<he also said that his father believes that voting YOUR interests, not the greater good's interest, is your prerogative.>

perhaps your friend could ask his father about his grandchildren's interests. taxation is occuring, and on a massive scale, on the income of future generations.

Club for Growth scores in GOP primaries
By: Josh Kraushaar
June 4, 2008 05:35 PM EST
dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm
The conservative, anti-tax Club for Growth had a big night Tuesday, as the two candidates it endorsed and funded prevailed in hotly contested Republican primaries in New Mexico and California.

In New Mexico, Rep. Steve Pearce narrowly won the Republican primary for retiring GOP Sen. Pete V. Domenici’s seat, defeating his more moderate opponent, Rep. Heather Wilson, 51 percent to 49 percent.

Pearce benefited from running as an unapologetic conservative in a low-turnout Republican primary — and received key assistance from the Club for Growth’s political action committee, which spent $600,000 on ads attacking Wilson as a tax-hiker.

“Club for Growth members are proud to have supported an economic conservative like Steve Pearce in his primary win,” Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said in a statement.

Pearce will now face Democratic Rep. Tom Udall in the general election. An automated SurveyUSA poll conducted immediately before the primary showed Pearce trailing Udall by 24 percentage points — 60 percent to 36 percent — at the beginning of the fall campaign.

Democrats wasted no time trying to define Pearce as a candidate beholden to oil and energy interests.

“Steve Pearce took more than $500,000 from the oil and gas industry and then voted to give them $14 billion in tax breaks and subsidies while opposing plans to lower gas prices for consumers,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matt Miller.

In California, another club-backed candidate, conservative state Sen. Tom McClintock, easily prevailed over former Rep. Doug Ose in the Republican primary to succeed retiring Rep. John Doolittle.

McClintock won by a comfortable 15-point margin, 54 percent to 39 percent, despite facing a $4 million barrage of attack ads from Ose, portraying him as a carpetbagger who lived outside the district.

McClintock is a well-known conservative icon throughout the state, and while in the Legislature, he has been a vocal opponent of tax increases and wasteful government spending.

“This election has been watched across the country as a bellwether over the future direction of our party — and ultimately of our nation,” McClintock said in his victory remarks. “Let the word go forth from the 4th Congressional District of California that, tonight, voters spoke unmistakably: They want to restore our traditional principles of constitutional government.”

McClintock will face retired Air Force officer Charlie Brown (D) in the general election. Brown held the scandal-plagued Doolittle to 49 percent of the vote in 2006, and his campaign just released internal polling showing him with a narrow lead over McClintock.

The northeastern California district is, however, one of the most conservative in the state; it gave President Bush 61 percent of the vote in 2004.

Other Tuesday results:

• Down ballot in New Mexico, the stage is now set for two competitive House races. In Rep. Heather Wilson’s House seat, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White (R), one of the top Republican congressional recruits, will be facing Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich (D) in the general election.

The Albuquerque-based 1st District has leaned Democratic at the presidential level, but has never elected a Democrat to Congress.

Democrats believe they have a shot at an upset in Pearce’s expansive, Republican-leaning district. Oil services company owner Harry Teague, who can self-finance a campaign, narrowly defeated a more-liberal challenger, Dona Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley, 53 percent to 47 percent.

Teague will be facing restaurateur Ed Tinsley, who won 31 percent of the vote in a five-way Republican primary.

Udall is likely to be succeeded in the House by Public Regulation Commission Chairman Ben R. Lujan, who dispatched a well-funded primary challenge from real estate developer Don Wiviott, 41 percent to 27 percent.

Lujan, the son of state House Speaker Ben Lujan, was the establishment favorite and won a key late endorsement from Gov. Bill Richardson.

• In New Jersey, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D) easily fended off a primary challenge from Democratic Rep. Robert Andrews, 58 percent to 36 percent.

The campaign was highly contentious. Andrews criticized the 84-year-old Lautenberg, arguing he was too old to be effective in the Senate for another term. Lautenberg responded by accusing Andrews of supporting the Iraq war and voting for parts of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America.

But the race ended up being more of a geographic referendum. Lautenberg led Andrews by 40-point to 55-point margins throughout much of central and northern New Jersey — where he received favorable placement on the primary ballot. That was more than enough to counteract Andrews’ strong showing in his southern New Jersey home base.

Lautenberg will now face former Rep. Dick Zimmer (R-N.J.) in the general election.

The battle lines are also now set for a pair of competitive House races in the Garden State, in the districts of retiring GOP Reps. Jim Saxton and Mike Ferguson.

State Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance won the Republican primary for Ferguson’s seat and will face Democratic state Sen. Linda Stender.

Lance easily outdistanced Kate Whitman, the daughter of former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, and four other candidates in the Republican primary.

Stender holds an early financial advantage: Without primary opposition, she banked $913,000 in her campaign account in mid-May, while Lance’s primary contest left him with about $191,000 cash on hand.

In Saxton’s seat, Lockheed Martin executive Chris Myers will be facing well-funded state Sen. John Adler in the general election. Adler is one of the Democrats’ top fundraisers, with more than $1.1 million in his campaign account, while Myers reported just $74,000 at the last filing period.

• The two contested Republican primaries in Alabama will be heading to runoff elections. In the race to succeed retiring Rep. Terry Everett (R), restaurateur Jay Love, who largely self-financed his campaign, won 35 percent of the vote but fell well short of the 50 percent necessary to win the nomination outright.

He will face state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, who finished second with 22 percent of the vote in a July 15 runoff election.

The winner will face Montgomery, Ala., Mayor Bobby Bright (D), who faced only nominal opposition in his own primary. Bright is one of the Democrats’ leading recruits, and they believe his culturally conservative profile can help him compete in a district that has been inhospitable to Democratic candidates in recent years.

In retiring Democratic Rep. Bud Cramer’s district, insurance broker Wayne Parker fell just short of winning the Republican nomination and will face attorney Cheryl Baswell Guthrie in a runoff election. The winner will face state Sen. Parker Griffith, who handily won the Democratic nomination.

• In Iowa, Rep. Leonard Boswell (D) handily defeated a more liberal Democratic primary rival, former state Rep. Ed Fallon, 61 percent to 39 percent and is now poised to win reelection to Congress for a seventh term.

© 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC

This looks interesting - excerpt from taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_...ohns.html

David Cay Johnston's New Book, Free Lunch

Free_lunchDavid Cay Johnston's next book, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and StickYou with the Bill), will be released on December 27, 2007. Here is the publisher's description:

How does a strong and growing economy lend itself to job uncertainty, debt, bankruptcy, and economic fear for a vast number of Americans? Free Lunch provides answers to this great economic mystery of our time, revealing how today’s government policies and spending reach deep into the wallets of the many for the benefit of the wealthy few.

Johnston cuts through the official version of events and shows how, under the guise of deregulation, a whole new set of regulations quietly went into effect—regulations that thwart competition, depress wages, and reward misconduct. From how George W. Bush got rich off a tax increase to a $100 million taxpayer gift to Warren Buffett, Johnston puts a face on all of the dirty little tricks that business and government pull. A lot of people appear to be getting free lunches—but of course there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and someone (you, the taxpayer) is picking up the bill.

Johnston’s many revelations include:

* How we ended up with the most expensive yet inefficient health-care system in the world
* How homeowners’ title insurance became a costly, deceitful, yet almost invisible oligopoly
* How our government gives hidden subsidies for posh golf courses
* How Paris Hilton’s grandfather schemed to retake the family fortune from a charity for poor children
* How the Yankees and Mets owners will collect more than $1.3 billion in public funds

In these instances and many more, Free Lunch shows how the lobbyists and lawyers representing the most powerful 0.1% of Americans manipulated our government at the expense of the other 99.9%. With his extraordinary reporting, vivid stories, and sharp analysis, Johnston reveals the forces that shape our everyday economic lives—and shows us how we can finally make things better.

www.freelunchthebook.com/newsa...s.html

www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch...pd_bbs_sr_1