Yesterday's Charlotte Observer has a fascinating look at some of the multimillionaires representing our state in Congress. Topping the list as usual is my opponent, pro-CAFTA textile heir Robin Hayes, who also apparently leads in debt. When I read he was a million dollars in debt, for a split second this school teacher stopped worrying about my Mastercard bill that I'm still paying on from the election last year. Then I read on...
Annual report reveals the price ranges of lawmakers' assets Rep. Robin Hayes has more than a million dollars in debt, but it's not the pitiful variety.
It's what the licensed commercial pilot owes on his airplane, a Beechcraft King Air.
The Concord Republican, a descendant of N.C. textile tycoons, is still squarely in the congressional multimillionaires' club, according to the 2006 financial disclosure forms made public last week.
I guess that kind of debt is typical for folks of his means and it made me think maybe that is why he is so careless with what he does in Congress to our working families' economy, budget, trade deficit and debt to foreign nations... especially compared to what Robin Hayes' Congress inherited in the 90's.
Apparently, spending like drunken sailors is what people do that don't live in the real world. I have debt myself, close to $30 thousand on my personal credit cards after running the closest race in the nation last year, but I don't consider that the "pitiful variety". That's the real world.
You have an opportunity no matter where you live to help me be a real world voice in Congress. I live in a district that can't afford to send one of their own to Congress, but also can't afford not to. It has been too hard hit by folks like Robin Hayes. The Charlotte Observer ranked our district as one of the 20 poorest in the nation. In fact, the damage here, due in large part to many of our multimillionaire-representative's decisive votes, was part of the reason the Observer endorsed my campaign:
The district spans 10 counties along the southern tier of the state, from Fayetteville to Charlotte. In between are some of our state's most economically damaged counties. The district once had one of the state's heaviest concentrations of textile jobs, but more than 10,000 have vanished since 2000 alone. The Associated Press recently used Census Bureau data to rank every congressional district based on changes in median household income and poverty rates from 1999 to 2005 and in unemployment rates from 2000 to 2005. The rankings identified the districts that have fared the best and worst economically in that period. The 8th was among the 20 that have fared worst in the nation.
Your contribution to my common sense campaign today along with hundreds of others can help me defeat an out-of-touch millionaire and put a voice in Congress for all the folks that live in the real world. And as I told you earlier this week, a recurring gift on ACTBLUE of $33 a month will make a HUGE difference, placing you in the inner circle of sustaining donors keeping real democracy alive.
Please help me help people. I don't have friends in the multimillionaires' club - I have you.