Frank Creel vs. Tom Davis - VA 11th District

August 26, 2002 INCLetter | 8/26/02 | Frank Creel

[Frank Creel]

Thank you for your support. I agree with everything you say and assure you that you will not have to follow me into hell. To paraphrase Harry Truman, that's what I plan to give Tom Davis.

[Frank Creel]

Thanks. That means a lot to me. Bruce Bangerter is a great American patriot, and I am honored to be associated with him and his noble party.
You don't have to live in Virginia to help me out. Tom Davis has almost a million dollars left over from his last campaign and can easily raise millions more. Meanwhile, I am trying to scrape enough together to pay for yard signs.
It's time for all good men and women to come to the aid of--a rebel against the status quo!

[Frank Creel]

As for welfare and subsidies, I am a strict contructionist of Article One Sec. 8 and very much opposed to an expansive reading of the "general welfare" clause (which Madison rightly pointed out would have the effect of negating Art. One Sec. 8's enumeration of powers).
The part of the War on Drugs aimed at destroying crops overseas and interdicting supplies is a waste of resources, which should be directed toward reducing internal demand. That, in turn, is primarily the job of parents, schools and churches, but it would also be nice to have capital punishment for drug kingpins, with the only escape from the death penalty being a plea bargain based on a capital conviction of someone higher up in the supply chain. And, finally, such laws should be enacted by the sovereign states, not by the federal government, which, because power corrupts, seems to have the nasty habit of making everything it touches rotten to the core. If there weren't so much money in the drug business, fueled principally by American insatiability for the stuff, overseas poppy and coca farmers would be planting something else, and drug kingpins wouldn't be so wealthy that they can raise private armies.

[Ligeia]

Thanks for the ping. I regret I was redistricted out of the Eleventh and into the Eighth. Now I can't vote for you. You might want to put a link to this thread on the Virginia page. Here's wishing you all the best!

[Ligeia]

Two Creels? I apologize for my confusion.

Your other thread:
Frank Creel's Second Amendment Position

[ltlflwr]

Thanks for the advice!

[Ligeia]

I'm sorry but your links on the Virginia page don't work! Try again without the HTML. Just copy and paste the url with no < a href...etc. >. The links should work, then. Good luck!

[ltlflwr]

You're very helpful. I think the links work now. Thanks again!

[SEA]

Dr. Creel, you've got it! I will get the address from your website and get a check to you.

[Frank Creel]

Thanks! Please also send my website address around to everyone on your email list and ask them to chip in, too, if they can afford it--if not, prayers, too, are deeply appreciated and perhaps even more efficacious than cash!

[Eustace]

Best Wishes :-)

[Ligeia]

Independent faces uphill battle in race
By MICHAEL NEIBAUER
Journal staff writer

Frank Creel is fighting the good fight, and losing.

The Arlington resident is an independent candidate running on the Constitution Party's ticket against four-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-11th District. Davis defeated his Democratic challenger two years ago by 28 percentage points, but has no major party opponent this year.

``I think it's going as well as can be expected," Creel, 61, said Tuesday. ``He's got a lot of money in his war chest, universal name recognition and I think he's a pretty effective campaigner. People don't take my campaign seriously."

A political novice, Creel estimates 90 percent of district residents don't know he's a candidate. He doesn't live in the 11th District, has raised a couple hundred dollars and has only a few volunteers, mostly high school students he said are ``just doing their homework."

And if taking on a popular congressman wasn't difficult enough, Creel also is playing tug of war for attention in the year of the sales tax referendum, a ballot question he vehemently opposes, but Davis supports.

Creel had no intention of raising the referendum, a regional half-cent sales tax increase for transportation, as an issue during the campaign until Davis endorsed it.

``I think it's Tom Davis who's acting like the political novice, not I," he said. ``It's not even a federal issue, and he federalized it."

Raising the sales tax, Creel said, will create new bureaucracy but not fix Northern Virginia's transportation mess. The answer lies in smarter growth, staggered work hours and strengthened local government zoning power.

``I have a chance," Creel said. ``I think this is going to demonstrate the power of single-issue politics."

Larry J. Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, said the referendum might be Creel's only opportunity to garner some name recognition and send a message. If he can connect with the anti-referendum forces, he could, at least, get some votes.

``He has absolutely zero chance of winning, or even coming close," Sabato said. ``If you're a third-party candidate in this kind of environment, you better try to ride a wave to shore. And the biggest wave in Northern Virginia is the tax referendum."

Creel follows the Constitution Party's credos, which are pro-life and include unconditional gun ownership, limited government and elimination of the federal income tax.

Under his proposal, the personal income tax would be phased out over 10 years and replaced with a corporate income tax. The corporate tax would then be eliminated after another decade and substituted with ``the original constitutional order," a reliance on custom duties and apportionment to the states.

It is a workable proposal, Creel said, as long as it is accomplished in conjunction with a forced downsizing of the federal government.

``I'm an incrementalist," he said. ``I understand you can't administer shocks to the economy."

Creel also opposes a war with Iraq. He said it would have ``long-term catastrophic political consequences" and domino into a war with the Middle East, one the United States might be locked into for 100 years.

He retired two years ago from the Department of Commerce after a 27-year career. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey and served in Vietnam as a rifle platoon leader, for which he earned a Bronze Star.

Davis' campaign, meanwhile, says it is not taking Creel's challenge lightly.

``We're taking our race extremely seriously as we always do," said John Gibson, Davis' campaign manager. ``We have opposition on the ballot, but even if we had no opposition on the ballot, we'd still do mailings."

Davis met Creel once, at last month's Centreville Day Parade. The challenger has asked Davis to debate, but has not yet received a response.

``Tom is a strong believer that once you stop working," Gibson said, ``people take you for granted."
http://cold.jrnl.com/cfdocs/new/ffx/story.cfm?paper=ffx&section=fp&snumber=05

[ltlflwr]

Thank you Ligeia for posting the article. It's a bit negative but bad press is better than no press as the saying goes. At least it was on the front page! :)

In a few moments, I will be posting a sample of Davis's voting record on FR. I believe you're on my ping list. Until then, if you're interested, here's the link.

[Ligeia]

It was a little negative. It's the Journal, after all!

[Ligeia]

Oops, I did it again...not William, Frank! I'm terrible with names.

[Ligeia]

I heard a campaign ad on WTNT today during Michael Graham's program. It sounded great!