Candidate for Virginia\’s 8th congressional district pledges to fight for district\’s taxpayers; taxpayer group urges all candidates to sign its Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
WASHINGTON – The tax issue finds itself at the core of most Republican primary races. And in Virginia \’s eighth congressional district, where Republicans are challenging one another for the honor of taking down the notoriously liberal Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), one candidate, Lisa Marie Cheney (R) is leading the anti-tax increase charge.
In early February, Ms. Cheney signed the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written promise from candidates and elected officials to voters to "oppose any and all efforts to increase taxes." Currently, President George W. Bush, 217 members of the U.S. House, 42 U.S. Senators, nine governors and over 1,200 state legislators have signed the Pledge.
"No (HOUSE) Republican has been elected to federal office in recent memory without taking the Pledge," said taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist , who heads ATR in Washington . "And with half of the Congress committed against tax hikes in writing, Ms. Cheney has shown herself on the correct side of the national consensus against tax increases," he continued.
Should she win the primary, she would face longtime Virginia Rep. Jim Moran (D), a congressman notorious for his votes and efforts to increase taxes and spending at the federal and state levels. On ATR\’s congressional scorecard, a yearly report that measures the voting records of all members of Congress on important taxpayer issues, Mr. Moran scored a 15 out of 100 possible, giving him the second worst record in the Virginia delegation, and one of the worst records in Congress.
Norquist continued by publicly urging all candidates, both Republican and Democrat, to sign the Pledge.
"Taxes are the biggest domestic policy issue in America ," he said. " Washington is, case in point, the continuing battle between taxpayers and the special interest spending lobbies who want to mug us for our cash. Ms Cheney has chosen the right side of this debate, and we urge all candidates to take her bold approach to this issue – an approach shared by 217 of her future colleagues in the U.S. House.