Who I Am
I’m an economic and social conservative, a “grass roots organization” guy, and a former senior staff aide to Senator Jesse Helms. I’m someone who gets things done.
I’m grateful to have received Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s endorsement in this race.
Political Experience
I. Political Activity in Virginia and Nationally:
Served (2003-2009) as legislative district chairman for the Virginia 37th Senate District (Ken Cuccinelli’s former Senate District). Organized and ran the 37th Senate District Nominating Mass Meeting in 2003.
Member of the Fairfax County Republican Committee (FCRC) since 2003.
Elected as a delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention at the 11th District Convention in 2008.
A. Cuccinelli State Senate Campaigns (2002, 2003, & 2007):
Developed a program and worked with the members of socially conservative church congregations, encouraging their members to support Ken and other Republican candidates. This is an “under the radar” campaign, and entails recruiting two or three members in each congregation to recruit other congregants to “spread the word” about the candidates, and also to recruit other congregants, who in turn repeat the process in an enlarging circle within each congregation.
This program also includes voter registration, the distribution of absentee ballot request forms, and the distribution of non-partisan voter guides showing candidates’ positions on issues that are generally of interest to the people in these faith communities. Pastors do not tell their congregants how to vote, but do make the voter guides available to them, and encourage them to vote their values. This effort has proven to be particularly effective in low turn-out elections.
B. Bush 2004 Presidential Campaign:
Took the Church Outreach Program to the national level in ten battleground states in the 2004 Bush re-election campaign. This effort was very successful, and I received the 2005 Conservative Political Action Council (CPAC) Ronald Reagan Award ($10,000 cash award) for my efforts in the campaign.
C. Virginia Statewide Church Outreach (2009):
Served as an advisor/coach to an independent expenditure group supporting Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli in the 2009 Virginia general election; executing the Church Outreach Program to conservative church congregations throughout Virginia. Based on the findings reported in a CNN exit poll, this effort appears to have generated roughly 550,000 votes for Governor McDonnell, or approximately 48 percent of the votes he received.
D. Church Outreach in Congressional Races (2008 & 2010):
Executed a similar church outreach program in the 11th District 2008 and 2010 Congressional campaigns. While not successful in the 11th District; former Congressman Rick Boucher, a 28-year incumbent, was defeated in Virginia’s 9th Congressional District in the 2010 campaign.
II. Other National Political Experience:
Served as legal advisor (1981 – 1987) to Senator Jesse Helms; and provided legal and staff support in every tax and social issues battle in which he was involved.
A. The Meroslav Medvid Rescue Attempt: Mr. Meroslav Medvid, a Ukrainian merchant seaman, defected to the United States from a Soviet grain ship at Reserve, LA in the Fall of 1985. In violation of clear standing orders not to return such defectors, however, Mr. Medvid was returned to the Soviet authorities on the ship by members of the U.S. Border Patrol.
State Department personnel became immediately involved in this situation, but ultimately concluded they could do nothing to rectify the errors of the Border Patrol staff; or otherwise free Medvid from the grasp of his Soviet captors.
Senator Helms was determined to try to rescue Medvid from the Soviets and instructed me and others to develop a game plan for action. We detemined that the committee could hold a hearing in Washington into the circumstances surrounding the shipment of US grain to the Soviet Union, and that Medvid would be a credible witness for this hearing; and we obtained authorization from the Committee’s members to schedule this hearing.
On Senator Helms’ instructions, I prepared a Congressional subpoena requiring Medvid’s appearance at the Washington hearing; and attempted to serve the subpoena on the Vice Consul of the Soviet Embassy and the captain of the ship on which Medvid was being held. These individuals refused to accept the subpoena, but I served them anyway; by concealing copies of it in two cartons of cigarettes, and giving the cigarettes to them. Service of the subpoena kept the ship from sailing; but the subpoena was subsequently overridden by White House national security staff and the ship sailed. Medvid was placed in an insane asylum after being returned to the Soviet Union; but survived his ordeal and returned to the United States several years later and thanked us for our efforts on his behalf.
B. Other Executive Branch Experience: Served as president of the Legal Services Corporation (1988 – 1990) during the second Reagan and Bush I Administrations; and as a political appointee at the Labor Department in the G.W. Bush Administration (2004 – 2009).
