Another Republican enters the 1st District fray
Just as soon as I start a mini-controversy about my view on the NRCC already endorsing Wayne Gilchrest 6 1/2 months prior to the GOP primary, I get word (h/t to Dave Wissing at Hedgehog Report) that a third candidate entered the field earlier this month.
Joe Arminio is the third guy in the race, and I've already linked to his website.
The Arnold resident certainly has an interesting set of views to be sure...a 3-way partition of Iraq, slashing immigration, and dropping out of NAFTA and CAFTA are his lead issues at the moment. Joe is the author of one book and is finishing up a second to be published later this year, The Decline And Fall of the American Way.
So Arminio is another face in the crowd seeking the seat. It'll be interesting to see whether the conservative and/or anti-incumbent vote is split off enough by having two opponents to see Gilchrest get through the primary with just a plurality of the vote. Arminio claims to have raised $60,000 before entering the race, so he has a bit of a bankroll going in too.
If this keeps up, the WCRC is going to have a difficult time finding speaking slots for all of the GOP hopefuls for the First Congressional District seat.
Late edit:
While I'm on the subject of the First District race, Wayne Gilchrest is back trying to act like a deficit hawk:
U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest voted in favor of legislation last week that would have required an across-the-board spending cut in two key House spending bills.
Gilchrest voted for an amendment on Tuesday by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave that would have cut the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill by .5 percent or, $522 million.
"At a time when our national debt continues to spiral out of control, this seemed like a reasonable cut to help us reign in federal spending," Gilchrest said.
Unfortunately, the vote failed by a vote of 198-229.
On Thursday, Gilchrest voted for the Musgrave amendment to the appropriations bill funding the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science and Related Agencies. That also would have implemented an across-the-board .5 percent cut, resulting in savings of $268 million. That vote also failed by a vote of 186 to 235.
"We had an opportunity to trim these proposals by a modest amount, but even that would have resulted in a savings for the taxpayers of $790 million," Gilchrest said. "We will keep pushing for opportunities to cut spending in Washington rather than raising taxes."
Gilchrest voted against the Democrat budget proposal earlier this year because of increases in spending and tax increases that were necessary to pay for the additional spending. He has cosponsored legislation to make the President’s tax cuts permanent and has called on his colleagues to cut spending rather than raise taxes to help get the budget back in order.
Somehow I don't see that as being different than anyone else in the race would have done. Perhaps another candidate would have sponsored the measure or even went farther to curb spending.