However, it appears that Frank Wolf complained about this same problem in 1978, when he first ran for office. In a Washington Post article in 1978, Wolf complained about the unfair incumbent advantages and vowed to "try to do away with congressional perquisites". This was in the Washington Post on 11/4/1978.
It seems Frank Wolf is OK with using public funds for campaign purposes now that he is the incumbent. While Frank Wolf signed the Contract with America, vowing among other things to support a balanced budget amendment, Frank Wolf has voted with Bush 90% of the time, especially for tax cuts for the wealthy. Especially since he is on the powerful appropriations committee.
Frank Wolf voted to cut student aid and voted to give large tax cuts to energy companies.
At a time when we have record deficits, shouldn't our elected officials focus on spending money for education and to assist needy families, instead of making sure they get free advertising.
Frank Wolf was out-raised 2:1 in the past quarter and is spending the money of the people to make up for it.
It's time for a change. Please sign up as a volunteer or donate to Judy Feder for Congress. We need new leadership in Congress, and Judy can make it happen.
I had previously written about Wolf's signing the Contract on America which was printed in at least two papers:
To the Editor,It is time for a change.
I was a senior at Herndon High School when Frank Wolf was first elected to Congress 26 years ago, he has been my representative in Congress for most of my life.
On September 27, 1994, 300 candidates for public office, including Frank Wolf, gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and signed their names to the "Contract with America". Their pledge: 'If we break this contract, throw us out.'
Among the issues contained in the "Contract with America" were "THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT" (A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.) and "THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT" (A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators). These descriptions are directly from the contract, you can view it yourself at http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html.
Let's see how Frank Wolf has done on these two issues:
THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT - Frank Wolf signed the "Contract with America" calling for Congressional Term Limits 12 years ago after he had already been in office for 14 years. How does he feel about Term Limits now?
THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT- How about Fiscal Responsibility? The National Debt when Frank Wolf was first elected in 1980 was $930 Billion (with a "B"), currently the National Debt is over $8 Trillion (with a "T") and Congress recently raised the US Debt Limit to $9 Trillion (approximately $30,000 for every man, woman, and child in the US. For a family of four, $120,000 - before interest).
Lets compare the size of the national debt during Wolf's time in Congress as a percentage of the Gross National Product (a more accurate comparison since it takes the growth of the economy into account). in 1981, when Wolf first took office, the national debt represented 32.9% of the GDP. Today the national debt represents more than 63% of the GDP and is rising. These figures are available for the White House web site document "Historical Tables, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2006." at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/pdf/hist.pdf.
A wise man once wrote that the first step to getting yourself out of a hole is to stop digging, Frank Wolf represents more of the same, increased debt, social re-engineering, lowered safety standards, neglect of Constitutional oversight responsibilities, crumbling infrastructure, and spiraling health, education, and energy costs.
We can not afford this continued lack of vision and leadership.
It is time for a change.
As of the Q1 reports, Wolf had around $450,000 in the bank compared to Feders $270,000, not a huge difference AND Feder outraised Wolf by 2 1/2 to 1 in the first quarter. Wolf burned his war chest against Socas in '04 and apparently hasn't built it back up.
The RNC will consider this a safe seat and will be busy fighting fires all over the nation so they won't be able to dump cash on Wolf as easily as in past years.
Most polls show Health Care to be one of if not the most important issues for voters and Judy Feder is a nationally recognized expert in Health Care.
Wolf can't play the carpetbagger card he tried against Jim Socas because Judy and Stan have lived here for 30 years and raised their sons here.
Don't forget that this district has been trending blue, We beat Darth Black (I mean Dick) with Dave Poisson, we carried the area for Kaine, and in January Mark Herring carried EVERY precinct (62% to 38%) in the special election for state senate.
Do what you can to help... http://judyfeder.com/
BUT...I am relatively new to VA, and its politics.
GO JUDY GO!!!
She has the drive and what it takes to win, and this seat is open. If we could get half the exposure that Webb/Miller have, we could really step up and take this seat by storm.