Beth Anne Rankin Turns Up The Heat on Ross

A statement from Jim Harris, Director of Communications for Beth Anne Rankin for Congress:

Career politician Mike Ross is starting to feel the heat for all the liberal votes he has cast while in Congress. That is why he sent out his “myth list” Monday. He hopes voters will not go to the record and see that he is not the conservative as he claims.

With the polls showing he has dropped to 49 percent, he is desperate to muddy the waters

Here are the truths to disprove the “myths” he released:


MYTH: Miss Rankin says Mike Ross has voted for Nancy Pelosi four times, but what she doesn’t say is that Nancy Pelosi was unopposed on the Democratic ballot.

TRUTH: The Speaker of the House sets the congressional agenda for the next two years. The question of who is elected Speaker determines if liberal or conservative legislation gets brought up for votes.

Mike Ross can try to run away from his four votes to make Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House by saying there wasn’t another Democrat on the ballot. That does not change the fact that Ross voted for Pelosi. It does not change the fact that voting for Ross in November is giving Pelosi another vote for Speaker in January 2011. A vote for Mike Ross is a vote for Nancy Pelosi.

Look at the issues that are important to Arkansans:

Abortion: The National Right to Life Committee rating on Pelosi is zero. 

Gay rights: Pelosi opposes a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one-man-one-woman and votes 100 percent of the time with the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organization.

Illegal immigration:  Pelosi opposes building a fence along the border with Mexico and supports amnesty for illegal aliens.  

Gun control: Pelosi has an F grade from the National Rifle Association.

Pro-family: The Christian Coalition says Pelosi votes pro-family only 8 percent of the time.

Taxes: Pelosi doesn’t just want the Bush Tax Cuts to expire; she supports repeal of those tax cuts.

If re-elected, Ross will once again vote to put Pelosi in charge of setting the agenda for the House of Representatives. A vote for Ross is a vote for Pelosi.


MYTH: Miss Rankin says Mike Ross has voted with his party 96% of the time, but what she doesn’t say is these totals include procedural votes, such as quorum calls and motions to adjourn, recess or to approve the congressional record.

TRUTH: What Beth Anne really says – and Ross ought to know this since he has someone video tape each of her public appearances – is that from the start of the current Congress until the day she filed, Ross voted with Pelosi 94.6 percent of the time. That is a matter of public record. Ross says he is a conservative Democrat but votes that often with Pelosi. He talks the conservative talk, but doesn’t walk the conservative walk.

MYTH: Miss Rankin says Mike Ross is not a fiscal conservative, despite local, state and national headlines and a voting record to the contrary.

TRUTH: Does he mean votes like the one of April 29, 2009? Ross voted for the original Obama budget. Ross was one of 223 Democrats who voted to pass Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 and all the fiscal irresponsibility it contained.

Maybe he means the Jan. 28, 2009 vote for the stimulus bill where Democrats promised it would keep the national unemployment level under 8 percent. It has since gone above 10 percent and currently is 9.7 percent. The stimulus bill is a failure that ran up the federal debt. Ross voted for the stimulus bill. There are still millions of dollars provided in that bill that are unspent. Expect Ross and other Democrats to be handing that money out in the next seven weeks to try and buy votes with our own tax dollars.

The “Blue Dog” congressman should be guarding the federal budget, but he didn’t bark while the federal debt swelled to a record $13.3 trillion – the real source of our economic woes. You don’t keep a dog who doesn’t bark to alert you to danger. It is time for the voters to send Ross back to Prescott to live under the laws he has voted on the last 10 years.



MYTH: Miss Rankin says Mike Ross could have stopped the health care bill in committee, despite the fact that the bill that became law never even went through Mike’s committee.


TRUTH: Please check this link to the Washington Post story on Aug. 1, 2009. Ross clearly voted for Pelosi-backed health care bill in committee.

Washington Post


If Ross is so against that health care bill, why won’t he vote to repeal it? Beth Anne will vote to repeal it and replace it. If a Presidential veto blocks this, she will vote to defund it.

Ross claims to be a leader of the “Blue Dogs” and lead that group to vote against it. The record shows most of those “Blue Dogs” voted for it. So much for his claim of being a “leader.”

MYTH: Miss Rankin says Nancy Pelosi “let” Mike Ross vote no on health care reform because she had the votes to pass it without him, despite Mike publicly announcing his vote more than two months before the vote took place.

TRUTH: By the time Pelosi’s heath care bill came to a vote on the floor of the House, she didn’t need Ross’ vote. She needed his vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee when it passed out of committee on a 31-28 vote. If Ross had voted against it and convinced one other Democrat on that committee to vote against, it would have failed. The fact is Ross gave her his vote when she needed it the most. The Fourth District does not need a congressman who picks party over principal.


MYTH:  Miss Rankin says Mike Ross voted for the Obama budget; however, Congress never votes on the President’s budget.

TRUTH: With almost 10 years in Congress one would think Ross would understand how the system works. The President submits a budget to Congress. There is a budget process, but it starts with the President’s budget. As pointed out above, Ross voted for it in Roll Call Vote 216. It is public record and Ross can’t run away from his many liberal votes. His claim that he has to vote certain ways because he is a Democrat is no defense. Fourth District voters have an opportunity to vote for Beth Anne, who is not and never will be Pelosi’s lap dog.

MYTH:   Miss Rankin has criticized Mike Ross on his vote for the stimulus package – the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act – arguing it’s done nothing for Arkansas.  Tell that to the 232,000 working families in our congressional district that received an $800 per year tax cut, and the state of Arkansas, which received billions in aid for schools, Medicaid, community colleges and universities, roads, bridges, police and fire departments and more.

TRUTH: The stimulus bill failed to do what they promised it would do. The Fourth District will always accept federal dollars, when flowing, for noble causes. But that does not change the face that the bill failed to accomplish the mission used to sell it to the American people. It is a bad bill. It is bad economics. It is bad governing. Ross and Pelosi were among those selling the bill to the American people on the premise it would hold unemployment below 8 percent. Look at the national unemployment figures. Why is Ross so proud of voting for this failure?


MYTH: Miss Rankin says Mike Ross doesn’t listen to his constituents, despite Mike Ross’ intense town hall schedule.

TRUTH: Just because Ross holds town hall meetings doesn’t mean he is listening. Beth Anne has also been holding a series of town hall meetings and people are telling her Ross doesn’t listen to them. When you look at Ross’s pro-Pelosi voting record, you understand they are right.

MYTH:  Miss Rankin says Mike Ross isn’t accurate about her position on Social Security, yet she has publicly stated that she would have “preferred” Social Security privatization and wants to either “raise the age limit” or “reduce its benefits.”  When asked specifically if she would rise the retirement age, she said “all options are on the table.” Mike Ross has consistently fought off Washington attempts to privatize Social Security and has actively opposed raising the Social Security retirement age or cutting the benefits Arkansas’s seniors have earned through a lifetime of hard work.


TRUTH: “Privatization of Social Security” is the 2010 Democrat scare tactic. Beth Anne has said often she does not support privatization. She said it yesterday (Sept. 13, 2010) at a town hall meeting in Hope. Both the Hope Star and Texarkana Gazette covered the town hall meeting. Check the stories in those newspapers.

Will We Forget 9/11?

For most Americans, September 11, 2001 started out as a day like any other.  People were going to work, people were getting off the late shift, people were starting their daily routines across America.  This day, however, would not turn out to be like any other.  The day would mark the start of changes across our nation and around the world.  Changes would be seen in simple things like what we are allowed to travel in airplanes with and what we are not allowed to travel with to larger things like the war.  It would also be one of the only day's in America's flight history when the sky would become silent.  Planes were grounded from the smallest single engine plane, to the largest airliner.  Only military planes would fly the rest of the day and government planes.  September 11, 2001 turned out to be anything but a day like any other.

 Another day that started normal for most Americans was December 7, 1941.  Again, people went about their daily lives, unconcerned about the war in Europe.  That day would also mark changes across the nation.  People would watch for Japanese ships off the coast, Japanese citizens would be rounded up and placed in camps, and Americans would use slang terms to define the Japanese people.  Before the war was over, retribution would be painful for all nations involved, including the United States, and Japan would see two large cities virtually wiped out by the atomic age.  December 7, 1941 turned out to be anything but a day like any other.

Today, we remember September 11th, but how many of us living will pause and reflect on December 7th?  The generation that lived the day of December 7th is literally passes away in front of us.  Even people who were young children at the time, are now growing older, reaching retirement and often not reflecting too much on December 7th.  On December 7th, there will be some services honoring the day and the lives lost.  Most likely those will center around the Arizona Memorial.  Sadly, December 7th will eventually be left to the historians to discuss, debate, and remember.  The fact is that there are only so many generations that will be affected by December 7th, and those generations are starting to end now.

Because we have seen such dates as December 7th fade into history almost as "just another day" we must find a way to ensure September 11th does not have the same fate.  There are several ways we can do this.  First, we must teach what really happened on that date and what the results were.  Second, we must push our government, including President Obama, to not simply look at this as a day of healing wounds.  Third, we must insist that the true history of the day is honored by the government and passed to each generation.

Obama and his friends in Washington have forgotten one thing about September 11th that we have not.  The war is not over.  The terrorist that organized and constructed the attacks on the United States are still out there and still planning.  The difference now between September 11th and December 7th should be clear.  We won the war that resulted from the attacks on December 7th and it became time to move on; however, we have not won the war that resulted from the attacks of September 11th.  If we do as Obama would like us to do and go on with our lives, then September 11th will quickly be left to the historians to debate and discuss.  We will find ourselves once again open to an attack from our yet unbeaten enemies of terrorist.  After all, we still know about December 7th because most of us know or knew someone from that generation, but how many remember April 12th?*


* oh, in case you're wondering, that's April 12, 1861 and the start of the American Civil War with the first shots fired at Fort Sumter, SC.  The end result was freedom for American slaves at a cost of over 620,000 lives.  

Beth Anne Rankin to Host Town Hall Meeting in Hope

HOPE, AR -- Congressional candidate Beth Anne Rankin of Magnolia will host a town hall meeting at 1 p.m. on Monday, September 13, in the Student Center of the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope.  

This is part of a series of town hall meetings Rankin has been holding in the 29 counties that make up the Fourth District of Arkansas.

Rankin will speak on her positions of the issues facing the state and the country and take questions from the audience.

"We once had a problem with voter apathy in this county, but we don't any more. Everywhere I go there are people telling me this country is moving in the wrong direction," Rankin said. "Please join me at the town hall meeting because I value your opinion on the important issues facing our country."

Rankin is a small business owner and seventh-generation south Arkansan who spent seven years working in the Governor's Office for Gov. Mike Huckabee.

As Huckabee's Policy Adviser for State-Federal Affairs, Rankin served as the liaison to the National Governors Association, the Southern Governors Association, Capitol Hill and the White House. Rankin coordinated the Governor's Summit on Economic Development, Play it Again Arkansas and chaired the state-wide initiative for the design of the Arkansas State Quarter, leading the nation in citizen participation.

While serving in the Governor's Office she also served as a Board Member on the Arkansas Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission. Born in El Dorado and raised on the Rankin Farm in Magnolia, she was an Honor Graduate of Magnolia High School, attended Southern Arkansas University and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Ouachita Baptist University with a double major in history and music. Beth Anne is a Nationally-Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) and launched Beth Anne Productions in Magnolia, an independent music teaching studio.

(Another big thank you to Jim Harris for this vital information)

ARKANSAS RIGHT TO LIFE ENDORSES BETH ANNE RANKIN

  MAGNOLIA, AR – Congressional candidates Beth Anne Rankin has been endorsed by the Arkansas Right to Life Political Action Committee.

“Respect the sanctity of human life is not only one of the issues I’m running on, it is a strong personal belief. Have no doubt – I am pro-life and proud of it,” Rankin said. “I support the reversal of Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton decisions. I think elected legislative bodies should be able protect unborn children by limiting or prohibiting abortion.”

She also supports renewing the current Hyde Amendment policy without allowing it to be weakened by amendments. The Hyde Amendment is a federal legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.

The original Hyde Amendment was passed in 1976. It was the first pro-life victory after the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a letter sent to Rankin by Wayne Mayes, president of Arkansas Right to Life, said:

“The Arkansas Right to Life Political Action Committee is pleased to endorse you for election to the United States House of Representatives Arkansas District 4 in the 2010 General Election.

“The endorsement reflects our appreciation for the strong stand you have taken on behalf of those members of our human family who are least able to protect themselves – unborn children and medically disabled or dependent persons whose lives are threatened by abortion or euthanasia.

“We appreciate the values by which you live, the inspiration you provide those in your community, and the courage with which you stand up for the principles in which you believe.

“The countless Arkansans who respect the sanctity of innocent human life appreciate the deep commitment you have for this important issue. 

“We wish you the very best in the upcoming election and look forward to working with you to change hearts and minds on the issue of abortion and in passing laws that protect and defend human life in our nation and world.”
The ARTL Federal PAC seeks to elect candidates to public office that respect the sanctity of human life. The ARTL PAC is nonpartisan, and its funds are separate from Arkansas Right to Life, Inc.

Thanks once again to Jim Harris for great input here at Texarkana GOP!

Wayne Smith: Running for Mayor of Texarkana, Arkansas

If you have not heard the news, then you might not be on Facebook.  Wayne Smith of Texarkana announced briefly today that he, after much consideration with his wife and in prayer, has decided to run for the office of Mayor for Texarkana, Arkansas.  Wayne said:

“After discussion with family and friends and many hours of prayer I have decided to initiate the process of placing my name on the November Ballot for Mayor Texarkana, Arkansas.

I am asking for each of you to remember Brenda and I in your prayers as we embark on another adventure/avenue in our journey through this life.”

 

Having known Wayne and his outstanding character, I immediately contacted him through a direct message and fired off some basic questions.  The man who has spent his life being prepared, serving his community, and in too many leadership roles to count, responded quickly.

 

Wayne immediately pointed out that he has already set an agenda in place for being the new Mayor of Texarkana, Arkansas.  He stated that he wants to see our “economic interest first and foremost in the region.”  This is good news for plants such as Cooper Tire.  He further noted that he feels strongly that outside interest groups have impeded Texarkana’s growth for too long.  He assures me that Texarkana, Arkansas will come first in all his dealings in and out of the area.

 

As for recent events in the news, Wayne feels strongly that the Texarkana Water Utilities must continue as a joint operation, managed by Texarkana, Arkansas and Texarkana, Texas.  During his discussion about the water company, Wayne used such words as “insist” and “demand”.  He feels strongly that both cities have a stake in the water utilities and that both cities must equally administer and regulate those interests.

 

Wayne is already formulating ideas for economic growth and strengthening Texarkana, Arkansas’ position for future industry.  As Mayor Shipp prepares to leave his post, Texarkana, Arkansas would be best served by a man prepared to take the leadership of the city to new levels and elevate Texarkana, Arkansas into a position of economic prosperity that has been unseen in our past.