Email   |  

NEW YORK — Former New York state assemblyman Robert Straniere has declared his candidacy for Vito Fossella’s congressional seat.

Straniere — who’s a lawyer and a partner in a family hot dog restaurant — is gathering petitions for a July 10 deadline to qualify for the Republican ballot.

The Republicans’ chosen successor, Frank Powers, died suddenly last month. The party had hoped Powers could retain its hold on the 13th Congressional District.

Fossella decided not to seek re-election following revelations that he fathered a child outside his marriage. The relationship was exposed after Fossella was arrested and charged with drunken driving in a Washington, D.C., suburb.

Email   |  

SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, one of the nation’s most conservative congressmen, lost his bid for a seventh term Tuesday in a Republican primary that focused on whether he was conservative enough for Utah’s 3rd District.

Cannon was defeated by first-time candidate Jason Chaffetz, a former Brigham Young University football player who served as chief of staff for popular Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman.

The lobbying group American Conservative Union said Cannon was nearly perfect on its issues in 2007, scoring 96 percent. But Chaffetz repeatedly pounded the incumbent, especially on immigration, and pledged to be even more conservative.

With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Chaffetz led 60 percent to 40 percent. Voter turnout was described as low.

“I think we have a mandate to help return the Republican Party to its core conservative principles,” he told The Associated Press after Cannon conceded defeat. “People were fed up and we empowered them to become involved and make the changes we need.”

Cannon, 57, had no immediate public comment on the election result.

Meanwhile, in Utah’s only statewide race, Richard Ellis defeated Mark Walker for the Republican nomination for treasurer. The race was mired by accusations of bribery. Walker repeatedly denied offering Ellis a raise to stay as deputy treasurer and drop out, but the allegation may have stuck with voters.

With 92 percent of precincts reporting, Ellis had nearly 60 percent of the vote.

In the congressional race, Chaffetz, 41, claimed Cannon was soft on immigration, saying his votes amounted to offering amnesty to people in the country illegally.

In 2003, Cannon sponsored a bill that would have allowed states to charge in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants.

Rather than deporting all illegal immigrants, Cannon has called for a guest-worker program that doesn’t punish businesses and allows immigrants to travel freely across the border.

Chaffetz said he wants the U.S. to deport all illegal immigrants and stop granting automatic citizenship to children born here if their parents aren’t legal residents.

He also attracted support in the largely suburban district by saying he wants to abolish the U.S. Education Department and cut a slew of federal programs unless they can prove they’re working.

Chaffetz will face Democratic candidate Spencer Bennion, a former television reporter, in the general election. In one of the nation’s most conservative districts, the ex-BYU kicker is expected to easily cruise to victory.

Chaffetz said his campaign will be no different this fall and his tough words will remain the same if voters send him to Washington.

“I’m going to tell it like it is. We’re in a crisis right now. The budget is out of control, immigration wasn’t taken care of, and gas is at $4 a gallon,” Chaffetz said. “We need new solutions.”

Cannon had hoped his name recognition, a large amount of campaign cash and a pool of more moderate voters would propel him again to the Republican nomination. An endorsement from President Bush, who still remains popular here, was also expected to help, as it did in 2006.

But this year, the political climate was different.

In 2006, Cannon “had a president that was much more popular that came to his aid,” said Quin Monson, a BYU political science professor. “You had a Republican Party riding high, controlling Congress and so on, and you had an economy doing better.

“He had all these factors working against him this time,” Monson said.

In the treasurer’s race, Ellis filed a complaint with the state elections office. Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, also a Republican, waited until polls closed Tuesday to announce that an investigation into bribery allegations is warranted.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office will handle any probe. Herbert said he waited until after the primary election because he didn’t want to influence the outcome of the GOP race.

Email   |  

A coalition of black pastors plans to call on the Republican and Democratic parties to reject campaign spending from Planned Parenthood, claiming the abortion provider promotes a racist agenda.

The pleas, to be made in a demonstration outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, are the latest effort by the group to clamp down on Planned Parenthood, after an undercover inquiry by a college group revealed an alleged effort to target minority women for abortions.

The pastors are amplifying their argument that abortion, which its members call genocide, is a civil rights matter.

“We are very concerned that Planned Parenthood is targeting African American communities and African American babies,” said Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr.

She and Day Gardner, of the National Black Pro-Life Union, are leading the coalition of more than 50 pastors, who represent churches and anti-abortion organizations.

“Any candidate who continues … by accepting campaign contributions says that you’re not as concerned about civil rights for all people,” King told FOXNews.com. “It’s an anti-civil rights act to support Planned Parenthood.”

In response, Planned Parenthood released a statement saying it “does not tolerate racism of any kind.”

“For more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has worked to address racial and economic bias in access to health care and ensure that all women receive care. We are committed to providing basic and preventative health services to women, men and teens, especially in underserved communities,” the group said.  

The women’s health care and contraception provider told FOX News in April that its role in black communities is greater because the need is greater. The group issued a statement citing statistics from the Centers for Disease Control that showed black teenage girls are far more likely than other teenage girls to contract sexually transmitted diseases, and that the teen birthrate among black teenagers rose 5 percent in 2006.

Planned Parenthood has pledged to spend $10 million on efforts to educate voters about women’s health issues and turn out 1 million voters in November for abortion-rights candidates up and down the ballot.

The group’s political action committee separately also plans to continue donating to candidates it supports, mostly in congressional races. The group’s national board recommended endorsing Barack Obama for president, but that decision has not yet been ratified by the local affiliates.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Planned Parenthood has contributed nearly $60,000 to candidates for federal offices — mostly Democratic House campaigns.

The pastors’ group last protested in April outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington, D.C., calling on the group to stop targeting minorities. Participants called on Congress to initiate an audit of the organization and take away federal funding.

The conflict took off after students at the University of California at Los Angeles newspaper, The Advocate, released a report for which an actor posing as a donor asked Planned Parenthood to earmark his contributions for “black babies” only.

In one taped conversation, an Idaho Planned Parenthood employee said that would be fine.

The caller responded: “Great, because I really faced trouble with affirmative action, and I don’t want my kids to be disadvantaged against black kids. I just had a baby; I want to put it in his name.”

The Planned Parenthood employee said, “Absolutely,” and even after the “donor” claimed that “the less black kids out there the better,” the employee continued to consent.

“Understandable, understandable,” she said, later adding that she was “excited” because a donor had never made that kind of request.

The Idaho chapter of the group apologized, but pastors said the report proved abortion and race are inextricably tied. An April report from Students for Life America found black women are 4.8 times more likely to have an abortion than white women.

FOXNews.com’s Judson Berger and Kelley Beaucar Vlahos contributed to this report.

Email   |  

WASHINGTON (AP) — The race to succeed New York Rep. Vito Fossella, who chose to retire after acknowledging he fathered a child outside his marriage, has become even more uncertain with the unexpected death over the weekend of the Republicans’ chosen successor.

Frank Powers, 67, died Sunday at his home in Staten Island, N.Y., of natural causes, but his death came as a shock to his family and to the Republican Party, which had hoped he could retain the GOP’s hold on the congressional district held for more than a decade by Fossella.

The party was forced to find a new candidate after Fossella decided not to seek re-election following revelations he had fathered a child outside his marriage. The relationship was exposed after Fossella was arrested and charged with drunken driving in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C.

Powers, a wealthy retired Wall Street executive, had contributed often to GOP candidates but had not run for elected office before. The Staten Island GOP settled on him after several elected officials chose not to run.

Before Powers’ death, Democrats had seen the contest as a prime opportunity for their party to pick up a seat long held by the GOP, in what is expected to be a tough election year for congressional Republicans nationwide.

Fossella sought to put to rest Monday any speculation he might be rethinking his decision following Powers’ death. “My plans for the future have not changed. I am not running for re-election,” he said in a statement.

The untimely death of Powers, however, raises a host of new questions for the Republicans: What candidate will they pick now? How soon can he or she start campaigning? How much money they can raise?

Powers had been expected to pay for at least part of his own campaign, a critical factor in what is one of the most expensive election districts in the country.

A spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee declined to comment, citing the personal loss of the Powers family. A spokesman for the state Republicans did not immediately return a call for comment, nor did the head of the Staten Island Republican party.

The district encompasses Staten Island and includes part of Brooklyn. Politically, it has been dominated by socially conservative Catholics, who helped Fossella win a special election in 1997 and every re-election since.

Email   |  

WASHINGTON — House rank and file Republicans are tens of millions of dollars short of meeting fundraising targets set by their own campaign committee in advance of this fall’s elections, according to figures circulating among the leadership, heightening concerns inside the party about major losses in November.

Most recent figures show that GOP lawmakers have brought $27 million into the coffers of the National Republican Congressional Committee in the past 17 months, far short of the target of about $58 million. Compounding the challenge, they will soon be asked to raise another $20 million or more to help candidates in selected battleground districts.

Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, chairman of the NRCC, provided the information recently to the leadership and to members of a newly formed committee charged with reinvigorating the campaign effort in the wake of the loss of three seats to Democrats in special elections. The AP obtained a copy of some of the documents involved in the presentations.

The disclosure comes in addition to other unsettling news for Republicans, who trail Democrats badly in cash on hand and are grappling with the alleged theft of more than $700,000 by a former employee.

The NRCC declined comment.

Republicans controlled the House for 12 years until they lost the majority in 2006. In the months since, their political position has eroded significantly, judging from polls, campaign fundraising and other factors.

The result has been a private acknowledgment among lawmakers and aides alike that the GOP is highly unlikely to regain the majority in 2008 and will be fortunate to hold its losses to a minimum.

Both parties have political committees that typically raise more than $100 million for the fall campaign. While much of the money comes from donors who receive mail or online solicitations or attend fundraising events, individual lawmakers also are expected to help.

The information Cole distributed included the total each Republican has been asked by the NRCC to raise, an amount that is highest for members of the leadership and lowest for first-term lawmakers facing competitive races in the fall. Republicans who hold the senior positions on each committee — the men and women who would take over in a Republican-controlled House — are given higher assessments than more junior colleagues.

The material also shows how much money individual lawmakers have brought in, either through fundraising calls to donors or from transfers from their own campaign treasury.

Cole has donated or transferred $1.4 million so far, more than anyone else. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the party’s leader, at $1.26 million, is the only other Republican to top six figures. Both men had two-year assessments of nearly $1.13 million, according to NRCC figures.

Rep. David Dreier of California, who is the senior Republican on the Rules Committee, has raised more than $800,000, nearly meeting his assessment with several months remaining in the campaign.

But Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Pennsylvania, a member of the leadership, is credited with only $8,500 of nearly $950,000 he’s been tasked with raising.

And strikingly, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, who was appointed head of the committee formed after the three election defeats, has raised only $50,000 against his assessment of more than $605,000, according to NRCC figures. Davis was chairman of the NRCC while Republicans held the majority, and he recently warned in a blistering memo that the party faces a political environment that is “the worst since Watergate and far more toxic than the fall of 2006 when we lost 30 seats.”

Republicans concede that the perception of another impending defeat makes potential donors even less inclined to contribute.

Democrats currently hold 235 seats in the House, compared to 199 for the Republicans, with one vacancy.

The loss of formerly GOP held seats in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi in three special elections are the most dramatic demonstrations of the party’s difficulties and sent shockwaves through the leadership. As a result, the new group was created, to be headed by Davis, to offer advice. Additionally, Ed Brookover, a highly respected former campaign committee aide, was recruited to return for the final months of the campaign.

Compounding the problem, the committee has spent months trying to untangle the affairs of a former key staff member, Christopher Ward, who is alleged to have stolen at least $725,000 from the organization. An internal probe alleged that the former treasurer used his authority to siphon money from 2001 and 2007. The FBI is also investigating.

Ward’s lawyer, Ronald Machen, declined comment on the internal probe. The NRCC said it spent $500,000 to pay for the investigation and another $300,000 to upgrade its accounting operations.

Overall, the NRCC, which began the election cycle with a debt of more than $10 million, showed cash on hand of $6.7 million as of April 30 in its most recent report to the Federal Election Commission. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported cash on hand of $45.2 million.

Republican leaders in Congress are trying to keep recent special-election losses from becoming a pattern in November. (AP Graphic)

Email   |  

GOP leaders are showing signs of panic after the Republican Party lost three straight House seats in what should have been safe territory. Scandal, campaign financing barriers and a mixed message have left the party waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But with congressional approval ratings so low, Republicans are also wondering why they can’t gain ground against the Democratic majority.

“The political atmosphere … is the worst since Watergate and far more toxic than the fall of 2006 when we lost 30 seats,” Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., wrote GOP leadership after Democrat Travis Childers won a Mississippi special election Tuesday in a district that had been in GOP hands since 1994.

That victory came a week after Democratic Rep. Don Cazayoux won a House seat in the Baton Rouge, La., area in GOP control for three decades. And in March, Rep. Bill Foster won election in Illinois to succeed former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

“Trust me, we’re very disappointed,” House Minority Leader John Boehner told FOX News.

The sense of doom for Republicans is compounded by an historical backdrop that shows Democrats have a keen ability to take huge majorities when their stock is high.

Under President Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic House majority reached 155, and in the second term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrats held the highest-ever majority — by 246 seats.

In the post-Watergate era following Richard Nixon’s resignation as president, Democrats surged to a 147-vote majority in the House of Representatives.

The last time Democrats led by 100 seats was in the early 1990s. Republicans may not be looking at a fate quite so bleak this fall, but it could be close. The Politico reported Wednesday that GOP operatives fear the party could lose 20 more seats in the House, and at least five seats in the Senate. Republicans are 37 seats down now heading into the November contest.

The GOP also faces a steep cash disadvantage. As of March 31, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee enjoyed a cash advantage of $44 million to $7 million.

Republican Roadmap

Republicans are pinning some of their hopes for the fall on wealthy, self-funded candidates, but Republican leaders are also retooling the party image in an attempt to bounce back.

After all, the Democrat-controlled Congress is facing record-low approval ratings. A Gallup poll released Wednesday showed Congress with an 18 percent approval rating, only the fourth time that number has dipped below 20 percent in the 34 years the poll has existed.

“The GOP needs to rekindle their passion for big ideas and not be afraid to create a little controversy,” former Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Terry Holt told FOX News Thursday.

“It took a lot of work to get the majority in 1994, it’s going to take the same kind of work ethic …. We need to re-energize an army of advocates and fight the Democrats wherever they come out of.”

So far, Republicans — no matter where they are — cannot seem to shed the deeply unpopular cloak of President Bush, especially at a time when the economy is tanking and the Iraq war continues to claim American lives. Democrats have argued the reason approval ratings are so low is because of Republican obstruction.

But Republicans are in the process of rolling out a set of new policy initiatives, under the slogan “The Change You Deserve,” in hopes of preventing a total landslide and emerging as the party of the people.

The first part of it, outlined Wednesday, targeted constituencies that almost sounded like Hillary Clinton’s. It concentrated on helping working-class families, particularly women.

Boehner repeatedly stressed the “change” theme, and told FOX News the party was going to press on addressing gas prices, food prices and access to health care.

“It’s time for us to get off the mat and show people that we can, in fact, deliver this change for them,” he said.

“Americans know that Washington’s broken and if we can’t show them how to fix it and how to deliver the change that they deserve then we don’t deserve to be in the majority,” he said.

Though presumptive GOP nominee John McCain has shown some concern that the political climate could make his run “a very difficult challenge,” there is a growing sentiment that McCain will lift up his own party, rather than fall victim to it, in the fall.

One senior House GOP aide told FOX News McCain is the “biggest gift” Republicans could have asked for. Members hope to ride McCain’s maverick coattails, the aide said.

Boehner told FOX News he doesn’t think Republicans will lose big in November, and seemed to pinpoint McCain as one reason why not.

“John McCain appeals to almost all Republicans. He also appeals to a wide array of independents and conservative Democrats,” he said.

“(McCain) does cut a different profile with voters and I think that will be an asset,” Holt said.

Objects of Ridicule?

But as the long as Republican candidates keep making the wrong kind of news, Democrats are eager to ridicule them as a foundering bunch.

Scandals rocked the party before 2006, and the latest troubles for Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y. — who was recently arrested for drunk driving and admittedly fathering a child out of wedlock — only compound election-day problems.

Fossella is facing pressure from his own party to step down, but some GOP aides want him to remain in Congress until July 1, to eliminate the need for another special election.

Either way, Fossella is the only Republican member of Congress from New York City and his recent revelations could make him yet another casualty in November if he stays in.

Steven Harrison, a Democrat seeking to unseat Fossella, said in a statement: “If he decides to run, the people will decide in November if his recent behavior and revelations should disqualify him from continuing in office,” Harrison said.

Asked Thursday if it looked like Republicans were trying to move toward the center and appeal to a more moderate base in an effort to recover in November, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “I wouldn’t have the faintest idea.”

But she added, “What I see coming out of there is disarray, chaos, dissatisfaction and uncertainty about the future. I haven’t the faintest — I assume that this Republican Caucus will advance an agenda that they believe in, as we do with our agenda, and I think what they believe in is something far different from where the mainstream of America is.”

FOX News’ Trish Turner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.