The Choice in MA-5
A Bay Stater weighs in.

BY William Kristol
August 17, 2010 12:45 PM

TWS readers in Massachusetts seem particularly energized this year. Yesterday, one had interesting advice for GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker. Now another e-mails about the race in Massachusetts’s 5th Congressional District:

As your readers probably know, Niki Tsongas is one of the more vulnerable incumbent democrats in the Northeast. Unlike her late husband who ran against at least some of the liberal democratic orthodoxy, Niki marches in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and house leadership (voting with leadership nearly 100% of the time).  And that is not such a good thing in MA-5, a district Scott Brown won 57-42.

Furthermore, Niki Tsongas is no deeply entrenched incumbent. She was elected in a special election in 2007 with a 52-47 margin, and ran unopposed in 2008.

I think it's important for your readers (and the conservative movement as a whole) to rally around the one true conservative candidate with a legitimate chance of beating her, Jon Golnik.

The Weekly Standard wrote about the compelling life story of another Republican on the primary ballot, Sam Meas. And it is compelling (he was adopted from the killing fields of Cambodia, to begin with). But it’s not clear Sam Meas is a compelling candidate. Although he announced his campaign in 2009, he has still not made a dent in forming an organization, raising money or building awareness of his campaign. Further, he tries to throw "red meat" to tea party activists, but hasn’t shown the intellectual heft to tie together a coherent governing philosophy.  Arguing for the elimination of the Federal Reserve to let Treasury (Tim Geithner!) run monetary policy is not a serious proposal (even in Massachusetts!).

Conversely, Jon Golnik is a small businessman who put his professional life on hold because he was tired of complaining about Washington and decided to do something about it. He wanted to make sure that his two young kids did not inherit a country worse than he grew up in. He has set up a serious campaign infrastructure, with volunteers regularly working on his behalf and money coming in, and he is the only candidate in the district who has been designated as "on the radar" by the NRCC. 

More importantly to me and other conservatives, he is a true conservative, well within the conservative mainstream, who can get elected in this Massachusetts district. He believes in limited government consistent with our constitution, but puts that in a context that the Massachusetts voter can believe in. He stresses the importance of the individual and of private action in contrast to the burdens imposed by an overzealous federal bureaucracy, and believes that lowered taxes and regulatory burdens are the key to future economic growth. To that end, he argues that it is critical that Congress focus on deficit reduction and on creating an environment for job creation.  Further, on what has become a significant issue in the campaign, he has stressed that the predicate for any meaningful immigration reform is to (1) secure the border and (2) to ensure that employers who knowingly or willfully engage illegal aliens are held to account.  (In contrast, Meas has been all over the map on immigration, starting with a position of amnesty and moving toward a position where illegals are encouraged to report their employers in exchange for receiving $10,000 from the federal government -- apparently without thinking that a $10,000 reward will be its own illegal immigration magnet).

In sum, there is a reason why, in Massachusetts, Golnik is viewed as the likely opponent to Tsongas.  He is the only candidate who has consistently gotten his message out there and been viewed as serious.  Given that the Massachusetts primaries are not until mid-September, however, it might help if people who care started to rally around him now so that he can be positioned for the stretch run against Tsongas.  If we are to take back the House in November, Jon Golnik is exactly the type of candidate that we need to support and encourage.

This originally appeared on The Weekly Standard website on Tuesday, August 17, 2010.

Vote for Jon Golnik
Nashoba Publishing
Posted: 08/13/2010 07:36:50 AM EDT

The American people need to change the disastrous direction which we currently follow. Our present 5th District representative prefers to heed the wishes of Nancy Pelosi over those of the Massachusetts constituents. Consequently, we suffer job losses, the threat of dramatically higher taxes, unfettered federal spending and anxiety over the future. How can we change this? Vote for Jon Golnik in the Sept. 14 primary!

Golnik is a successful, fiscally conservative businessman who will cut taxes, reduce regulation on small businesses, and cut excessive federal spending. This helps the economy grow and creates private-sector jobs. Golnik understands and believes that in America we neither distribute nor redistribute wealth -- we earn it.

Additionally, Golnik will help repeal and replace the ill-conceived health-care law that will increase expenses, decrease quality care, and place tremendous control over our personal health choices.

Of all the Republican candidates, Golnik is the most logical, committed and organized. He is the one who can beat Niki Tsongas and her machine in November. Now we, the people, must be the catalyst to change the "change" of November 08. How? Vote for Jon Golnik in the Sept. 14 primary.

HILDE S. HEATON
Dunstable

This letter originally appeared in Nashoba Publishing newspapers.

Golnik: Business owners need more support
By Hiroko Sato, hsato@lowellsun.com
Updated: 08/06/2010 06:35:42 AM EDT

LOWELL -- Ralph Hogan, owner of Hogan Construction, hasn't built a new home in two years.

People can't get bank loans for new construction, Hogan told Jon Golnik, a Republican candidate for the Fifth Congressional District seat. So, the company takes on kitchen and bath renovations to stay afloat.

Frank King, owner of Action King Sewer Service on Livingston Street, wanted Golnik to know that finding the right employees can also be a challenge even in this job market.

Just days after King hired a truck driver to transport portable toilets earlier this year, the government extended unemployment benefits. The new hire, who had been laid off from his previous job, quit, choosing the $500-a-week benefit over the $480-a-week paycheck.

"You have to put money on Main Street," Hogan told Golnik. "There is a real disconnect between what the Congress is doing and what goes on on Main Street."

"We need to get money to small businesses," Golnik said, proposing to increase the sizes of loans that are made available through the Small Business Administration.

Golnik, a Carlisle resident seeking his party's nomination in the Fifth District, hit the campaign trail yesterday morning, meeting with Lowell business owners. Golnik greeted patrons at the Owl Diner on Appleton Street and sat down with Hogan, King and diner owner Tommy Shanahan before strolling through the downtown.

A former Republican activist who worked for Mitt Romney's Senate run against

Ted Kennedy in 1994 and for George W. Bush's campaign in 2000, Golnik said he is tired of politics as usual.

"Politics is not public service anymore -- it's a career," Golnik said, adding that career politicians make decisions that benefit themselves. "Our founding fathers believed in citizen legislators."

Golnik, who runs a business that resells Boston College merchandise, believes the government must help small businesses get better access to loans in order to create more jobs. He also proposes to lower the U.S. corporate tax, which he says is the highest in the world after Japan's.

"Give small investors a tax credit based on the percentage of their investment in a small, non-publicly traded company," Golnik wrote on his website. "There is money on the sidelines and banks aren't lending."

During the meet-and-greet yesterday, however, Golnik did not speak as much about his ideas, saying he wants to be a good listener first.

"Hopefully, you will get elected and continue to listen," King said.

Read online HERE.

I began the third leg of my “Can You Hear Us Now? Tour,” visiting businesses in Lawrence and Haverhill.  I will continue this week in  Andover and Methuen, so if you are near one of my stops, please feel free to come on by at one of the locations listed below.  I’m going to try to do two towns per week, so if you know of a business that would like me to stop by to listen to the concerns of the business community, contact my campaign.