Patsy Keever: GOP is too extreme

Democratic congressional candidate Patsy Keever (D) sent out the following message via her campaign’s email newsletter:

Dear friend,

I hope you are enjoying some seasonal fun with family and friends during these first days of summer.

In Raleigh, my fellow state legislators and I have been fighting against an extreme GOP agenda that ignores the middle class and working people and instead showers benefits on corporations and the well-to-do. The challenges we have faced include:

Education: I’ve done my best to help ensure sufficient funding for our children’s education. Sadly, however, the current budget agreement still includes an $81 million cut for grades K-12. In addition, the credit/voucher plan to privatize education by redirecting funding from public schools to private and religious schools is still on the table.

Fracking: As pro-fracking legislators were currying favor with the natural gas industry, I fought for more impact studies. Despite the fact that the frackers ultimately won, we did succeed in getting an improved version of the original bill.
Move to Amend: As part of the Move To Amend campaign, I am a primary co-sponsor on a resolution in the NC State House proposing that Congress amend the Constitution to overturn Citizen’s United. So far, our proposal has been ignored by the Republican leadership, even though more than 1,200 citizen co-sponsors have signed on in the last week.
In my role as a candidate for Congress in North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District, I have also taken a stand against Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed federal budget, which would grant America’s wealthiest citizens at least $265,000 each in tax cuts while raising taxes on the middle class.

Ryan’s budget would also significantly shrink the safety net for our seniors by sharply reducing Medicare. This could increase expenses for seniors by as much as $6,400 per year. The seniors of our nation earned their Medicare coverage with a lifetime of hard work and contributions to the system, and we must keep our pledge to them.

Patrick McHenry is considered by many to be the frontrunner in NC-10. However, my two previous opponents were considered the frontrunners too, but look what our grassroots efforts accomplished. Yes, McHenry has Wall Street, K Street lobbyists and other Washington insiders behind him. But he does not have you.

We can win this race. The people of Buncombe, Polk, Rutherford, Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln and Catawba counties are learning that McHenry is working for banks and big corporations rather than his constituents. We know that McHenry’s Beltway buddies will drop a lot of cash on this race. However, with your help we can raise the money we need to get our message out to the voters.

We need people like you—citizens who understand the real significance of the challenges we are confronting—to help spread that message.

My campaign has a goal of raising $5,000 dollars before the end of June, the second financial quarter. Can you help? Please click here to donate $10, $25, $50, $100 or whatever you can afford to the campaign. If you’d prefer to write a check, you may make it out to “Patsy Keever for Congress” and send it to P.O. Box 5043, Asheville, NC 28813.

We must not let unrestrained corporate cash subvert our democracy!

Thank you,

Patsy Keever
Democratic nominee for Congress, NC 10th Congressional District