-working taxpayers like you and me. Twenty cents of every one of our tax dollars spent by the federal government is lost to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement — 20 cents of every dollar.
My toughest challenge once I arrive in Washington, D.C., will be to cut fat out of the federal budget. Identifying the wasteful spending will not be difficult; after all, we have all heard about the $640 toilet seat and the National Park Service’s $797,400 outhouse.
It is time someone stood up for Oregon taxpayers.
The tough part will be convincing my fellow congressmen to vote against the pork-barrel spending that may benefit their home district.
I believe our federal tax dollars should go toward funding our nation’s defense, maintaining our highways and bridges and critical needs of our nation — not to Southern California to fund $500,000 worth of buses at Disneyland.
My on-the-job experience as ombudsman for former Gov. Vic Atiyeh and my years as a state legislator will allow me to hit the ground running as I work to make sure all levels of government complement each other, not oppose each other, for the benefit of all American taxpayers.
I know how to cut budgets and get the votes to pass them. As chair of the Subcommittee on Health and Human Services on the Joint Ways and Means Committee, I eliminated an entire layer of bureaucracy in the Oregon Department of Human Services. I have worked with state agencies to help them find ways to work more effectively and more efficiently with your hard-earned tax dollars. When needed, I have also held them accountable.
These are challenging times. Oregon deserves a congress member who will stand up for what is right — like making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent and working to reduce the endless stranglehold of government waste, rules and over regulations that discourage rather than encourage innovation and ideas.
A lifetime of experience has prepared me for this job. I ask for your vote on May 18.