From: Dave Dziok [dave@vcap.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 5:42 AM
Subject: VCAP's Weekly Update - February 20, 2007
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THE VIRGINIA VOICE
Virginia's Weekly Conservative Newsletter February 20

In This Issue

Newt's Notes for Virginia

VCAP Event with Newt Gingrich

VCAP Candidate Update

Protecting Private Property

One Million Voter Project - VCAP Poll


 

Message from the Executive Director - Robin DeJarnette

With the legislative session winding down, the Senate has once again fallen victim to the liberal tax and spend policies of several of its moderate Republican Senators. We've seen proposals for tax increases and government expansion, and all this while Virginia sits on a surplus. Clearly, the Senate needs to establish spending priorities.

Once the legislature adjourns, the biggest sign we can send these moderates to show them we're unsatisfied with their performance is to work hard and replace them with true conservative leaders. Keep an eye out for VCAP's endorsed candidates for 2007 in the weeks ahead. You can count on these candidates to be the conservative choice in the upcoming primary.




Dear * * *,

Thanks for checking out this weeks edition of VCAP's Virginia Voice.

Once a month, Newt Gingrich will write a column exclusively for VCAP. Be sure to read February's edition of Newt's Notes for Virginia.

Also, please share your thoughts with us on VCAP's new blog, and as always, please pass this along to your friends and get them to sign-up for VCAP's weekly newsletter.


  • Newt's Notes for Virginia
    • Newt Header

    First, I want to thank VCAP for allowing me the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with its members. I hope these missives can be the beginning of a genuine two-way discussion. To that end, I hope everyone with questions or comments will write me at my website, newt.org

    For this first installment, I thought it fitting to go back to the first days of our country. It was 400 years ago this year that the first English settlement was founded right here in Virginia, at Jamestown Island. From the start, the seeds were planted that established a uniquely American view of the rights of man. Some highlights:

    • Before settling at Jamestown, the settlers landed at Cape Henry. On the third day after landing the settlers erected a cross to give thanks to God for their safe passage.
    • The first representative assembly in the New World took place in a Jamestown church in 1619.
    • A Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, declared that we are "endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights." We fought a war for independence to secure those rights God had given us, led by another Virginian, George Washington.
    • Jefferson applied that same principle of creator- endowed rights in denouncing slavery in his 1785 Notes on the State of Virginia. "Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift from God...Commerce between master and slave is despotism." And again, we fought a war to secure those rights for all.
    So what about the next four hundred years for America? Can our liberties, and those of our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and down the line, survive if we fail to keep alive this first principle - that our rights are a gift from God? I believe, as Jefferson did, that they cannot.

    This is why I wrote in Winning the Future and Rediscovering God in America,"There is no attack on American culture more destructive and more historically dishonest than the secular Left's relentless effort to drive God out of America's public square." To do so would unravel the foundation of the rights and freedoms we hold dear.

    This core principle is at the root of every challenge facing this country - from our war with enemies who would crush the Creator-endowed rights of man underneath the jack-booted authoritarianism of dictatorship or religious fascism - to the battle to secure our property rights from our own government whose impulse is always to tax and spend more and more at the expense of the well-being of American workers.

    In the end, our mission as conservatives is to preserve that which God endowed upon us, and generations of Americans before us preserved - our "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

    I look forward to engaging in this dialogue with you in the coming months.


    P.S. I hope to meet you in person at CPAC, March 1st through 3rd, in Washington, DC. I will speak on Saturday afternoon, but plan to have a get together for VCAP members and readers of my weekly Winning the Future newsletter sometime during the conference. Details forthcoming.

  • VCAP Event with Newt Gingrich

    • The Honorable Newt Gingrich will be a guest speaker at a VCAP fundraising event in Richmond. VCAP members R.W. Bailie and John Cox are hosting the fundraiser. Speaker Gingrich has an effective and detailed plan to deal with America’s national and world affairs. Meet him personally and hear his views on keeping America safe while maintaining our strength and innovation for future generations.

    Single Tickets: $200
    Couples Tickets: $350
    Sponsor: $1000

    Interested in attending? Email us at info@vcap.org or call us at 804-282-2097.

  • VCAP Candidate Update
    • Scott Sayre

    On Monday, Scott Sayre (R-Rockbridge County), announced his candidacy against District 24 Senator Emmett Hanger. The day started in Lexington and made four other stops throughout the district before wrapping up in Highland County. At each location, Scott was welcomed by a cheering crowd of enthusiastic supporters looking for a change in District 24. Senator Hanger is another perfect example of a moderate Republican who's strayed from the tried and true principles of limited government and low taxes.

    Check out VCAP's day long coverage of Scott's announcement tour!

    To learn more about Scott, check out his website.

    Joe Blackburn (District 12)
    Last Thursday, the Joe Blackburn for Senate campaign held a very successful fundraiser with Congressman Bliley. The former Congressman gave a great speech about the need for fiscal discipline, stating how ridiculous it is that Republicans are raising taxes by the billions, especially in surplus years, and gave his endorsement of Joe in the June primary.

    Check out VCAP's blog post about the event.
    Visit Joe's website for more information on the campaign.

    Jill Holtzman Vogel (District 27)
    Jill Holtzman Vogel continues to more her campaign forward against District 27 State Senator Russ Potts and Mark Tate.

    Check out her latest press release on the State Senate's failure to advance pro-life legislation. Jill's Website

  • Protecting Private Property

    • As a result of the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Kelo v. New London, citizens rights to private property continue to come under attack here in Virginia. We need to urge the Senate to protect this fundamental right.

    We encourage you to support HJ 723, a constitutional amendment preventing the taking of private property for public uses. However, we discourage the passing of HB 2954, which seeks to define the term "public uses."

    Read the Free-Lance Star Op-Ed: What's the General Assembly doing to protect our property rights?

    Also, check out the Virginia Institute of Public Policy's latest study detailing the history and state of property rights in the Commonwealth.

    The Real Story of Eminent Domain in Virginia: The Rise, Fall, and Undetermined Future of Private Property Rights in the Commonwealth.
    This study details amazing abuses of Virginians’ property rights; exposes legislators who stop every effort at eminent domain reform while their law firms make hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state’s largest condemners; and recommends what must be done to protect the property of the citizens from the special interests and those who do their bidding in state and local government.

  • One Million Voter Project - VCAP Poll

    • Congratulations to Malcolm Myers of Richmond, for winning our VOICE Volunteer of the Week. Each week I'll select a Virginia VOICE reader at random who completed the previous week's Action Item. Last week, Malcolm was among several activists to send us the names and emails of 5 friends who'd be interested in receiving our weekly newsletter.

    This week, we're asking you take part in our primary poll on VCAP's website.
    Click here for VCAP's poll!

    After the poll, email me at dave@vcap.org and tell me why you're voting in or support voting in (for those without a primary), the 2007 Republican primary. I'll select the best one and feature it in next week's newsletter. Keep it up!

    VCAP Office 804-282-2097