NJDC's Blog

How out of touch is John Shadegg

From Roll Call:

If Rep. John Shadegg (R) is having problems at his district office, he might want to call Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.). That’s because Shadegg’s office isn’t technically in his own district, Arizona’s 3rd. Instead, it’s in Pastor’s 4th district.

Confused? It’s easy to see why.

Shadegg moved his staff into the office, located on East Bethany Home Road in Phoenix, back in 1997, a spokeswoman says. But a round of redistricting ahead of the 2002 elections moved the borders of Shadegg’s district, leaving his office about 200 feet on the wrong side of the district line.

The quirk, the result of the often wacky vagaries of district-drawing, had gone relatively unnoticed until HOH started making inquiries. Democrats in Arizona, unsurprisingly, were amused to find out that Shadegg — whom they’re hoping to unseat this year — and his staff don’t work out of their own territory.

“John Shadegg is so out of touch with his district that his office isn’t even in it,” says Emily Bittner, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. “It’s just another sign that his heart really isn’t into representing the people of the 3rd.”

Shadegg in February announced plans to retire at the end of this term, but changed his mind 10 days later.

Shadegg spokeswoman Abby Winter noted that when the Congressman first signed the lease on the office space, it was a part of his district. The office lease was vetted, like all other Congressional offices, by the House Administration Committee, she says.

But it looks like Shadegg might be rethinking his position on border issues — at least when it comes to those of his own district.

“We’re talking to them now about the best course of action,” Winter says.

"Karl Rove must think Jewish voters are idiots ..."

STATEMENT FROM NJDC ON ROVE’S COMMENTS ABOUT OBAMA“Karl Rove must think Jewish voters are idiots.”

March 4, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/4/08

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, following comments by Karl Rove which falsely implied that Senator Obama may not favor foreign aid for Israel, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) released the following statement from Executive Director Ira N. Forman:

“Karl Rove must think Jewish voters are idiots. He pointed to comments about the cost of the Iraq War – a regular talking point for opponents of the Administration’s polices in Iraq – and attempted to twist these comments to imply that Senator Obama is not committed to foreign aid for Israel. In reality, Senator Obama has an impeccable voting record on foreign aid and he has consistently gone on record supporting foreign aid.

“Rove also expects us to believe that his baseless theory about Obama and Israel came from a Democrat. Does he honestly expect Jewish voters to believe that Democrats are kibitzing with Karl Rove about our candidates?

“It is clear that support for Israel is bipartisan, but if Karl Rove is so concerned about the foreign aid issue, maybe he should check with his own party’s leadership in the House of Representatives, since the House Republican leadership took the nearly unprecedented action of whipping against foreign aid this summer.

If the right wing smear machine were a basketball team, Karl Rove would surely be the point guard. We can only hope that, as he wraps up the Republican nomination this March, John McCain will call on Republican smear-mongers to stop the madness.’”

According to a report from Media Matters for America: “On Fox News Sunday, in discussing Sen. Barack Obama's statement that money being spent on the war in Iraq ‘is money that we could be spending here in the United States, rebuilding our infrastructure, building schools, sending kids to university,’ Karl Rove quoted a ‘Democrat’ he said he had spoken to in Los Angeles as saying, ‘I'm worried about that, because does that mean he's going to be looking at our support, for example, for the state of Israel and looking at it in terms of what could we be doing at home with those dollars?’ However, Obama has consistently supported aid to Israel.” [Media Matters for America, 3/3/08, http://mediamatters.org/items/200803030007?f=h_latest]

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NJDC Press Release Condemns McCain for Accepting Endorsement from Pastor with History of Anti-Catholic Rhetoric

NJDC issued the following press release about John McCain today:

NJDC CONDEMNS MCCAIN FOR STICKING BY HAGEE ENDORSEMENT
NJDC: Anti-Catholic Rhetoric Inexcusable

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) condemned presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain for actually courting and accepting an endorsement from controversial pastor John Hagee. Hagee has a history of making offensive remarks. His comments about Catholics are of particular concern.

“As Jews, we know what it is like to feel the sting of intolerance and bigotry.   As such, we feel a special obligation to speak out when our friends and neighbors who practice other religious faiths face similar intolerance,” said NJDC Executive Director Ira N. Forman. “Because of Pastor Hagee’s history of anti-Catholic rhetoric, John McCain should do the right thing and reject his endorsement.”

Ira Forman on CNN

Our own Executive Director Ira Forman was featured on CNN last week:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/02/26/snow.jewish.vote.cnn?iref=videosearch