By Jennifer Logue
Last spring, I had the privilege of being nominated by Sen. Scott Brown to represent Massachusetts at the national Republican Women’s Summit in Washington, DC.
The mood at the conference was upbeat and enthusiastic. Participants heard from congressmen and political activists who described a renewed energy and commitment across the nation to elect leaders who would reverse the damage inflicted by two years of trillion-dollar “stimulus” debacles, tax increases and corporate bailouts. They supported their statements with hard numbers showing that the vast majority of Americans opposed not only the disastrous health care legislation, but also the big-government, tax-and-spend stimulus policies of the current administration.
They also offered a caveat: Be prepared, they told us, for the most negative, personally destructive political campaigns you have ever seen. Today’s far-left Democratic Party had access to the same polling results and statistics, conference leaders explained. They knew they couldn’t win on the issues, because on every issue, the people were against them. So the only option left was to demonize their opponents in an attempt to make their tax-and-spend liberal candidates seem palatable by default.
Sadly, this prediction has come to pass. We’ve seen it across the nation, as conservative candidates have been vilified, lampooned and harangued by opponents who have nothing positive to say about their own campaigns. And we’re seeing it here in the 10th congressional district race as well.
State Rep. Jeff Perry is a National Guard veteran, former police officer and a four-term state legislator. He has served honorably, fighting against the overwhelming Democratic majority on Beacon Hill to cut taxes, reduce government spending and prevent illegal immigrants from collecting welfare and other state benefits. He has run a positive, courteous and dignified campaign based on the issues, explaining in great detail his positions on health care, social security, taxes, national security and immigration reform.
His opponent, William Keating, has addressed none of these issues. Instead of telling the voters where he stands on the critical problems facing our nation, Mr. Keating has chosen to follow the Democratic Party political playbook, stooping to the worst kind of gutter politics and political mudslinging.
With just 12 days to go before the election, Mr. Keating has yet to run a single ad explaining his positions on the issues or his qualifications for the job he seeks. Instead, he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars running negative attack ads that are at best distorted and misleading and at worst outright false, causing some stations to pull the advertisements. He has bombarded local residents with negative and malicious mailings and telephone calls – all in an attempt to distract voters from the fact that Bill Keating has no positive plan of his own for getting America back on track.
On November 2, voters have a choice. They can vote for Jeff Perry, and send a message to Washington that the days of trillion-dollar deficits, billion-dollar bailouts and welfare for illegal immigrants are over. Or they can vote for Bill Keating and ensure that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has yet another rubber stamp to support her far-left, big-government agenda.
But voters have another choice to make as well. A vote for Jeff Perry is a vote for positive, courteous political campaigns that show voters the respect they deserve by focusing on the critical issues facing our state and the nation. A vote for Bill Keating is a vote for the politics of personal destruction – a bare knuckles, no-holds-barred, win-at-any-cost battle that subjects voters to months of dirty, demeaning and dishonorable behavior.
On Tuesday November 2, I will be voting for the candidate who showed voters the courtesy of telling us where he stands on the issues and what he will do if elected. That candidate is Jeff Perry.
