Donna and I had a wonderful time at the KC National Tooling and Manufacturing Association dinner last night. It was a walk down memory lane for me as it was a reminder of my days as a process engineer at Bendix in the mid-80’s supporting a department manufacturing machined parts. People often assume that since I am running for Congress I must be lawyer, I am not. Before serving in the Marines, I started in Physics and ended up getting my degree in Mechanical Engineering on the GI Bill.

Our thanks to Steve and Reno May of May Technology & Mfg, Inc. for hosting, Craig Schroer of Unitech, Inc. for extending the invitation, and Torree Pederson for all her help throughout the evening.

One of the questions Donna and Jacob were asked at our successful meet and greet yesterday evening in the Northeast neighborhood of Kansas City was ‘How can I help?’. We realize one of the main reasons we are positioned to win the 5th District of Missouri seat this year is because of an army of ordinary citizens who have taken the time in past elections to spread the word about our candidacy to those around them.

So this year’s first suggestion on how you bring a voice of the people to Congress is:

Tell your family and friends about Jacob Turk, about why you support Jacob. It can be as simple as you think Jacob is a good man and would be a better Congressman than Cleaver. The important part is your speaking your support for our campaign to those you come in contact with as you go about your day. A personal endorsement is the most powerful vote winner in American politics and all you have to do is speak up! We thank you advance for your efforts on our behalf. If you have time make a comment here or drop Jacob an email letting him know how it is going out there.

What a glorious day! The sun is coming up through the thin fog veiling the land in a gentle light. Our future is limitless and only constrained by our vision. This country is ours and will become what we are willing to make of it. So many have sacrificed so much, many the ultimate sacrifice of their very lives, so that we can create a future with our lives, our families in the country we know and love. America will be who she is because we elect leaders who are committed to defending her, and carrying on the vision of the founders of this country. What will you sacrifice between now and 7p on Tuesday to elect the leaders you want to lead this country?

Step Out Your Door, Fire Up Your Email, Pick Up Your Phone

Some campaigns have a paid staff and financial backing to do media campaigns (you’ve gotten the mailers, right? Heard the radio ads? Called by the organized phone banks?). This is a different campaign, and it is fueled by the energy and passion of you and me and Donna. There are lots of people, like you, who are fired up about defeating Cleaver and electing me to be their Congressman. We need all of you to keep it up today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. Do not look for the cavalry to come over the hill and win our battle against Cleaver for us – it is up to us – all of us, together – all the power of the government lies in We the People. It is time to use your power.

Our forefathers had only the printing press to augment their word of mouth. Today, you can reach hundreds in an instant via email and Facebook and Myspace. You can reach many in a short time by picking up the phone and making a call for Jacob Turk. Do it the old fashioned way, walk your neighborhood or use flyers to paper cars or talk to folks while you are out shopping whether for groceries or home repair items. Voters surround you. Reach out and spread the word.

In the next day and a half take the pledge to contact 100 people any way you desire. Always ask them to do the same to create a giant echo chamber around the 5th District of ordinary citizens spreading the word about Jacob Turk.

Send an email to everyone on your list with your personal testimony of support for Jacob. Ask them to either write their own to everyone they know or forward yours.

Walk your neighborhood or any other in the 5th District. We will supply you with contrast sheets and cards. You will reach voters we have no other way to engage. Call us at 524-6723 or email jacob@turkforcongress.com if you need materials.

Pick up your phone and call all the folks on your list or the people in your church directory you know. We can also supply you with a phone list of voters to call and a script.

Make Your Final Contributions For Our Flyer Fund

We will print as many flyers for election day handout as we have the finances to do so. Go online and make a contribution of $50 or $100 or mail your check for any amount to Jacob Turk for Congress, P.O. Box 2097, Lee’s Summit, MO 64063 (if you mail a check, please email or call us to alert us of the amount so we know how much money we have to spend on election day).

Final Volunteer Opportunity Is Election Day At the Polls

All our voter outreach, including your part today and tomorrow, the hundreds of events Jacob and Donna have done with many of you, the billboards and the newspaper ads have been aimed at giving all of us the shot at replacing Cleaver on election day. To complete the plan, we need you to work the polls for whatever hours you can on election day. Every ‘Please vote for my friend Jacob Turk for Congress’ you speak with a smile on your face can get us 1 more vote right at the polls! That is often enough for lots of people to choose Jacob Turk. For the more curious voters we will have flyers and cards you can hand them.

Don’t let the paid staff Cleaver hires to hand out his materials at the polls be the only voice voters hear as they go to cast their ballot. You will make the difference.

We have over 300 polls to cover in the 5th District of Missouri. For example, 15 in Cass County, 54 in the Lee’s Summit/South Blue Springs/Greenwood area, 7 in eastern Jackson County, 12 in Grandview, 16 in Raytown, 71 in Independence, and 148 spread throughout Kansas City. Take your pick!

As you can tell, it is a big task and with your help we will be successful. Please volunteer and ask some friends to lend a hand also. Our prime time when most voters will be at the polls is between 5:45am and 10:30am. We start at 5:45am in case there are lines before the doors are unlocked because once the doors open at 6am we have to be 25 feet from the entrance. If people arrive early we want them to hear from us while they are waiting.

The other prime time will be when people vote after work, from 3:30pm to 7:00pm. But any hours you can volunteer are a blessing and WILL make a difference. EMAIL ME at jacob@turkforcongress.com or call 524-6723 if you will work a poll and need materials to hand out!

Together we will win!

Politics must change. We are the change.

Sincerely,

Jacob Turk
YOUR candidate for the US Congress

Paid for by Jacob Turk for Congress, Doug Freeman, Treasurer.

Lay this financial crisis where it belongs at the feet of Congress, more pointedly at the feet of the members of the House Committee on Financial Services, both the Republicans and Democrats. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver from the 5^th Congressional District of Missouri is on this committee but more importantly he has been on the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee. This subcommittee is charged with overseeing every aspect of Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This subcommittee is our nation’s check and balance. Where was Rep. Cleaver? Well it looks like no one was home. In addition, Rep Cleaver’s committee is charged with the ensuring the integrity and transparency of U.S. capital markets. Again where was Rep. Cleaver? Looks like no one was watching the store. None of us the folks heard a word from Congressman Cleaver in the over 3 ½ years that he was pocketing money from Countrywide, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. One should question why Rep. Cleaver took PAC money from two agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that he is the watchdog over.

Our multi-millionaire Congressman looked the other way while our financial markets were melting down and now we the taxpayers are on the hook for near a trillion dollars in bailouts for billion dollar corporations. Politics is not a game. People in Kansas City, Raytown, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs, Raymore, Belton, Peculiar, Lone Jack, Grandview, Lake Lotawana, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Summit and throughout the 5^th District are losing their homes, and 401k retirement investments because Congressman Cleaver did not do his job to look out for us, the folks. He took the lobbyist’s money ($7000 from Fannie Mae) and now he is taking ours to give to those who have made millions out of his lackadaisical attitude towards the public interest. Now Reverend Cleaver is spending his time like he did last Saturday at the Raymore Festival wandering around the District telling voters how busy he is fixing this financial crisis while claiming in the next breath he is too busy to ask for their vote, too busy to debate me, Jacob Turk, his opponent.

The only thing Reverend Cleaver is too busy doing is protecting his political career while our economy goes down the tubes and our families suffer the financial consequences – unemployment, uncertainty, financial ruin. Politics has got to become a performance business. Cleaver only has performed for the rich, the privileged, the PAC’s, the special interests who get him votes, and his long time cronies who give him money. Congressman it is time for you to go.

Politics must change. We are the change.

Donna and I were special guests yesterday evening at a coffee hosted by Larry and Vicki Friedline, two wonderful people putting hands and feet to their convictions. About 20 of their friends and neighbors took valuable time from their evening to spend it with us and we are grateful. They were all very supportive, both with volunteering and contributions.

Larry and Vicki took it upon themselves to set this up, arrange for the desserts, supply the coffee, and ensure people came even in the midst of a vacation. Wow! What an encouragement for Donna and me. We need you join with us in such an event. The coffees are a fun, informal way for your family, friends and neighbors to get to know us and find out how they can join our cause of electing an everyday American to Congress to start replacing the career politicians who have stopped listening to us. Just give us a call and we will set a mutually agreeable date.

Donna did a great presentation on the simple ways folks can fit into their busy lives that will contribute to victory in November. Handing our cards to their friends, asking them to put up yard signs, passing out the contrast sheets, simply saying to someone in the grocery store line as you wear the t shirt or hand them a card, “I believe in this guy. He is a good man and I think he would be a good Representative for all of us. I am going to vote for him and I hope you will, too.”

Having your car wear our bumper strip for the next 78 days to raise name recognition and as a personal endorsement, forwarding our emails to everyone you know whether in or out of the district – they may contribute a small amount or know somebody in the 5^th District you don’t. Send a letter to the editor or add a comment to a blog mentioning my campaign by name and why you support me – keep it positive and focused on the change we will bring to politics in the District and in DC. Call or email the radio and TV media asking them to cover this race, that you want to know more about both Cleaver and me. This includes national folks like Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin and emphasize for them that this is the kind of person they are urging to enter politics, a regular person with traditional beliefs vs a career, machine supported, liberal politician.

Get the shirt. Wear the shirt. Its message has made such an impact over the last two years. Phone a friend. Come up with an idea to raise the name recognition and support of the campaign we haven’t thought of and go for it!

These ways to help will cost little or nothing and will make a big difference come November 4^th. Now is the time to start.

Politics must change. We are the change.

Donna and I have been encouraged by the response to our call for you and your families and friends to take steps to help our common cause of electing a voice from the people to the halls of power in Congress. We have discovered there are thousands who want to put their hands and feet to work in ensuring victory in November who just need a way to start the work. The single most effective way is personal outreach to those around you – the aforementioned family and friends and also co-workers, those you stand in line with at the grocery store or next to you at the gas pump.

It is a simple act of great consequence to hand them my card and say in your own way I think this guy would represent all of us well in Congress, he is a good man and I personally endorse him. The power of a personal endorsement will not be shaken by any negative ads our opponent will do as the day of election looms. Calling is the other way to reach any one you know with the same message. Get out those address books and start dialing! Ask them to call 10 of their friends and so on. For that matter, if when you hand out our card to a person, they respond enthusiastically, ask them if they will hand out cards to some of their friends. That is how we will win.

We have well over 100,000 votes to find to win our November election and our voters will not necessarily be McCain or Obama, Hulshof or Nixon, or any other candidate’s voters. Our voters will be the regular people, be they Republican or Democrat or Independent, that are fed up that Congress is taking a vacation for over a month while we all suffer in our pocketbooks from high gas prices and a soft economy. They will be the over 70% of 5^th District Americans that want traditional marriage protected and our borders secured. Any voter is potentially our voter because our cause to get a regular guy elected to Congress so we all have a voice rather than just the special interests resonates with almost everyone…except those special interests.

This is a big pie to eat, but if everyone will take a bite we will get it done together. We have cards by the thousands you are welcome to have as long as you will get them into another person’s hands. Remember, there is no calvary coming over the hill to win this battle. It is up to us. Donna and I are giving our all and are committed to be so until November 4th. Your efforts will be appreciated.

Be bold. Reach out and take back our District one contact at a time so we as believers in traditional American values can take back our country. We are all Americans first. Let’s work together to make it happen.

If you are able, go now to www.turkforcongress.com and make a contribution of $10 or $20. Send a check today to Jacob Turk for Congress, P.O. Box 2097, Lee’s Summit, MO 64063. Take action now.

Politics must change. We are the change.

I was privileged to speak to the Lee’s Summit Republicans last Thursday evening and honored so many folks came to listen. It was good to see my friend Bill Lewis and Jackson County Legislator Bob Spence, two of our elected officials, in attendance.

As I prepared my speech, I was a bit stumped on what subject to speak about. As a candidate on the campaign trail, I had a stump speech which I gave many times. The reason for stump speeches is to ensure the candidate engages the voting public on the issues he feels are the most important to his listeners and to repeat those issues and the solutions he proposes often enough that the voting public hopefully identifies him in a positive way when they enter the voting booth. For this talk at the Lee’s Summit Republicans I had complete freedom.

When President Bob Gough, who maintains the Greater Kansas City Pachyderm website, invited me, he suggested the possible subject of Chris Koster switching parties which is interesting for the politico’s. As I thought about Senator Koster’s conversion I remembered reading him saying had to leave the Republican Party due to its ‘extreme agenda’. I recalled having read those words earlier, when the defections of Kansas Republicans like Paul Morrison were taking place last year, and the phrase struck me more as a Democratic talking point rather than honest assessment of reasons to switch parties. As I contemplated the political landscape, I considered the larger battle we face in the current culture war – traditional value Americans vs. Secular-Progressive Americans, and viola! I had the makings of a hopefully interesting discussion.

In analyzing the switch on Koster’s part, I came up with the following political advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

Having run as a Republican in this area, I know switching to Democrat will instantly garner more media coverage and it will be sympathetic coverage. Columnist may take shots at Dems once in a while but not when it counts.

He will have immediate and continuing access to union money and their political machine AND the unions will not work against him.

Democrats also get the political machines in Kansas City and St. Louis working for them rather than against them.

No more pesky pro-lifers bothering him about supporting Stowers and, now, the abortion industry.

Disadvantages:

He lost a lot of trust, but this will be lasting only among Republicans. The Democrats, by and large, will welcome him as one of their own for a variety of reasons, a primary one having hurt the pride of the Republicans.

Chris Koster broke trust with the voters who elected him, the volunteers who have worked for him, and the contributors who have supported him. Strictly from a political perspective this will not hurt him much in his run for Missouri Attorney General in the Democratic primary. Most of his previous voters won’t be voting in that one, Democratic volunteers will fill the void, and he had already garnered significant funds from Democratic sources such as Stowers and the unions. If Chris makes it to the general, a big if at this point, it will be a wash since his Senatorial district is almost 50-50.

Tomorrow, I will continue with my analysis of the Kansas party jumpers.