Pete Sessions fundraising idea: Win a Dinner with Newt!

From Washington Post:

Taking a page out of the Democratic fundraising machine's recent playbook, Republicans, too, are offering one of their lucky donors a free trip to Washington.

But the GOP contest differs in a few stark ways. It's charging contestants ten times more than the Democratic entrance fee, to start with. And, of course, the GOP isn't promising a night with Barack Obama, as Democrats are.

Instead, the lucky Republican winner gets dinner with GOP poster-boy Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who is positioning himself as a 2012 presidential contender.
"If you've ever watched Newt on TV and thought 'I'd like to meet this guy,' this is your chance!" reads a fundraising solicitation e-mailed today from Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Sessions says he has reserved two seats at Gingrich's table at the June 8th Senate House fundraising dinner for the winner and his or her guest. All it takes to enter the drawing is a contribution of $50 or more.

The Democratic Party fundraising letter asks for $5.00, and a chance to win a dinner with Barack Obama. It'll be interesting to see which party comes out ahead in this fundraising contest.

Florida Democrat uses Pete Sessions in fundraising ad

You know how Pete Sessions is always using the name "Nancy Pelosi" to scare conservatives into voting for him? Well, turnabout is fair play--in Florida, Alan Grayson (D-08) is using Pete Sessions' recent remarks about Obama in a fundraising email. From CQ Politics:

Freshman Grayson called Sessions, a Texas congressman, "crazy, "a lunatic," "demented," and "paranoid" in a fundraising e-mail to supporters.

Grayson attacked Sessions for stating that President Obama wishes to "inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system" and for the national party's attempts to blame Grayson personally for the national debt.

"Join us -- show Pete Sessions that he can take his 30 pieces of silver attacking Alan Grayson, and shove it," Grayson wrote.

Alan Grayson left out "incompetent," "corrupt" and "misanthropic," but, hey, Grayson hasn't been in Congress all that long, so we'll cut him some slack for missing Sessions' other rare qualities. :)

R. Allen Stanford's ties to local politicians

The latest billionaire to be charged with investment fraud is Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, who has given generously to both political parties over the years in the hopes of receiving political favors. From Wall St. Journal:

Texas businessman R. Allen Stanford, whose multibillion-dollar investment empire was ordered seized Monday by a federal judge, has long enjoyed big influence in Washington thanks to a steady supply of campaign contributions, Caribbean trips for lawmakers and fees to lobbying firms.

Mr. Stanford and his affiliated companies have spent more than $5 million on lobbying fees since 2000, federal records show. The businessman and his top executives have also contributed at least $2 million to candidates, including key lawmakers, and additional thousands of dollars on jets and resorts...For the past few years, Mr. Stanford...has been lobbying to preserve and expand tax rules that enable him to pay minimal federal income taxes as a resident there, according to lobbyists. While allies of Mr. Stanford in Congress have managed to fend off attacks on rules, his efforts to expand them further have thus far been unsuccessful, lobbyists said.

Among the recipients of R. Allen Stanford's donations are John Cornyn and Pete Sessions. From Dallas Morning News:

R. Allen Stanford has given generously to Texas lawmakers in both parties. And his company bankrolled a four-day visit to a Caribbean resort island for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in 2004.

"It was strictly a fact-finding trip. They have offices in Houston, and they were doing a lot of business out of Antigua," said Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin...Cornyn received $19,700, making him the fifth-largest recipient, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, was the second-biggest recipient, collecting $41,375 – nearly all of it in the final weeks of the 2004 race against then-Rep. Martin Frost.

A Sessions aide declined to comment.

Probably no repercussions against politicians who accepted donations from him, the real scandal is that this is another Madoff-style investment fraud swindle. Read more about it at Financial Times, UK, and keep up with the latest news of the ongoing manhunt at ABC News.

Article on Dallas County GOP

Guess who wasn't available to comment for a Dallas Observer article on the Dallas County Republican Party? That's right, our Congresman Pete Sessions was missing in action when asked if he encouraged Jonathan Neerman to run for chair of the Dallas County Republican Party:

Neerman became involved in local politics, working at the grassroots level by making yard signs for Gary Griffith's successful Dallas City Council campaign in 2003, block walking for Republican Pete Sessions' congressional campaign and assisting in fund-raising efforts for Bush's second presidential bid in 2004...

...Two Republican consultants, not speaking for attribution, claim it wasn't friendship that dissuaded Neerman [from running for State representative], it was Sessions, who, during that same trip to Washington, asked Neerman to run for county chair. Kenn George had decided not to seek another term and "Sessions wanted someone as chair that he could control," says one of the consultants.

Sessions did not return phone calls from the Observer, and Neerman denies he discussed the position with Sessions. He says he shifted his focus to George's job because "I thought about the direction that I wanted the Republican Party to go nationally, but the way to start it was locally, right here in Dallas."

Interesting. Maybe Pete Sessions is starting to figure out that the GOP needs to broaden its appeal to stay in power:

Nearly 100 people take up Neerman on his gripe session on November 20, overflowing the meeting room at GOP headquarters near Walnut Hill Lane on Central Expressway...

...Neerman says most attendees agreed the party must reach out to minorities, gays and lesbians, but only a small faction seemed willing to speak about changing the party's conservative social agenda in order to incorporate more diverse points of view. "You've got a conundrum because you've got to broaden the party, but there are going to be segments who don't want to do the things necessary to achieve that type of outreach," he says.

Cathie Adams of Texas Eagle Forum disagrees that broadening appeal is the way to grow the party:

Cathie Adams, president of the conservative, pro-family organization Texas Eagle Forum, strongly disagrees with Neerman's plan to broaden the party's base at the expense of compromising on social issues. Adams, who served on the Republican National Platform Committee, points out that it took a social conservative like Sarah Palin to energize the base of the party.

"When you think that you've got to appeal to the moderates by setting aside the moral issues, you're denying the cost of tearing away the fabric of the morality of our community," Adams says. "You're also denying the fact that Sarah Palin brought not only excitement, but the coffers people poured into in the form of not only money but hours of volunteer time."

The article goes on to quote her as saying that the party should not reach out to "Log Cabin Republicans, pro-choice Republicans and 'environmental wackos.'"

Cathie Adams should take a look at the website Republican Majority for Choice, which claims that they--not the right-wing wackos--are in the majority. According to Mark Hillman of Rocky Mountain News, though, only a third of the GOP is pro-choice, but he adds

According to Gallup, rigid single-issue voters constitute just 22 percent of pro-life Republicans and 8 percent of pro-choicers.

Neerman insists that the GOP was undone by Obama's superstar status this year, and will get back to "normal" in the next election cycle. But Darlene Ewing, chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party, says they're just making excuses again:

"Two years ago, they said it was a fluke. Now they're saying it's just Obama. I don't think they get it," she says. "The voters in this county are tired of what we've had for the last 25 years, and that's the Republicans."

Neerman, in the end, agrees with Ewing:

"If we're losing 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds right off the bat, it's because they see us as the party that is against the environment, discriminates against gay people, [proselytizes] on whatever moral grounds there are, and they see us as this very narrow-minded, anti-Hispanic party," he says. "We spend way too much time worrying about shit that just doesn't matter."

Too bad Pete Sessions was unavailable to make a comment for the article. Looks like he's laying low again.