Kay Hagan and Godless Americans
October 30, 2008
I received this email from Elizabeth Dole’s committee:
By now you have probably seen the new TV ad about Kay Hagan and the Godless Americans PAC.
[video player image inserted]
Kay Hagan flew to Boston, Massachusetts earlier this year for a fundraiser in support of her Senate campaign. This fundraiser was hosted at the house of the founder of the Godless Americans PAC.
This is a group that wants to take “under God” out of the pledge of allegiance, “In God We Trust” off of money, and eliminate Christmas as a federal holiday.
Today, Kay Hagan held a press conference stating that she had never heard of the Godless Americans PAC until the TV ad.
Really!? The problem with Kay’s false answer is that the Dole Campaign issued a press release on August 26, 2008, three weeks before the fundraiser, laying out exactly who was hosting the event. It was also printed in the Raleigh News and Observer, and Hagan’s own campaign representative was quoted in the article.
Hagan then claimed she did not take money from them. Again, not true. The founder of Godless Americans PAC and Hagan’s host for the evening contributed the maximum allowed by law to her campaign.
Why is Kay not telling the truth?
Why is she hiding from the fact that she accepted thousands of dollars from the founder of the Godless Americans PAC?
North Carolina deserves answers and the truth.
There is too much at stake in this crucial election for Kay Hagan not to come clean and be up front about her associations.
If you believe in honest, hard working leadership, DONATE TODAY and send Elizabeth Dole back to the United States Senate!
To start with, I’m not sure where Elizabeth Dole’s campaign got my email address from. I don’t remember signing up for info from them, and the format is “MICHAEL@kimsal.com”. I certainly never type my email in that way in any signup form.
Re: the email’s message. While I fear that this may ultimately work for Dole, is this really the best that they can come up with? Hagan supports abortion and took money from atheists (these are all I hear on the commercials). What about positions on issues of substance (change that to *other* issues of substance if you think these issues are substantive already - I think they’re not).
Where does Dole stand vs Hagan on issues of employment, tax policy, immirgation, healthcare, transportation, energy, macroeconomic concerns, and other topics that affect our lives more directly than what words appear on our printed currency?
I suspect Hagan needs to distance herself from this “godless american” thing because of where we live - North Carolina still seems to be populated mostly by people with religious beliefs, and ‘atheism’ is some knee-jerk thing that will scare people away without even thinking.
It seems its still relatively easy to bash atheists in public, and perhaps even be lauded for it by constituents. Replace the concept of ‘atheist’ up there with ‘Jew’ or ‘Muslim’ or ‘Catholic’. Would Dole be able to get away with something like that?
For the record, in April I ended up sitting next to one of Kay Hagan’s daughters on a plane trip from Raleigh. She was exhausted from having done door to door campaigning for her mom a couple days before, but was still pleasant, chatty and kind to a number of passengers (our flight was delayed after we boarded, so we had some time to chat). She engaged many of us, encouraged us to vote, and was simply one of the nicer people I’d met for a long time. She was not the primary reason I voted for Hagan, but she was certainly an early introduction to the Hagan campaign which made me do some more research.
I was somewhat on the fence until the Dole attack ads started coming out, which cinched it for me. Dole, your attack ads are working, just not in the way you’d expected (at least on me).
Yes, Dole, NC deserves the truth. So quit bashing Hagan and tell us the truth about where you stand on various issues. Spend your money talking about your own positive aspects and views on issues, instead of bashing your opponent over potential religious beliefs.
Posted in Politics
October 30th, 2008 at 6:31 am
So, just poking around their websites I found:
http://www.kayhagan.com/issues
This is where Hagan stands on issues.
Where the equivalent information on Dole’s site? If it exists, I can’t find it. I see dozens of pages about her life and accomplishments. I see ‘her story’, ‘accomplishments’, ‘news’ (about dole I presume), ‘photos’ (of dole, presuming), ‘blog’, etc. No direct link to see where Dole stands on issues. Perhaps the assumption is because she’s an incumbent or Republican or whatever, that we’re just supposed to automatically *know* her positions? Sorry Dole - NC is changing - many new immigrants coming in from all over who don’t know you or your record.
PUBLISH YOUR VIEWS ON VARIOUS ISSUES ON YOUR WEBSITE! Won’t make a difference to me, as I already voted, but it might help some people make up their mind.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I wonder about that sometimes myself. Did you get any other FIRSTNAME@kimsal.com emails? I wonder if those who bulk-mail capitalize the part of the address before the @ symbol for a list of recognized firstnames as an attention-getter in your inbox.
I mean, you’re more likely to take a second look at MICHAEL@kimsal.com than michael@kimsal.com aren’t you?
October 30th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
You made the right decision in voting for Kay. I’ve known her family for a long time (although known Elizabeth Dole longer because I used to work for her through a Presidential appointment) and what you saw on that plane is the character of the Hagan family. Kay will serve us very well!
October 30th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
@cliff - nothing else came in to me, but I filter spam as much as I can. I don’t get many others except mike@ I think. I’ll check with mark and lesley to see if they got anything.
@julie - thanks for the input. I suspected as much.