Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Summer Campaign Update


Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin and myself during visit to ANWR

Much has happened since my first blog entry. Two trips to Washington DC, a trip to Boston, and a few days in Alaska to visit the ANWR and meet with local officials. There is still a long way to go in the campaign, and we are taking nothing for granted. I am working hard on policy, raising money, and building our grassroots organization.

In my first trip to Washington, DC since the Primary victory I met with the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), various members of Republican leadership, members of Congress, Rep. Bishop and Sen. Hatch. The reception was warm with lots of questions about how we were able to pull off such a convincing win with so few resources.

One of my first meetings was with NRCC Chairman Cole. We spent half an hour discussing my race and the national political scene. He was also kind enough to present me a $4,000 check. Thank you!

Julie (my wife accompanied me) and I also met with Republican Leader Boehner in his office. He was very complimentary and encouraging. He was also amazed with our victory and couldn't believe we won without even a campaign office. I explained we have the hardest working staff in any campaign but they are all volunteers participating for all the right reasons.

We met with Representatives Flake, Tancredo, McKeon, Campbell, Bilbray, Herger, Cantor, and a few others. I spent an hour with Rep. Bishop as well as Sen. Orrin Hatch. Both provided solid advice and recommendations. On my second trip to DC we raised more than $20,000, and met with Representatives Blunt and Foxx. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina quickly became one of my favorite members. She is a true conservative fighting the out-of-control spending in DC.

I spent hours with the Heritage Foundation reviewing major policy matters. They are a tremendous resource and I am looking forward to working with them to dive deeper into policy matters.

After my first trip to Washington, DC, Julie and I headed to Boston. We met with Mitt Romney, but more on that later.

The day after I arrived home from Boston I joined six other candidates for Congress to visit ANWR. I love the outdoors. I am amazed with the natural beauty of Alaska. But there is no reason we should prohibit oil exploration in the 10-02 Section of ANWR. It can be done reasonably and I am convinced it will have an immediate impact on the price of gas (by the way, there are parts of Alaska where they pay $9 per gallon!!).

I was struck that Republicans AND Democrats in Alaska are both in favor of drilling in ANWR. In fact, all the Republican and Democratic congressional candidates are in favor of opening ANWR. Gov. Palin and local citizens in Barrow, Kaktovik, Fairbanks, and Anchorage were all in favor of opening ANWR. There was one exception, and he showed up to voice his opposition with a camera crew based in New York and funded by an environmental group they refused to name.

As the campaign moves forward I plan to blog with more frequency and specificity.

Thank you for all your support. Let's keep up the great work and focus on making the November vote a victorious one.

Thank you!

Jason Chaffetz

2 comments:

Utah said...

Thanks for the update..
It will be nice to see you back in DC representing us.

I haven't seen the book(s) your democrat comp is writing. Does anyone know the title(s)?

Thanks for going to ANWR and for looking at other ways to produce energy.

I am hearing a lot about Energy, Oil, Economy, Iraq, Immigration, Security..

The latest was running out of Asphalt. That would be a real big problem. When we were running out of concrete a few years ago, it really hurt construction.

Politically Active Mama said...

Yay!! A blog post!!! Thanks for the update - keep 'em coming.