I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. — Abraham Lincoln 1. Why are you running for Congress? 1. Why are you running for Congress? Because, after 22 years, it’s time for a new Republican voice in Congress. I’m a Republican who believes in fiscal conservatism and limiting the role of government, so you can imagine that I haven’t liked what’s been going on in Congress for a long while now — even when Republicans were in the majority. In fact, it was when Republicans lost their way on these important principles that they ended up giving up control of Congress to the Democrats. Unfortunately, after 22 years in office, our own representative hasn’t been living up to these standards either. We can and should expect better. 2. What makes you qualified to represent us in Congress? I am not a career politician looking for the next open seat . Since graduating from Harvard Law School almost 14 years ago, I have been actually working with federal law, reading the statutes that Congress passes and studying the policy issues behind them. I encourage you to compare my background with the incumbent’s before entering Congress. (You can read more about my professional qualifications on my PROFILE page.) In addition to my ability — and energy — to give us the level of representation we deserve, I also have strong roots in our community. My family came to Ventura County in 1976 and continues to live here to this day. Having grown up here, and especially as so many of my family members continue to live in the community, I believe my views reflect those of a majority of the district. 3. Aren’t you sort of young to be running for Congress? With so much of my hair turning gray, I’ll take that as a compliment. The Constitution requires representatives in Congress to be at least 25 years old. I’m 39 — I’ll turn 40 during inauguration week next January — so I think I make the grade by about 15 years. 4. What kind of Republican challenges an incumbent member of Congress from his own party? One who believes in democracy — that We the People should choose our representatives after learning about the candidates and their positions through open debate in a fair election. After all, it’s a seat in Congress, not a throne for the incumbent to try to pass along to his buddies. But I’m not the only Republican who has ever believed that. Do you remember the Republican who in 1976 challenged not an incumbent member of Congress from his own party but a sitting Republican President of the United States? Yes — Ronald Reagan. If it was good enough for Ronald Reagan for President, it’s certainly good enough for Michael Tenenbaum for Congress.
Thanks for the advice on campaign strategy, but like I said, I am not a career politician, nor do I intend to make a lifetime career out of elected office. People often suggest running for local office as a way to “get your name out there.” While running for local office may be what some politicians do as a stepping stone to higher office, my professional experience and interests in making a difference at this point are in dealing with national issues. The kind that fall within the power of Congress to affect. Apart from raising one’s public profile, there is little correlation between, on the one hand, working on local issues, such as traffic and zoning and, on the other, handling matters of federal law, such as antitrust, bankruptcy, intellectual property, and securities — all fields that I’ve worked in over the years. Moreover, I think we’re already represented pretty well at the local level. It’s as a new Republican representative in Congress that I know I can make a major difference. The primary election is this June 3rd. If you vote by mail, you can expect to receive your ballot sometime in early May. If you need to register to vote for the election or change your registration, you can start the process here. (The deadline is May 19th.) If you want to register to vote by mail, you can start that process here (Ventura County) or here (Santa Barbara County). The sooner the better. 7. Didn’t we just vote in February? Yes. We voted in the presidential primaries in February, and we’re voting again — in the legislative primaries — in June. And, yes, it is a waste of over $75 million in public resources to hold separate presidential and legislative primary elections, but that’s what the state legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger decided. The good news is that, since turn-out is predicted to be lower in June, your vote makes even more of a difference. Any registered Republican or (for this election, at least) any decline-to-state voter who requests a Republican ballot can vote for me in June. Registered Democrats will have to wait until I appear on the general election ballot in November. 9. What chance do you stand of beating a 22-year incumbent? A good one, actually. Some people say it can never be done. We call those people pessimists. In fact, just a few weeks ago in Maryland, a Republican challenger beat an 18-year incumbent Republican congressman in the primary. Like Gallegly, after spending too many years in Washington, the incumbent had lost his way and no longer lived up to the standards the people expected of him. Of course, it is always a challenge to get voters to make informed choices in non-presidential races, but, once they do, the decision to send a new Republican voice to Congress should be an easy one. The good thing is that it’s still the people who decide elections, not the pundits. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, actually: if enough voters want a new voice in Congress, then we win. All it takes for the incumbent to prevail is for good people to do nothing. 10. Doesn’t Gallegly have a lot of money? Yes, over the course of 20 years in Congress, Gallegly has managed to become a multimillionaire, and he has a campaign war chest of $800,000 — far more than anyone needs to spend in a primary in our district. The incumbent will no doubt outspend me by at least a factor of two to one, but even all the mailers and TV ads in the world can’t buy the votes of informed citizens. In fact, when Gallegly first won election to Congress 22 years ago, he had been outspent by his opponent, as well. Given the relatively few people who are expected to turn out for the June legislative primary, the influence of all that money will not be as significant. (But please consider making a contribution here.) Fortunately, in politics, it’s still the votes that count. 11. Didn’t I hear Gallegly announce he was retiring? You heard right. Twice, in fact. In February 2006, after 20 years in office, Gallegly registered to put his name on the ballot to seek another term in Congress. Two weeks later — and two days after I announced I was challenging him — Gallegly declared that he would not seek re-election and that he would retire at the end of that year. He cited a mystery illness that he has never revealed to the voters, instead claiming that “the people in the district wouldn’t understand all the medical terms.” On March 10, 2006, Gallegly issued a statement saying that “it is now time to begin the next chapter of my life.” 12. Why don’t you just wait until Gallegly retires? (Well, didn’t he already do that twice? See the question above.) This is the kind of question I get asked by personal friends of the incumbent. Whoever said it was the American way to just sit around and wait? But when we’re dealing with a position as serious as representative in Congress, I believe our interest in having the best public policy should trump the interests of pacifying the good ol’ boys. Every year, the federal government spends approximately $3 trillion dollars of our money. If you’re a fiscal conservative like me, you care about how that money gets spent. Every year is an opportunity for a member of Congress to do something to benefit this country instead of waste it with symbolic votes to win re-election. As my PLATFORM makes clear, I will start making a difference for us in Congress from my first day in office in January 2009. 13. Aren’t there term limits for members of Congress? No (only for state legislators). But remember the Contract with America? Item number 10 —entitled “The Citizen Legislature Act” — promised a “first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators.” That provision called for a constitutional amendment to limit members of Congress to only six (or, alternatively, 12) years in office. That was 1994. Gallegly had already been in office for eight years by then, but he signed that pledge. That means, based on his own promise, he should have retired in 2000. He’s now sat in office for over three times longer than even he agreed was long enough. 14. What’s so bad about our representative anyway? I don’t know anything bad about him as a person. It’s his legislative record that matters, and it’s his legislative record that reflects that it’s time for a new Republican voice to speak up for the concerns of our district. But don’t take my word for it. See the sections of my PLATFORM where I show the difference between us on the issues that matter most, such as his failing grades from fiscally conservative watchdog groups like Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Taxpayers Union, and the Club for Growth. Moreover his legislative priorities — sponsoring bills about asparagus, cockfighting, the square dance, inflammatory bowel disease, “crush videos,” etc. — which are quite different from mine and, I’ll take the liberty to assume, from yours as well. 15. But didn’t I vote for Gallegly in the past? Of course you did. Most registered Republicans did, too, since, for 16 years — until I stepped forward to challenge him — he’s been the only name on the ballot in the Republican primary. This June 3rd, you’ll have a real choice. 16. Why does no one ever challenge him? For the same reason that no one was willing to declare that the emperor had no clothes: fear. Local politicians fear stepping on each others’ toes, and many of them are waiting in the wings in the hope that Gallegly will anoint them his successor one day. Perhaps they’ve forgotten that it’s the voters who choose their representatives. Other would-be candidates — even those with unlimited personal resources —fear having to wage a tough campaign against an entrenched incumbent and would rather wait until he dies or retires, creating an open seat. Of course these motives reflect placing an interest in one’s own political career ahead of what’s best for the district. But it’s not accurate to say that no one else has contemplated a challenge to the 22-year incumbent. Following my lead from last time, Republican Tom McClintock recently considered challenging Gallegly in the upcoming primary and, according to Roll Call, commissioned a survey that showed Gallegly would not survive such a challenge. 17. Isn’t Gallegly a leader on immigration issues? Congressman Gallegly has had 22 years in Congress to work on illegal immigration. Ask yourself this: Has the problem gotten better or worse during all that time? Any self-described “leader” on the issue has to take some responsibility for our policies today. As outlined further in the section of my PLATFORM on Security at Home, the incumbent is more talk than action on the issue. Republicans were no longer in the majority at the start of this term in Congress. So, with no realistic chance of getting any of them passed, Gallegly introduced 11 separate bills on the subject of immigration so that he can continue to make it sound like he’s doing something.. In fact, some of those 11 bills are almost absurd. Take H.R. 131, for example. What do you think we should do when, a court orders an illegal immigrant to leave the country and we find that he hasn’t left? Like you, I think the answer is simple: secure the border and (in the case of Mexico, at least) deport him to the other side of it. What does the legislation that Gallegly introduced this term require? That we put the person we don’t even want in this country in federal prison for four years — or 10 years if he’s a criminal. I don’t know about you, but, given the overcrowding in our prisons, I don’t want over $40,000 a year of my tax dollars being spent to house, clothe, and feed people who our courts have already determined don’t belong in this country in the first place. So the incumbent can call himself a leader, but no serious leader would ever claim, “I have said from the get-to — the border is not our problem — the border isn’t the problem.” The real leaders in Congress on the immigration issue are part of the Immigration Reform Caucus, first headed by Tom Tancredo and now run by the California congressman elected two years ago, Brian Bilbray. There are 112 members of it who work to shape our immigration policy. Gallegly is not one of them. 18. Doesn’t Gallegly help bring money to the district? Yes, some. It’s called pork, and the fact that the rampant earmark abuse in Congress occasionally benefits our district doesn’t make it right. In fact, if you have Microsoft Excel, you can see from this table of earmarks from Taxpayers for Common Sense that Gallegly ranks 397th (out of 435) in terms of his ability to bring home the bacon. The problem is, to get a few hundred thousand dollars for the sheriff and district attorney’s offices — county-level agencies that should not be financed by the federal government — Gallegly has to scratch others’ backs and vote for literally billions of dollars more in wasteful expenditures, like the infamous Bridge to Nowhere and other pet projects like the recent Museum of the Mule. Getting a few hundred thousand dollars here and there for local projects in exchange for increasing our national tax burden by billions is hardly my idea of a deal. 19. What political offices have you held? Unlike my opponent, I am not a career politician I'm a private citizen given to public service. As outlined in my PROFILE, in addition to working full-time as a business advisor and lawyer handling matters of federal law, I have volunteered as a prosecutor both in Brooklyn, New York, and here in Ventura County, prosecuting jury trials and appeals in cases ranging from drug-dealing to double-murder. I have also served on the Board of Governors of the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center — the largest such center between Los Angeles and San Francisco — and I was chosen by my colleagues as its Chairman (the youngest in its brief history). In light of my work on complex federal cases that take years to resolve, one of my greatest professional rewards has come from volunteering as a judge in the small claims courts in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. (All of my public service has been unpaid.) 20. Doesn’t Gallegly’s 22 years in Congress give him seniority? It should, but not in his case. In fact, anyone who understands how Congress works should recognize that Gallegly’s time in Congress has not resulted in our district getting the benefits that come with seniority. For example, when Republicans were in the majority last term, there were 22 full committees in the House of Representative. Gallegly was not the Chairman of any of them. In fact, although chairmanships are ordinarily awarded by seniority, 11 of those committees were chaired by members with less time in Congress than Gallegly (meaning that he had been passed up 11 times). What matters in Congress is what you do with your time and influence there. While Gallegly has been running around to get signatures for his bills on “crush videos” and cockfighting, newer members such as Eric Cantor from Virginia and John Campbell — a first-term Congressman from California — have been making names for themselves in leadership and leading the way on counter-terrorism and earmark reform. 21. Isn’t Gallegly endorsed by the sheriff, the district attorney, and other public officials? Yes, and it shouldn’t be surprising since many of them are his long-time personal friends or have been the beneficiaries of his earmarks and pork-barrel politics. In fact, it shouldn’t surprise you that the incumbent is also endorsed by many of his fellow pork-spending members of Congress. I have nothing but respect for the jobs that our sheriff, district attorney, and public officials do. Having volunteered as a prosecutor in Ventura County and served on our performing arts center board of governors, I am a strong supporter of law enforcement and our community leaders. If none of them is willing to endorse my candidacy as long as the incumbent is in office, I’ll just plan to earn their endorsements when I’m the next congressman from this district. 22. What are your views on ______________? My PLATFORM page explains in detail where I stand on the issues on which I plan to focus as my legislative priorities in Congress: Real Fiscal Responsibility, Inviolable National Security (starting at our borders), and Limited Federal Government. It is virtually impossible to include on this website my positions on all the issues I think are important. I believe that many, such as education, are best left to local or, if necessary, state-level government — and ideally to the private sector. (How big a role does Margaret Spellings play in your children’s lives today?) In general, I subscribe to the principle that the government is best which governs least. 23. When and where can I watch you guys debate? That depends. I’m prepared to debate the incumbent at least three times between now and the election on June 3rd. I think the voters of this district — in both Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties — deserve no less than that. If I had to make a prediction, though, I’d say that the congressman will either ignore or refuse every opportunity to debate. A political insider might say that’s good campaign strategy for an entrenched incumbent facing a challenge from a private citizen. Perhaps if you had the incumbent’s unfortunate legislative record, you would too. But what does that say about a candidate’s respect for the voters? In any case, if you agree that we should accept no less than open debate on the challenges facing the next Congress, then call the congressman’s office and let him know. 24. How will you be different from the incumbent? Simply put, by being more in touch with our district — holding regular meetings with the community — and more effective for us in Washington. Please read my PLATFORM page to learn exactly how I will represent us better. Congressman Gallegly has been in office for 22 years and done as well as he’s capable of doing. It’s time for a new Republican voice in Congress. 25. If we elect you, are we going to be stuck with you 22 years later, too? I don’t think it’s healthy for a congressman to sit in office for 22 years — that’s one of the main reasons I’m running to replace the incumbent. I think even half that time is too long. Instead, by staying focused on the legislative agenda I’ve outlined, I hope to make a significant impact within a short time and then return to the private sector or move on to the next interesting opportunity to serve. |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
