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It's Heating Up...And Not Just the Weather!
It’s Heating Up…And Not Just the Weather
Friends and Supporters!
With only four more days until the primary election, my race is heating up. While I stick to my pledge to stay on message and positive, my opponent is not.
Prepare yourself for negative messaging against me. You may receive phone calls that are push polls---polls that start with simple questions but lead you to conclusions in support of my opponent. On Saturday, expect literature at your door with misleading information about taxes, spending and my votes.
I encourage you to contact me if you have concerns. I have written a weekly e-newsletter (available at www.jillquigley.com) during session in which I share information about bills, how I voted, and why. There should be no surprises. I have had monthly chats with constituents to hear your concerns and share information. You know where I stand and how I voted.
Spread the word. Please forward this newsletter to those in your address book. Prepare and inform your friends about these tactics. Personal recommendations are powerful. Your endorsement of me shared with friends and a reminder to vote anytime now until August 3rd could make the difference!
Outside Groups Attempt To Influence My Race
Please note that most of the postcards you receive on behalf of my opponent are produced by outside groups.
“Sunshine” groups all across the state are chiming in on this. Here is what Steve Rose at the Sun Newspapers and the Tom Bell of the Salina Journal have to say about undue influence on this election:
Sun Newspaper, July 28, 2010
KANSAS CHAMBER, GO AWAY
The Kansas Chamber of Commerce needs to stay out of Johnson County. And they can take Americans for Prosperity with them.
The chamber is not a “pro-business” organization. That is a ruse. It is a lobbying group with one, and only one, priority: lowering taxes.
To that end, they, along with Americans for Prosperity – Kansas chapter -- recruit and fund candidates to unseat incumbents who don’t see things their way. In this upcoming primary election, in our county they have gone after State Sen. Terrie Huntington, State Rep. Sheryl Spalding, and State Rep. Jill Quigley.
Why?
Because they dared to vote for a on cent tax increase that plugged a $300 million deficit that otherwise would have meant sizable teacher layoffs, cuts in K-12 programming, and no funds for highway construction.
Go to any website of any Chamber of Commerce (and we did check dozens), and you will virtually always find a bucolic scene of the community represented with a sales pitch for the city or state. But not on the Kansas Chamber website. No, there you are smacked in the head with these words: “The 2010 elections present an unprecedented opportunity to place pro-business candidates into office in Topeka.”
But what does pro-business mean, anyway? To the Kansas Chamber, it means tax cuts, and that’s all it means.
To the more enlightened Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, it means more than that. And the OP Chamber said so in a recent letter to the Kansas Chamber. “It is no secret that the legislative agendas of our two organizations have some fundamental differences,” it stated. The letter goes on to say: “Our membership has been very direct with us. They want excellent and relevant educational opportunities for their children and future workforce, a transportation system that is efficient and well-maintained, and social services that direct resources where they are most vitally needed.” In other words, higher taxes may be necessary to be really pro-business, because being pro-business means more than tax rates. It means a total quality of life that attracts businesses.
The tag team of The Kansas Chamber and Americans for Prosperity has recruited candidates, and now is spending large sums in our local races. Their “soft money” attacks are ugly. They will stoop to any level to go after an incumbent they want defeated.
It is imperative we send them this message: We are capable of making up our own minds, and we don’t need your heavy handed, myopic tactics intruding into our local politics.
Reprinted with permission of Sun Publications
Salina Journal
E D I T O R I AL
The public expects tomfoolery during election seasons with candidates and their supporters playing fast and loose with the truth. But this year there have been some real stretches in campaign advertising and press releases.
Consider mail pieces from the Kansas Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee and Americans For Prosperity Kansas Chapter. Both organizations are singing from the same sheet of music in attacks...
First off, it’s important to clarify that the Kansas chamber is not associated with local chambers, like the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce. Local chambers typically do not endorse one candidate over the other, nor have we ever seen them engage in muddy fact-bending during political campaigns.
From the Americans For Prosperity comes a piece that makes it appear the Topeka Capital Journal editorialized that “… raising taxes will prolong the recession in Kansas.”
Actually, the words come from an Associated Press story on an increase in the state’s sales tax. The complete sentence reads:
“But conservatives and many business owners and groups believe raising taxes will prolong the recession in Kansas.” It is not a statement from the newspaper staff.
The state chamber and the AFP also claim the new sales tax will go toward $200 million in new spending. False. The $200 million replaces money from the federal stimulus program. It is not new spending.
State spending actually declines between this fiscal year and the next. In 2010, state spending was $14.4 billion. The 2011 budget is $13.7 billion, a drop of some $700 million, or 5.1 percent. Overall, the state cut about $1.3 billion from its budgets during the past two years.
These tactics by the state chamber and AFP are deceptive and unethical. Candidates would do well to distance themselves from organizations that stretch the truth to the breaking point, as these two organizations have done.
— Tom Bell
Editor & Publisher
Reprinted with permission of the Salina Journal
STAY POSITIVE, STAY INVOLVED, AND STAY OUT OF THE “HEAT.”
More to come on Sunday,
Jill Quigley
Representative, 17th District
Lenexa & Shawnee
H: 913-541-9645