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From the Wichita Eagle - Senator Roberts Endorses Pompeo

By Dion Lefler, The Wichita Eagle (8/24/10)
*click here for the complete article from Kansas.com

In endorsing 4th District Republican congressional candidate Mike Pompeo today, Sen. Pat Roberts joined Pompeo in trying to portray Democratic opponent Raj Goyle as a fake fiscal conservative whose real allegiance would be to “the Obama-Pelosi agenda.”

Roberts said Goyle’s “entire background comes from a very liberal background” and said he knows many congressional Democrats who give conservative-sounding speeches at home and vote the other way in Washington.

“We cannot afford to send anybody, no matter what they say in this campaign, to Washington, when the first vote they will cast will be for (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi,” Roberts said. “And don’t think it’s not going to happen. She’s put the pants on just about everybody back there.”

As the audience chuckled, Roberts added, “That’s a figurative way of putting it. Not literally.”
 
Pompeo expanded on the theme when he took the podium, also forecasting that Goyle would support the president and the House speaker, a California Democrat.

“They (Kansas voters) know their value set and they’ll be able to differentiate among a couple of candidates who have very different views, in spite of the way one of the candidates will speak,” Pompeo said. “He’ll talk about being a fiscal conservative, he’ll talk about the moderate majority, and then we know what he’ll do when he goes to Washington, D.C. He won’t represent Kansas, he’ll vote every time with the Pelosi-Obama agenda.”

Goyle, a state representative from Wichita, responded “I’m not really focused on an election in the (Washington) Beltway, I’m focused on voters here.”

But he said his voting record in the Statehouse has shown his independence from party-line politics and ability to represent a Republican-majority district.

“I do what’s right for my district, not what’s right for my party,” he said. “I’ll stand up to Nancy Pelosi every time it’s bad for Kansas.”

Goyle added that if Pomepo is elected, he’d likely be voting for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, as speaker, who “wants to raise the retirement age for Social Security to 70.”

Roberts said he also wants Pompeo in Congress because his background in aviation manufacturing would be a plus in protecting Wichita’s aircraft industry.

Roberts said Pompeo would particularly be of help in fighting off proposed user fees on general aviation. General aviation planes are the backbone of Wichita’s aircraft-dominated economy.

“We need to reauthorize the FAA, we need to modernize the entire system, but we don’t need to put a user fee in regard to the general aviation industry who’s going through such a difficult time,” Roberts said. “This man (Pompeo) knows that forwards and backwards. So he’s going to hit the ground running helping me and helping the rest of the Kansas delegation stand firm in behalf of the general aviation industry in Kansas.”

Goyle said he also is well aware of the issue, a battle between airlines and private plane owners over how to pay the cost of the aviation system that has gone on for several years.

“I strongly support the general aviation position on that issue,” Goyle said.


 





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