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Battle to Kill Incumbent Protection Bill is NOT Over
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Battle to Kill Incumbent Protection Bill is NOT Over --Senator Torricelli is a key swing vote and needs to hear from you! Gun Owners of America E-mail/FAX Alert8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151703-321-8585(Friday, February 22, 2002) -- Senators Tom Daschle (D-SD) and John McCain (R-AZ) are trying their hardest to bring up campaign finance "deform" legislation as soon as possible. The earliest they could bring this legislation to the Senate floor is next week -- the week of February 25 -- although there is one major roadblock to their attempts. That one major obstacle is Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who asserts he has the votes to kill this bill through a filibuster. Your Senator, Robert Torricelli (D-NJ), is a key swing vote in this battle. So it is imperative that you contact him right away and ask him to oppose the Incumbent Protection Bill. This legislation would enlarge the power of sitting legislators by attempting to silence outside groups such as Gun Owners of America. It would do that by requiring GOA to report certain legislative advocacy as "electioneering communications," if such messages were made within 60 days of an election. For groups like Gun Owners to engage in speech that is classified as "electioneering" would threaten the tax status of such groups. As a result, this campaign legislation threatens to eliminate any group that uses certain media outlets to criticize a politician's record. Make no mistake, this gag rule will affect more than just elections. Because most gun-related issues come to the Senate floor in September and October as riders to the major money bills, GOA would be restricted in its ability to inform its members of these issues in the two months preceding an election. This legislation would effectively silence GOA on many critical gun-related battles. ACTION: Please use the pre-written letter to help you direct comments to Senator Torricelli. He needs to hear from as many citizens from New Jersey as possible. So please send your message and then pass this alert along to others. We need to get thousands of messages pouring into his office; all of them proclaiming the same theme: Oppose the Incumbent Protection Bill! The biggest battle will be in regard to the expected filibuster that will be led by Sen. McConnell. You should ask Sen. Torricelli to vote against cloture (that is, against shutting off debate) when the filibuster is in progress. To send a message via e-mail, go to Senator Torricelli's webpage at http://www.senate.gov/~torricelli/webform.html and type or cut and paste your message. You can call Senator Torricelli toll-free at 1-877-762-8762 or at 202-224-3224. You can fax him at 202-224-8567.
Pre-written message
Dear Senator Torricelli: I hope that you will take a strong stand against the Incumbent Protection Bill, and will vote AGAINST any attempt to invoke cloture should the bill be filibustered. Even the AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union have attacked this legislation as counterproductive and unconstitutional. This is because the principal impact of this legislation -- erroneously known as campaign finance reform -- would be to silence legislative advocacy groups, while doing nothing to address the real problems with the political system. Please vote AGAINST invoking cloture and vote AGAINST its final passage. It is an anti-speech abomination. http://www.gunowners.org/snj0201.htm
Pre-written message
Dear Senator Torricelli: I hope that you will take a strong stand against the Incumbent Protection Bill, and will vote AGAINST any attempt to invoke cloture should the bill be filibustered. Even the AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union have attacked this legislation as counterproductive and unconstitutional. This is because the principal impact of this legislation -- erroneously known as campaign finance reform -- would be to silence legislative advocacy groups, while doing nothing to address the real problems with the political system. Please vote AGAINST invoking cloture and vote AGAINST its final passage. It is an anti-speech abomination. http://www.gunowners.org/snj0201.htm