Hackett Formally Announces Today... Let's Kick This Off Right!
Mon Oct 24, 2005 at 08:42:03 AM PDT
As you all know, Paul Hackett will be formally announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate today at noon.
What do you all say we show some love and flood his ActBlue donation page in the hours following the announcement? It seems like a perfect way to give this campaign some major momentum going into the primary. Currently, Brown has a sizable lead in the war chest, but we can change that very quickly.
Here's to a clean primary, a hard fought election, and a new Democratic Senator from Ohio!
Go donate!!!
I'll update with the press conference transcript after it is released.
Update...
I haven't been able to find a transcript yet, but the AP has a story
on the announcement
Update II:
From the Hackett Website (thanks Bill Section 147)
Paul Hackett Formally Announces Candidacy for U.S. Senate in Ohio
Citing a "call to service" and the need for drastic change in Washington, Paul Hackett, the United States Marine Corps Major and Iraq War Veteran, who stunned the political world with his near win in this summer's Special Congressional Election, formally announced his campaign for U.S. Senate at a press conference today at his Cincinnati home.
"I'm asking all the people of this great state...to consider joining me in the fight to take back our government from the career politicians and their special interest support groups that have hijacked our government and left us with a tangled mess of fiscal irresponsibility, corruption and mismanagement," said Hackett.
Hackett called upon the people of Ohio to stand with him in, what he described as, a fight for the very principles America has always stood for. Principles he sees as under attack from the corrupt special interests and career politicians that control Washington.
"Make no mistake; there are politicians today who'll tell you that Americans like you and me have lost our values, our moral compass. Politicians who think it's the government's job to tell us how we should live your lives; how we should educate our children and how we should worship our God," Hackett said.
He continued, "Long before America was the "last" superpower, people were lining up to come to our shores not because of the might of our military but because of the light of our freedoms."
MORE EXCERPTED REMARKS:
"These great freedoms are what past American generations have fought to leave their children and grandchildren and it is what we must fight to retain...because 'to whom much is given much is expected.'"
"It is this call to service...that motivates me to take up this fight. I can tell you that last year I didn't go to fight to free another country to come home and be told by my government that I couldn't have my freedoms because the world is too dangerous. Our freedoms are what make America great and desirable to the rest of the world."
"As someone who has been blessed with a great family, a great career, and a great country, I am running for U.S. Senate not because I have a desire to add another title to my resume or to achieve a lifetime goal, but quite simply, to continue a tradition of service....a tradition of service to this great country that has run through my family since it arrived from Ireland several generations ago."
"Let's bring back the tradition of the citizen legislator, a concept the founding fathers envisioned, but something that has been lost along the way to the career politicians."
"I make this commitment out of the sincere desire to help my nation that I see in jeopardy. I didn't take a poll or run a focus group - I made a decision with my wife that just as my country needed me in Iraq, they might need me to take that same fighting spirit to the halls of Washington."
"I'm a democrat and proud of it...we are the party that wants to keep government out of the private lives of Americans and focus the government's energy and power on creating a strong economy and a balanced budget...I don't need Washington and its career politicians to tell me how to worship my God or to dictate to my wife the decisions she makes with her doctor anymore that I need Washington to tell my neighbors what they can do in the privacy of their own home or how many and what types of guns I can keep in my gun safe."
"But I do need Washington to wisely manage our military might and our economic budget so that my neighbors and I can safely provide for our families."
"Today is a day for Democracy. The people of Ohio are very fortunate in some ways. They have a choice. They can choose between the failed policies of corruption brought on by career politicians and cronyism, or they can choose to believe in the future, in the greatness of America, an America with limitless possibilities."
Posted at October 24, 2005 02:52 PM
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