Allen B West & Notes from the Trail – The Hypocrisy of the Left (6-30-2010)

Notes from the Trail – The Hypocrisy of the Left

Team West Supporters,

On Monday, Ron Klein launched his latest attempt at salvaging his fledging fundraising efforts. In an email to his shrinking pool of supporters, Klein outrageously claimed that Allen West has raised $2 million from people who have either been sympathetic to BP, proposed cuts to Medicare/Social Security, or are affiliated with corporations accused of wrongdoing.

With a complicit local left wing media at his back, Ron Klein and his political hacks have the freedom to make baseless assertions that the average American who supports our campaign “would leave our beaches in ruin, end Social Security and Medicare…”

Here are the facts:

ü     Allen West has raised over $2 Million from nearly 26,000 individual contributions – including many of Klein’s former supporters.  That’s about $80 on average per donation.  Over 94% of our funds have come from individual contributions.

• Ron Klein has received a vast majority of his contributions from PACs, unions, and other special interests. This includes at least $22,000 from trial lawyers, $10,000 from the SEIU, $30,000 from the Teamsters, and $11,000 from Fannie & Freddie.

In his desperate plea for more money to save his failing campaign, Klein tried to link Allen to BP through a March 2010 contribution from Congressman Joe Barton in Texas, and thousands of other donations from average Americans.

Here are the facts:

ü     Allen West has never taken a dime from BP, has expressed his anger with BP’s inability to control its rig, and frustration with the Federal Government’s complete and utter failure in stemming the environmental disaster occurring off of Florida’s coasts.

• Ron Klein received $1,500 from BP, has a former Chief of Staff who is now a lobbyist for BP, has been flip flopping on his position on offshore drilling, and has done absolutely nothing in his role as a United States Congressman to pressure the Obama Administration to get on top of this crisis.

Klein – a career politician and trial lawyer – says he is for the average American, yet has voted 98% of the time with Nancy Pelosi. He says he supports hard working citizens, yet he attacks and vilifies these very people for writing modest checks to his opponent.  He says he is for Israel, yet he remains silent and actually defends the Obama Administration’s shameful browbeating of the Jewish State.  He says he respects the veteran, yet he ruthlessly attacks and repeatedly calls ‘extremist’ a man who courageously and selflessly served his country for over 2 decades, serving in 3 different combat zones.  Klein tries to link Allen to BP, yet he accepted and has refused to return $1,500 in donations from the oil giant. $1,500 may not be a lot of money to a career politician, but to the average Floridian, $1,500 is real money.

The hypocrisy is so thick you could slice it with a knife.

It has become crystal clear that a career in politics has distorted reality for Ron Klein. He is doing whatever it takes to run away from his record, and from the real problems facing South Florida.  Under Ron Klein and Nancy Pelosi’s watch, Florida’s unemployment rate has climbed to a staggering 12.3% – much higher than the national average.  When one drives down A1A or Federal Highway and sees empty house after empty house from Jupiter to Fort Lauderdale, it is a stark reminder of why Florida has the third highest foreclosure rate in the country. Ron Klein and his ultra-liberal base have set our country in a steep decline, and average Americans are fed up.

In the coming months, I can all but guarantee that you will see very little of Ron Klein as he continues to dodge his ultra liberal record. Rather, I expect a very negative campaign in which character assassination will be the method of choice for Klein and his cronies.  But as continually demonstrated by Klein, he has miscalculated the American people, thus his tactics will continue to fail.  The West Campaign will continue to run a campaign on the issues that South Floridians and all Americans care about – restoring our economy, protecting Americans, and bringing character and integrity back to Washington.

From the Trail,

Josh Grodin

Campaign Manager, Allen West for Congress